Talk about jumping all over the place, Tom must have been smoking the good stuff when he wrote this, LOL. But like all his books, he takes you into worlds that are wild, woolly, funny and bizarre and characters that match. You wonder what happened to the pig you're introduced to in the beginning and if you stay with it, you'll find out. I liked "Doughnut" better, but still enjoyed this one. ( )

I think being in tom Holt's head would be a very scary place. ( )

Look when you get [a:Christopher Moore|16218|Christopher Moore|http://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1200095788p2/16218.jpg] to write your cover blurb, I'm in.

[a:Tom Holt|9766|Tom Holt|http://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1246502762p2/9766.jpg] is the English equivalent of Mr. Moore. The big difference is that Mr. Moore puts setup/punchline sets in his chapters, while Mr. Holt is much more subtle and restrained. [a:Douglas Adams|4|Douglas Adams|http://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1189120061p2/4.jpg] is an apt and accurate comparison. Where they are alike is that they both are not shy about setting up outrageous situations but then living within the constraints set up. They also are both very very funny and well worth reading. ( )

If you're familiar with Tom Holt, all I have to say is, Have fun! If not, I should say a bit more than that. For those who are new to Holt's work, be prepared for a wild ride.

Something odd is happening in the offices of Blue Remembered Hills Development, and Polly Mayer doesn't like it. Someone is drinking her coffee. She's getting phone calls complaining about her failure to follow up on conversations she knows didn't happen. She's finding notes in her work diary that she didn't write, and work done in her files that she didn't do. Polly is not amused--and that's before she discovers that the dry cleaners where she dropped off her dress has disappeared. Not gone out of business--vanished as if it had never been there.

Something odd is happening at BRHD. Mr. Huos has lost his brass ring. And ever since the loss of the ring, clients and customers are starting to complain. Something about the land they bought being missing. Mr. Huos is also missing his past: He has no memory before he woke up on a mountainside in eastern Europe ten years ago, with the brass ring, steel earrings, and $100,000 in US currency. Oh, and the ability to understand any spoke language instantly. And to make deals that are not far off from turning sows' ears into silk purses.

Something odd is happening outside BRHD. Don Mayer, Polly's brother, found a brass pencil sharpener in the pocket of a suit he picked up from the dry cleaners' shortly before Polly discovered that that shop not only didn't exist anymore, it never had. Suddenly he can Make Things Happen, including the return of his sister's dress, and the disappearance of his annoying neighbor--whom he only wanted to go away, not cease existing.

Meanwhile, there are the hens who used to be lawyers, and Mr. and Mrs. Williams, the dry cleaners whose shop has been moving to new locations every couple of days for the last ten years.

And all of that is before things start getting weird.

If you're a Tom Holt fan, definitely pick up this one. If you've never heard of Tom Holt before, be adventurous and pick it up anyway! It's weird and wonderful and a lot of fun.

I received a free electronic galley of this book via NetGalley. ( )

I picked this up at a library thinking I ought to try something new in the British comic fantasy vein. The author I really had in mind to try was Robert Rankin, but I couldn't remember author names at the time, just a tendency for punning titles.

On the credit side, (keeping George RR Martin furniture rules in mind) the story moved forward steadily with enough going on to keep me reading to the end, and some of the humour tickled me. Thankfully it didn't descend into any gratuitous grotesqueries.

I guess I like altiverses that just exist by themselves on their own terms, whereas here story and furniture rules cosied up together a bit too much for my personal preferences.

Three stars though for having enough narrative zip and sense of fun to keep me reading. ( )