Posts Tagged ‘Tom Holt’

Cover Launch: THE EIGHT REINDEER OF THE APOCALYPSE by Tom Holt

Take your first look at the cover of The Eight Reindeer of the Apocalypse (US | UK) by Tom Holt! You can pick up this brilliantly funny new novel set in the world of The Portable Door (now a delightful movie starring Patrick Gibson, Sophie Wilde, and Christoph Waltz) in October 2023.

The Eight Reindeer of the Apocalypse by Tom Holt

Cover Design by Lauren Panepinto

Welcome to Dawson, Ahriman & Dawson!*

The team of commercial sorcerers at Dawson, Ahriman & Dawson can help with any metaphysical engineering project, large or small (though by definition they all tend to be pretty large).

They can also create massive great puddles of chaos that might one day swallow up the entire universe.

Take, for example, the decision to recruit a certain bearded fellow whose previous work experience mainly involves reindeer and jingle bells. It might have seemed like a good idea at the time, but is he really the best person to save the world from Tiamat the Destroyer, who has literally gone ballistic?

*By reading beyond this point you agree to comply with certain terms and conditions that are mostly reasonable but confidential. The management reserves the right to terminate any employees or clients, human or otherwise.

Cover Launch: The Good, the Bad and the Smug by Tom Holt

The Good, the Bad and the Smug: comic fantasy by Tom Holt

We’re feeling pretty good (one might even say a little smug) about launching this gorgeous cover by Lauren Panepinto, for Tom Holt’s newest comic fantasy, THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE SMUG.  The only bad news is, you’ll have to wait until 28th July to read it…

New Evil.
Same as the Old Evil, but with better PR.

Mordak isn’t bad, as far as goblin kings go, but when someone, or something, starts pumping gold into the human kingdoms it puts his rule into serious jeopardy. Suddenly he’s locked in an arms race with a species whose arms he once considered merely part of a calorie-controlled diet.

Helped by an elf with a background in journalism and a masters degree in being really pleased with herself, Mordak sets out to discover what on earth (if indeed, that’s where he is) is going on. He knows that the truth is out there. If only he could remember where he put it.

New Comic Fantasy from Tom Holt: The Outsorcerer’s Apprentice

  • Buy the Book
  • US
  • UK

Tom Holt’s latest comic fantasy, THE OUTSORCERER’S APPRENTICE, is now available in paperback and digital! This new novel – from an author many compare to Terry Pratchett and Douglas Adams –  tells the story of a wizard who’s seen the profit in ancient prophecies and the investment value in a dragon’s hoard . . .

It’s a novel of overlords, underlings and inhuman resources. It’s THE OUTSORCERER’S APPRENTICE.

A happy workforce, it is said, is a productive workforce.

Try telling that to an army of belligerent goblins. Or the Big Bad Wolf. Or a professional dragon slayer. Who is looking after their well-being? Who gives a damn about their intolerable working conditions, lack of adequate health insurance, and terrible coffee in the canteen?

Thankfully, with access to an astonishingly diverse workforce and limitless natural resources, maximizing revenue and improving operating profit has never really been an issue for the one they call “the Wizard.” Until now.

Because now a perfectly good business model – based on sound fiscal planning, entrepreneurial flair, and only one or two of the infinite parallel worlds that make up our universe – is about to be disrupted by a young man not entirely aware of what’s going on.

There’s also a slight risk that the fabric of reality will be torn to shreds. You really do have to be awfully careful with these things.

Praise for Tom Holt:

‘Uniquely twisted . . . cracking gags’
Guardian

‘Gratifyingly clever and very amusing’
Mail on Sunday

Infographic: The Decidedly Delectable DOUGHNUT

Doughnut

We’ve all heard that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Whether that is true or not, clearly the doughnut is the superior choice over all other breakfast options. Don’t feed me any of that nonsense about muffins or bagels being better: the doughnut is the clear winner.

Through the process of publishing Tom Holt’s new novel, DOUGHNUT (US |UK |AUS), we’ve become experts on the subject –  unlocking the many mysteries of the delectable doughnut. What secrets lie beneath that glazed exterior?

Click to find out more than you ever thought possible about mankind’s greatest contribution to breakfast.

Doughnut Infogrpahic

First Looks: Fall 2013 – Winter 2014 US Covers

Winter 2013/Fall 2014

A new season of books is inbound, and it sure looks like it’s going to be an exciting one! Here’s the first crop of covers from the Fall 2013 – Winter 2014 season. We’re still putting the finishing touches on a few more, but you’ll be seeing them soon.

Because the smaller scale doesn’t do any of these fantastic covers justice, click on the images below to see a larger version. So pin, tweet, and comment to your heart’s content and tell us which books are already on your “Must have!” lists!

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Cover Preview UK: 2013 July to December

covers updatedSpring is almost here but we’re already looking forward to summer and autumn 2013! That’s because we’ve got some amazing books coming up for the rest of this year with freshly designed covers to share with you. This isn’t our whole list of published titles for the year – just the covers we think you might not have seen before.

Click on the individual cover images below to see the larger version and let us know your favourites!

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New Comic Fantasy: Tom Holt’s DOUGHNUT

Hungry for a good read? Pick up a copy of the newly published (and freshly baked) DOUGHNUT by Tom Holt (UK|USA|ANZ), the excellent comic fantasy from the author of WHO’S AFRAID OF BEOWULF? and THE PORTABLE DOOR.

Find the blurb, as well as a ‘bite-sized’ piece of DOUGHNUT below (and look out for other such pieces across Orbit social media this month).

Bite-sized quote: Doughnut by Tom Holt

The doughnut is a thing of beauty, a circle of fried, doughy perfection – a source of comfort in trying times, perhaps. For Theo Bernstein it is far, far more.

An accident at work lost Theo his job (and his work involved preventing a Very Very Large Hadron Collider from blowing up, so he’s unlikely to get it back). His wife has left him, he doesn’t have any money and news arrives that his good friend Professor Pieter van Goyen, renowned physicist and Nobel laureate, has died.

By leaving the apparently worthless contents of his safety deposit to Theo, however, the professor has sent him on a quest of epic proportions. A journey that will rewrite the laws of physics. A battle to save humanity itself.

This is the tale of a man who had nothing and gave it all up to find his destiny – and a doughnut.

Tom Holt, photographed by Charlie Hopkinson © 2010

Tom Holt has been a full-time writer since 1995 and has produced some of the most popular comic fantasy of the last decade – his work is often compared to that of Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett. Play the ‘Which Tom Holt novel is Right For You?’ quiz at Tom-Holt.com.

Which Tom Holt novel is right for you?

For the first time ever Tom Holt’s entire backlist is available to readers in the US in ebook. That’s 24 charming novels that will entertain and leave you in stitches with their humor and mayhem.

To find out which Tom Holt novel might be right for you, visit the new Tom Holt website where you can click through a fun, interactive survey to arrive at the perfect novel tailored to your heart’s desire. Will it be SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN SAMURAI? Or perhaps ODDS AND GODS where the gods are living out their immortal days in the Sunnyvoyde Residential Home.

It doesn’t matter if you are in the US or UK. Everyone can play along. So head on over to the Tom Holt website and discover which novels will satisfy your cravings. Happy reading!

Tom Holt website

 

Fall 12 Winter 13 US COVERS: EARLY LOOKS

So we’re still in development on a lot of new covers for the Fall 2012/Winter 2013 Season, but many covers are done (or very very close to final) so we wanted to share those with you. There are some amazing titles here, which I can vouch for, since you know I read as much as I can while I’m working. As usual, we’ll be launching these one by one with some fabulous behind-the-scenes videos, covers in development, etc. So stay tuned! And keep checking in for the covers that are so deep in development that we can’t even show you yet…

I’ll be releasing the full credits in the individual cover launches, but I know some of you are going to be reposting, so here are the quick credits: Spirit’s End illustration by Sam Weber, design by Lauren Panepinto. American Elsewhere design by Kirk Benshoff, Folly of the World design by Lauren Panepinto, The Queen is Dead photo by House of Indulgence, Illustration by Don Sipley, design by Lauren Panepinto. The Red Knight illustration by Epica Prima, design by Lauren Panepinto. Seven Kings illustration by Richard Anderson, design by Lauren Panepinto. Out for Blood illustration by Nekro, design by Lauren Panepinto. Wolfhound Century design by Lauren Panepinto. 3 x Michael Cobley illustrations by Steve Stone, design by Kirk Benshoff. Godspeaker photo by Shirley Green, design by Kirk Benshoff. Jill Kismet photo by Michael Frost, Illustration by Gene Mollica, design by Lauren Panepinto. The Soddit illustration by Douglas Carrel, design by Lauren Panepinto. Emperor Mollusk illustration/design by Will Staehle. Cold Fire illustration by Larry Rostant, design by Peter Cotton. Sapkowski x 3 illustrations by CD Projekt Red & Massive Black, design by Lauren Panepinto. Rebellion design by Lauren Panepinto.

Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of comedy

Tom Holt’s comic fantasy Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Sausages (UK | US | ANZ) was published recently and has delighted reviewers already. With some trepidation, we asked Tom the classic author interview question: where the heckers does he get his ideas from?

“One disadvantage I suffer from is that I don’t lead a funny life. Hilarious things don’t happen to me, which means I have to make it all up. Whoever arranges these things sees to it that somebody else gets all the good material – the wrong suitcase picked off the airport carousel, the hilarious mistaken-identity incident, all that – while I’m left with days that go something like –

7.00am: wake up
7.15am: drive to smallholding; feed pigs; feed chickens; feed pigs; feed cows; cut firewood
10.30am – 3.30pm: sit in front of computer trying to think of funny stuff
3.35pm as 7.15am
8.00am – 2.00pm as 10.30am

 And so on, day after day (except in winter, when it’s still as dark as a bag at 7am), with never a hint of a free joke or a spontaneously-occurring outbreak of hilarity that I can pick up, shove under my coat, take home and effortlessly convert into marketable prose. The only break in the routine comes when I have to dispose of the body of the latest person foolish enough to tell me about some comic incident in their own life, with the recommendation (usually the last thing they ever say) that I ought to put it in one of my books. (more…)