Review

It makes perfect sense that Snow White should live with seven samurai, once you've got the hang of Tom Holt's latest twisted fantasy comedy. Youngsters from our real world hack into fairyland's Mirrors operating system--which naturally runs on the wicked queen's magic mirror--and crash it so disastrously that all the stories get tangled. A spaghetti-western Dwarf With No Name (actually he's Dumpy) is hired to save three little pigs from the big bad wolf by recruiting a Magnificent Seven Dwarves' defence team, starting with Rumpelstiltskin and Tom Thumb but goingdownhill from there. Meanwhile, Fang the wolf has problems with Frog Prince transformations, Snow White learns from her own mirror that she has excellent wicked-queen potential and Baron Frankenstein's latest unholy creation proves to be Pinocchio. We also meet three colour-blind mice, the Beast fleeing in terror from Beauty, an elf who insists she's an "Indigenous Fairylander" and the Grimm Brothers--unconvincingly claiming that they're mere independent observers. After which, things become really complicated and silly, as Storyland is further fragmented by various mirror-users' efforts to gain control, until it seems quite reasonable that one little pig should find himself saying, "I am not a number. I am a free pig." Splendidly deranged entertainment, with quips galore. Holt's in good form. --David Langford. This review refers to the hardback edition

Review

Uniquely twisted ... cracking gags (Rob Grant, THE GUARDIAN)

Frantically wacky and wilfully confusing ... gratifyingly clever and very amusing (MAIL ON SUNDAY)

Frothy, fast and funny (SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY)

Dazzling (TIME OUT)

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