Books: Expecting Someone Taller by Tom Holt (1987)

“Malcolm Fisher inherits a magic ring from a dying badger and becomes the much-disputed Ruler of the World. Everyone wants the ring--despite the fearsome curse upon it. And Malcolm is about to learn that some are born to greatness, and some are, well, badgered into it.”

Way back in the 1980s, ACE Books, a division of St. Martin’s Press, released a lot of humorous fantasy novels (along with some serious ones) to counter the many other fantasy novels that Del Ray was putting out. Most were okay, parodies mostly of The Lord of The Rings, or just books that took the genre less seriously. After stumbling upon Tom Holt’s Expecting Someone Taller at Sideshow Books here in West LA, I can’t remember if I saw this book when it was released in 1987. At the time, I was deep into many series fantasy books and would, on occasion, read the more sillier books that came out, like Craig Shaw Gardner’s Ebenezum series (and a few others he wrote), John DeChanice’s Castle Perilous series, and Myth Adventures by Robert Lynn Asprin. Sprinkled within was (at least) the first ten volumes of Piers Anthony’s Xanth books.

Anyways, there was a lot, and there is a good chance either I saw the book and was not interested or missed it completely. So while the book has its charms and a promising premise (taking the characters and themes of Wagner’s Ring Cycle and setting them in a modern day sleepy English village), it never really took off for me. The humor is never laugh-out-loud, but it also never really gels into typical satire the British seem to do so well at. Still, this was Holt’s first novel and has spent the last 30 years writing humorous takes on every myth, fairy tale, and supernatural aspect that you can shake a leg at. He’s been pretty prolific and it surprises me that I’ve never heard of him.

So I might excuse Holt for failing to make the most of his initial premise because it was his first book, but on the other hand, since it falls short –for me anyways- to live up to its premise, I don’t find myself invested enough to move into the many other books he’s written.

Which makes me wonder if I had discovered him back in 1987, would have I continued to read his books like I’ve done with Stephen King? But then again, like many of those fantasy books I read a thousand years ago, I’ve stopped reading a lot of those authors, like Terry Brooks, Piers Anthony, Stephen R. Donaldson, David Eddings (though dead I never read anything else of his beyond The Belgariad and The Malloreon series), and Raymond E. Feist. Even Robert Asprin continued to write more Myth books in collaboration with author Jodi Lynn Nye until his death in 2008.

I realized that part of me has moved on from the genre, which is highly predictable. But also, part of me realizes that those books were read when I was a lost boy, trying to find my place in the world. They filled the empty hours of my life. Much like the world, I’ve moved on, and only on occasions, do I dip my toes back into this genre. Sometimes I disappointment myself.