• When It's a Jar

  • By: Tom Holt
  • Narrated by: Ray Sawyer
  • Length: 14 hrs and 6 mins
  • 4.2 out of 5 stars (172 ratings)

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When It's a Jar  By  cover art

When It's a Jar

By: Tom Holt
Narrated by: Ray Sawyer
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Publisher's summary

Maurice has just killed a dragon with a bread knife. And had his destiny foretold…and had his true love spirited away. That's precisely the sort of stuff that'd bring out the latent heroism in anyone. Unfortunately, Maurice is pretty sure he hasn't got any latent heroism.

Meanwhile, a man wakes up in a jar in a different kind of pickle (figuratively speaking). He can't get out, of course, but neither can he remember his name, or what gravity is, or what those things on the ends of his legs are called…and every time he starts working it all out, someone makes him forget again. Forget everything.

Only one thing might help him. The answer to the most baffling question of all...When is a door not a door?

©2013 Tom Holt (P)2013 Hachette Audio

What listeners say about When It's a Jar

Average customer ratings
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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Clever, Adventurous, Unpredictable, Comic Fantasy

Where does When It's a Jar rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Tom Holt's books are in a category by themselves. When you want to smile, take a dip in another world that is clever, entertaining, funny and take the reader to unexpected places--then take a journey into the world of Tom Holt.

What did you like best about this story?

All of Tom Holt's books are funny and entertaining--yet not a word is wasted. It all makes no sense and yet perfect sense. This author ties up every loose end in an imaginative, comic ending.

Have you listened to any of Ray Sawyer’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I cannot sum up the info in this book. Just read and enjoy.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

I love the narration of this book. This narrator had done both of Tom Holt's books. I cannot listen to a book with poor narration.

Any additional comments?

Tom Holt is underappreciated in the US and much better known in Great Britain. I discovered him in a London book store and have been enjoying his books ever since. I plan on listening to all of the audio versions of the books I have read as I think his books lend themselves to audio--Very few books make me laugh out loud. Tom Holt consistently does.

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7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Fun!!

Back to the multiverse!! This is a fun sequel to the first Youspace book Doughnut. Tom Holt once again takes us on a funny and clever romp through the multiverse. Ray Sawyer excellently Narrates once again.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Don't bother

I usually am not swayed one way or another by a narrator. But Ray Sawyer has just made my skip the book list it Ray is doing the narration. It sound as if he had marbles in his mouth. I had to start the book 3 times in 31 minutes to determine how many characters were there and what was going on.

The dragon slayer is introduced as a prelude. The next is a man on a train with the sisters of fates. Then you get a man in a jar who talks to an entity. Sawyer does a terrible voice of a robot as the entity. It was so annoying I quit reading. What is with the British pronunciation of schedule as chedule? They do not say the "s".

I called for a refund of the book when the man in the jar, who does not remember anything, began to discover such things as pain. He experiences it, internalizes it and has the realization to what it is.

I have enjoyed books by Neil Gaiman, Douglas Adams, Terry Pratchett and Piers Anthony. I know you have to give them a little space to get things set up to roll. Tom Holt was not rolling it out fast enough for me.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

good story

love the humor. its like Robert Rankin but you dont have to be on acid to understand it. haha

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Way to much filler

Bought it as it's the next book in the series. Like the last there is way too much filler. It's entertaining but if you removed the filler the book would be an hour or 2 long.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Funny!

I think it’s hilarious, simple, and a little trailing, but I love it all the same! ⬇️
(BTW ignore all the hate comments, their garbage)

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Needed to be shorter

There is a lot of unnecessary fluff in this book. I think the number of words could easily be cut between 40% to 50%. With tighter editing, this would be a great story. As it is, however, it gets boring in parts and the plot seems to stall out. Information is repeated over and over again, and it starts to feel like less of a reminder for the reader and more of a way to boost the book's overall word count. Other than being ovelry long, it is funny and witty like all Tom Holt books are. And as with Robert Rankin novels, you have to mightily suspend disbelief in some places. I thought the plot was a little thin in spots, and there was no real explanation for a lot of things, not even far-fetched explanations. Also, I thought it unbelievable that someone who had a strong interest in physics would completely abandon the study of physics when they saw something that went counter to everything they knew. Wouldn't that just fuel your interest even more? That said, there were hilarious moments, especially in the first half of the book. I laughed outloud over the truth serum job interview, and I am going to try to work the phrase "noxious bastard poisoning" into every day conversations. An enjoyable book if you are a fan of humorous far-fetched fiction.

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Not as engaginigng as other books.

word word word word word word word word word word word word word word punctuation. big little planet sixty four

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Gave up

I just couldn't make it through this one. I tried. Way too much energy put into trying to be clever. I finally had to give up. I suppose there is an audience out there but it just wasn't me. Sorry!

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