Doughnut by Tom Holt

Posted 28 May, 2013 by Heather in Blog, Featured, Heather, Heather Book Review / 24 Comments

Doughnut by Tom HoltDoughnut by Tom Holt
Published by Orbit on March 5, 2013
Genres: Adult, Fantasy
Pages: 400
Format: Audiobook
Source: Publisher
Buy on Amazon
Goodreads
4 Stars

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

Things have been going pretty badly for Theo Bernstein. An unfortunate accident at work has lost him his job (and his work involved a Very Very Large Hadron Collider, so he's unlikely to get it back). His wife has left him. And he doesn't have any money.

Before Theo has time to fully appreciate the pointlessness of his own miserable existence, 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 set 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.

fantasyhilarious

My Thoughts:

Physicist Theo Bernstein didn’t check his math and accidentally blew up the Very, Very Large Hadron Collider, along with an entire mountain and his career too. He lost his wife, his money, even one of his hands is no longer visible after the accident, so he doesn’t have much going for him now that he’s no longer employable. When he receives a letter stating that his old Professer Pieter van Goyen has passed away and left him the contents of a safety deposit box, Theo heads off to Switzerland to see what the strange old guy has left him. The box contains an empty bottle, an apple, a make up compact, and a letter telling him that he can find work at a hotel in the village.

Once Theo is employed at the hotel with two strange people and he finds that there are only two guests rattling around the giant place, the story gets even more weird once he finds that the bottle Dr. van Goyen left him is a portal to the multiverse. The good doctor has even tried to monetize it and dubbed it YouSpace, and Theo has been ordered by the hotel’s occupants to enter the multiverse to bring back his deadbeat and thought long-dead brother Max back to this reality. But when you are don’t have any directions or a user’s manual on how to actually operate YouSpace or navigate the multiverse, Theo finds that searching for his brother is easier said than done–especially when the worlds are out to get you by software design.

Tom Holt’s writing is engaging and fun, bringing the hapless Theo to brilliant life as he bumbles his way through the many different worlds and finds out what is really happening while he is manipulated by practically everyone he meets. No large corporation is safe from his ribbing, be you Microsoft or Disney, and I was laughing out loud while I listened along during my work day as Theo jumped from multiverse to multiverse. The worlds were very imaginative and varied, from one where Disney creatures ruled the land (think Eeyore as a cop) to feudal kingdoms to entire societies living on giant balloons in the sky because the ground wasn’t habitable any more (thanks again, to Theo blowing up the Very, Very Large Hadron Collider).

I give Doughnut a four out of five. This was my first book by author Tom Holt, and the writing was entertaining, fun, and the characters were dynamic and quirky. Theo did jump from world to world quite a bit, so you have to pay attention if you’re listening or you can get lost. I had to rewind the audio a few times to figure out what was going on. But that was my experience with the audiobook version. Overall, a solid, fun fantasy book that doesn’t take itself too seriously, and I greatly enjoyed it.

 

I listened to the audiobook provided by Hachette Audio

Get your own Audiobooks at Audible: Doughnut.

 

This book was such a treat to listen to, and I certainly enjoyed British narrator Ray Sawyer’s reading. While this book was a bit on the longer side at thirteen hours and forty-two minutes, the time flew past since the book was fun, strange, and the reader did everyone’s voices perfectly.

Heather

The following two tabs change content below.
I'm a PhD chemist who loves sarcasm, music, and books-paranormal, mystery, thriller, suspense, horror, and romance. Most of my free time is spent at the martial arts studio these days--whether practicing Combat Hapkido or reading books while watching my son's Taekwondo classes, or even working up a sweat with Kickboxing for fun. Goodreads

Latest posts by Heather (see all)

Tags: , , , , , ,

Divider

24 Responses to “Doughnut by Tom Holt”

  1. Write more, thats all I have to say. Literally, it seems as though you relied on the video to make your point.
    You definitely know what youre talking about, why throw away your intelligence on just posting videos to your blog when you could
    be giving us something informative to read?
    Bettie recently posted..BettieMy Profile

    Reply »

  2. Oh my goodness! a tremendous article dude. Thank you Nevertheless I am experiencing situation with ur rss . Don�t know why Unable to subscribe to it. Is there anyone getting equivalent rss drawback? Anyone who knows kindly respond. Thnkx

    Reply »

  3. I�m impressed, I need to say. Really not often do I encounter a blog that�s both educative and entertaining, and let me inform you, you’ve hit the nail on the head. Your concept is outstanding; the difficulty is something that not enough individuals are speaking intelligently about. I am very comfortable that I stumbled across this in my search for something referring to this.

    Reply »

  4. I and my buddies ended up reading the good things located on your web page and at once came up with a terrible suspicion I never expressed respect to the web site owner for those tips. Those people came happy to read all of them and have now simply been taking advantage of those things. Thank you for simply being really thoughtful as well as for making a choice on some perfect guides millions of individuals are really desperate to learn about. Our own honest apologies for not expressing gratitude to earlier.

    Reply »

  5. Thanks for the sensible critique. Me & my neighbor were just preparing to do some research on this. We got a grab a book from our area library but I think I learned more from this post. I am very glad to see such wonderful info being shared freely out there.

    Reply »

  6. ps3

    I used to be suggested this website through my cousin.
    I’m not positive whether this publish is written through
    him as no one else know such precise about my difficulty.
    You are amazing! Thank you!
    ps3 recently posted..ps3My Profile

    Reply »

  7. Tim

    Thanks for every other informative website. Where else could I
    am getting that kind of information written in such
    an ideal approach? I’ve a project that I’m simply now working on,
    and I’ve been on the look out for such information.
    Tim recently posted..TimMy Profile

    Reply »

  8. Another angel then comes forth from the heavenly temple with
    a sharp sickle and with it gathered the grape clusters of
    earth into the winepress of the wrath of
    God which is then trodden outside of the
    city, with extraordinary amounts of blood pouring forth (Revelation 14:
    17-20). Participants in the memorial inside the
    church can not stand in tears. The scene abruptly changes when it seems that Koga has gotten the upper
    hand on her.
    free gold gems and food dragon city recently posted..free gold gems and food dragon cityMy Profile

    Reply »

  9. Google would prefer that you use Gmail on your Android smartphone, but what happens if you have more than one account.

    Also, you could try and rent a truck and hall the debris yourself however it could take
    time to pack up a truck and transport it to another
    company. Visit All Business to get sample forms that you will need.
    Isabella recently posted..IsabellaMy Profile

    Reply »

  10. I know this if off topic but I’m looking into starting my own blog and was wondering what
    all is required to get set up? I’m assuming having a blog like yours would
    cost a pretty penny? I’m not very web smart so I’m not 100% certain. Any recommendations or advice would be greatly appreciated.
    Appreciate it
    lakeland wine bar recently posted..lakeland wine barMy Profile

    Reply »

Leave a Reply

CommentLuv badge