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The Portable Door

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About this listen

Starting a new job is always stressful (especially when you don't particularly want one), but when Paul Carpenter arrives at the office of J. W. Wells he has no idea what trouble lies in store. Because he is about to discover that the apparently respectable establishment now paying his salary is in fact a front for a deeply sinister organisation that has a mighty peculiar agenda. It seems that half the time his bosses are away with the fairies. But they're not, of course. They're away with the goblins. Mister Tom Holt, Master of the Comic Fantasy Novel, cordially invites you to join him in his world of madness by reading his next hilarious masterpiece.

©2003 Kim Holt (P)2003 Isis Publishing Ltd Fantasy Humorous Literature & Fiction Fiction Witty Funny Feel-Good Comedy
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I have just listened to another of Tom Holt's books, and I like his style, and his very quirky take on life! I liked this book, too and I have the next one in the series in my library. Some parts are very funny, other parts are just silly, but it grabs you and you just have to listen to find the answer! Narration is good, without any annoying lilts that sometimes iritate me. It's not "Discworld" but it's not far behind!

Alternative!

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I'm going to listen to the rest of the series immediately. Incredibly engaging and the characters are brilliant.

wonderful

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Revisited The Portable Door after many years. It remains as fresh and entertaining as on that first reading. Dense with reference and sly humour it keeps the mind of the reader alert.

See if you can find 'Meadowlands' currently out of print, but worth the effort of securing a copy. It is a romp into the settlers of Greenland and full of well realised historical detail.

Absolute Joy

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What other book might you compare The Portable Door to, and why?

This book is definitely from the Terry Pratchett school of writing. It is full of weird and wonderful creatures with a 21st century sense of humour.

Any additional comments?

It is a little slow to start, but hang on in there, it's worth it. I'm looking forward to reading more Holt in the future.

Worth the Read

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To start with, I want to make the point that I did enjoy this book. It was mostly entertaining, the plot was interesting, there were funny bits, and the narrator was pretty good at narrating.

But.....
Yes there were funny bits, but it seemed to be trying too hard sometimes. Jokes and "funny" comments seemed to be crammed in wherever possible. Sometimes less is more.

The plot was full of inconsistencies. For example, the author seems to change his mind about whether going back in time allows you to remember what happened first time round, or whether it's a reset switch.

The most noticeable annoyance was the discrepancy between the apparent age / era of the main 2 characters (19 or 20 it seems, in early 2000s), and the language they use. They are about the same age that I was at that time, but they speak as if their age is somewhere between my dad and my grandfather.

Having looked it up, it seems they're using words and phrases that exactly match what I'd expect from the age of the author - not the age of the characters. A minor issue, but a constant one, hence quite annoying.

Less than the sum of its parts

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