The Portable Door

The Portable Door by Tom Holt

 

 

This is the book I alluded to in my introduction post.

 

 

So lets begin.

We have all been there, the first day of a new job we are nervous we don't know how we got the job in the first place and we don't want to screw up and make the bosses mad. Paul Carpenter is no different he has just started as a junior clerk for J.W Wells & Co., a company who are a lot more sinister than even Paul can imagine.

From the beginning we are introduced to the main character of Paul, one of life's downtrodden a non descript male, who's family has abandoned him and emigrated from dreary London to the sunny climates of Florida.

Things start off normal enough but get quirky quickly, starting with the fact that nobody can be in the building before 9am nor after 5:30pm.

Just as Paul is getting used to the weirdness of this obviously not normal company, things get tipped on their backside when his fellow junior clerk Sophie gets kidnapped one evening as the two of them get locked in the building after hours.

From finding out that he is a trainee sorcerer to dealing with Goblins and a stapler that constantly vanishes, add in the fact that one of his boss's mother fancies him and Paul's dreary life will not be the same anymore.

The author Tom Holt who I have found to be hit and miss in the past, comes out swinging with this one. The fantasy elements such as magic and goblins, do not require you to have prior knowledge as they are explained easily without interrupting the flow of the narrative.

One element that possibly hurts this novel is the introduction of too many characters too early in the story. Whilst it turns out that all these characters are essential to the plot and to the continuing plot in the rest of the series, it may have been more advantageous to stagger their introductions so as not to give the reader too much to process all at once.

At just over four hundred pages this is a fun paced quirky story, that can appeal to a novice or a more serious reader either of which can lose a day inside the story.

4/5

The Outlaw Panda

 

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Portable-Door-Tom-Holt/dp/1841492086

An Introduction

Books

 

Where would we be without books? Who knows, that is probably a scary thing to contemplate but I digress.

 

Books I love them, I read at least four books per week, but that was not always the case. Books used to be a chore, they would be things that I would have to read certain chapters from books for school stuff. I never properly sat and just read a cover to cover book of any genre. That changed one day when I was in the local library, there was this book that was displayed differently as the library had picked it as their novel of the week. The name and the simplistic style of the cover grabbed me, and I knew I had to read it. Doing so changed my opinion on books entirely.

Recently as I have embarked on my own literary voyage (that can be read over at http://coggienovels.blogspot.co.uk/ ) I felt a return to the story that sent me down the original path would be a fun idea that may spark creativity.

This creativity gravitated to me in a way of dissecting a story, and finding its strong points or weak points.

So to start off as a bit of fun that may lead to something more serious down the road, please join me as I review the books I stumble upon.

The Outlaw Panda