Only Human - Softcover

Holt, Tom

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1857239490 ISBN 13: 9781857239492

Publisher: Orbit, 2000

Synopsis

'When Tom Holt's on form, the world seems a much cheerier place' - SFX

'...both intimate and ambitious - not only human, but also divine' - DAILY TELEGRAPH

Something is about to go wrong. Very wrong. What do you expect if the Supreme Being decides to get away from it all for a few days, leaving his naturally inquisitive son to look after the cosmic balance of things?

A minor hiccup with a human soul and a welding machine soon leads to a violent belch, and before you know it the human condition - not to mention the lemming condition - is tumbling down the slippery slope to chaos.

A dazzling comic fantasy novel from one of Britain's sharpest, funniest writers.

Books by Tom Holt:

Walled Orchard Series
Goatsong
The Walled Orchard

J.W. Wells & Co. Series
The Portable Door
In Your Dreams
Earth, Air, Fire and Custard
You Don't Have to Be Evil to Work Here, But It Helps
The Better Mousetrap
May Contain Traces of Magic
Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Sausages

YouSpace Series
Doughnut
When It's A Jar
The Outsorcerer's Apprentice
The Good, the Bad and the Smug

Novels
Expecting Someone Taller
Who's Afraid of Beowulf
Flying Dutch
Ye Gods!
Overtime
Here Comes the Sun
Grailblazers
Faust Among Equals
Odds and Gods
Djinn Rummy
My Hero
Paint your Dragon
Open Sesame
Wish you Were Here
Alexander at World's End
Only Human
Snow White and the Seven Samurai
Olympiad
Valhalla
Nothing But Blue Skies
Falling Sideways
Little People
Song for Nero
Meadowland
Barking
Blonde Bombshell
The Management Style of the Supreme Beings
An Orc on the Wild Side

About this title

Review

Tom Holt's popular comic fantasies began with Expecting Someone Taller in 1987: Only Human is his 15th novel in this vein. When God takes his son "Jay" on a fishing holiday in a far-off galaxy, the unpublicised younger son Kevin finally gets a chance to play with the family computer. This is Mainframe, "the PC of God that passeth all understanding", custom-built by Kawaguchiya Integrated Circuits to run the world ... and definitely unsafe to tinker with. Kevin's blunders shift souls into the wrong bodies: a machine operator swaps places with his machine, a woman with an old portrait, a Duke of Hell with a vicar and Prime Minister Dermot Fraud with a suicide-bent lemming. Meanwhile Kawaguchiya's computer system achieves self-awareness, Zxprxp the visiting alien explores Earth's weaknesses and a demonic conspiracy is afoot. Holt provides numerous funny one-liners: a heavenly fridge magnet reads "ANGELS DO IT IMMACULATELY", while Customs in Hell has green and red channels for "Nothing to abandon" and "Abandon hope here". At the same time, he's genially pessimistic about humans and their intractable stupidity. Maybe the lemmings have the right idea after all? Our world seems doomed to end, not with a bang but a snigger ... Vintage Holt. --DavidLangford

Review

Excellent, sexy novel in which Abraham, Sarah and the voice of God perform a subversive, jealousy-laden dance round one another. It sounds unlikely, but Diski can spin gold from the most unpromising settings and characters, and this bookk delves into all kinds of byways - infertility, obedience, autonomy in a relationship - with wit and intelligence. (MARIE CLAIRE)

a hugely engaging and entertaining book (SUNDAY EXPRESS)

both intimate and ambitious - not only human, but also divine (DAILY TELEGRAPH)

This is Jenny Diski's best novel yet. (LITERARY REVIEW)

About this edition

• Publisher: Orbit
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 1857239490
• ISBN 13: 9781857239492
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 352