The Novels of Tom Holt Trivia Quiz

Answer: My Hero

"My Hero" deals with the secret lives of literary characters, who, as it turns out, are a lot like bit Holywood actors.

Answer: Ye Gods!

I haven't read "Ye Gods!" but I liked the quote and since it mentioned a main character's name I figured it would be identifiable to those who have read the book.

Answer: St. George

Odin was in "Odds and Gods". I threw in Sigurd and Sigfried because I'm pretty sure they're mythic figures of some description who had something to do with dragons.

Answer: Jane

"The female lead in 'Flying Dutch' was called Jane (a) after a friend of my wife's, an accountant, who's called Jane (and is nothing at all like the character in the book) (b) because it seemed to suit her - straightforward, quite strong, dysbimboesque, but with subliminal associations of (i) plain Jane (ii) the dashing & adventurous heroine of the old comic strip (iii) me Tarzan, you...

By the time I finished FD, I was using the name Jane as mental shorthand for that kind of female character; and since it's a character type I find useful, I stuck with the name. Female leads who don't follow that pattern get called something else; Michelle in 'Open Sesame' was a bit too mimsy to be a Jane, Bianca in 'Paint Your Dragon' needed to be rather more glamorous, and so on. I called the female #2 lead in 'Wish You Were Here' Janice, because she's almost a Jane - by learning and suffering she moves towards acquiring Janity...

The other reason is because it annoys the hell out of my mother." -- Tom Holt.

Answer: Dwarves

"Snow White and the Seven Samurai" reverses Holt's formula of a mythic creature or item entering the modern world by having a couple teens enter a fairy tale world. Holt's plots are somewhat similar to those of L. Sprague DeCamp and Fletcher Pratt's "Enchanter" novellas, in which a psychologist named Harold Shea visited the worlds of Irish, Norse, and Finnish myth. Holt has snappier writing, in my opinion, but Pratt and DeCamp's characters are more likable. That's not hard to do-- I usually want to bonk the hero over the head with a billy club at some point through a Holt novel.

Answer: King Soloman's ring

In a plot similar to "Snow White and the Seven Samurai", fantasy worlds which are based on stories and/or fairy tales get mixed up and the protagonists have to straighten them out. "Open Sesame" was the last of Holt's paperbacks to have cover art by Steve Lee, who did most of the covers up til then.

Answer: Who's Afraid of Beowulf?

The beer can spell was one of the first things Hrolf's wizard does. Not running out of suds must've been a high priority. I don't know why he doesn't try it on a bag of chips.

Answer: Wagner's "Ring" cycle

Somebody's trying to make a musical out of "Expecting Someone Taller". No, for real. http://www.philipseward.com/ExpectingSomeone.html

Answer: asprin

In "Djinn Rummy" (Kiss was the Djinn, of course) the Holt story-line of a magical creature or creatures introduced into a modern, prosaic setting gets another workout. So does the idea of magical creatures or items actually being a form of technology, an idea he used way back in 1988's "Who's Afraid of Beowulf?" However, most prolific writers will repeat themes and I have to give Holt credit for not falling into the common fantasy rut of writing a series-- which almost invariably go downhill.

Answer: Lucia

Mary Renault, Robert Asprin, and Philip Jose Farmer wrote the Alexander, Myth, and Riverworld series, respectively. Holt's novels "Lucia in Wartime" (1985) and "Lucia Triumphant" (1986) are out of print. Holt published one book prior to these, a collection of poems. He also collaborated on an unauthorized biography of Margaret Thatcher called "I, Margaret" (1989).

Answer: a snake

I suppose including Holt's historical fiction in a quiz intended for the fantasy section is cheating a bit, but I prefer the former over the latter. There's an excellent dialogue between Euxenus and Diogenes the Cynic in "Alexander at the World's End" about the uselessness of philosophy, and the book as a whole poses an interesting philosophical question. Those who enjoy his work in the fantasy genre probably won't be disappointed by his historical novels, and vice-versa.

Answer: literacy

"'Olympiad' is my two cents' worth for the Millennium; I got the idea when I realised that we only think it's going to be 2000 next year because the Christian church fixed the date of the birth of Christ in accordance with the Roman system of recording history by time elapsed since the (mythical) foundation of Rome by (two brothers who never actually existed, called) Romulus and Remus, which in turn was fixed by reference to the Greek system of recording history by time elapsed since the (legendary) foundation of the Olympic Games by (the entirely fictitious half-god half-human hero) Hercules in 776BC (except, of course, it wasn't 776BC then, it was the First Olympiad, only it wasn't, because there were no records at all in 776BC, since writing wasn't even invented till about fifty years later...); in other words, our entire concept of history is based on misunderstandings of some very old fairy-tales, which is what prompted me to make up some more untrue history, as if there wasn't enough already. Basically, it's a book about lies, legends and historical fact, and how there's really nothing to choose between them." -- Tom Holt.

Answer: Little People

Another one I haven't read. Thanks to http://www.faqs.org/faqs/books/tom-holt-faq/ I can still write a question about it and seem to know what I'm talking about. That FAQ is also the source of the Holt quotes used above.

Answer: Nero

I didn't even know "A Song For Nero" was out until I started researching this quiz. Hopefully my local library will have it. I tried to find out why he decided to publish it as Thomas Holt rather than Tom Holt, but without luck. Contact me if you have information and I'll update the quiz to incorporate it.

Answer: Flying Dutch and Faust among Equals

All of the combinations listed are or were available packaged together. All of the novels are pretty well regarded by his fans, too. This question may be a bit lame, but I wanted to draw attention to the collections on the chance that someone unfamiliar with Holt happened to take the quiz and wanted to know a good place to start. Thanks for playing.