The Portable Door

By: Tom Holt

Narrated by: Ray Sawyer

Length: 13 hrs and 35 mins

Publisher's summary

Starting a new job is always stressful (especially when you don't particularly want one), but when Paul Carpenter arrives at the office of J. W. Wells he has no idea what trouble lies in store. Because he is about to discover that the apparently respectable establishment now paying his salary is in fact a front for a deeply sinister organisation that has a mighty peculiar agenda. It seems that half the time his bosses are away with the fairies. But they're not, of course. They're away with the goblins. Mister Tom Holt, Master of the Comic Fantasy Novel, cordially invites you to join him in his world of madness by reading his next hilarious masterpiece.

©2003 Kim Holt (P)2003 Isis Publishing Ltd

A weird one but worth it

It took me a little while to get into this story, but once I did, I found it fun and interesting. Really rather a delightful listen. The narrator was good too - brought the fun out in the book! If you want something fun, a little odd, and imaginative, give this a go.

There's no storyline here... 😶

Mildly amusing characters and dialog. But Tom Holt doesn't manage to write a story.
Chapter 1: main character geta a boring job and falls in love.
Chapter 6: besides from getting a stone with a sword delivered to his house and finding a lot of old things at work, nothing has happened up to this point. 2 hours about how they do paperwork in the office. And how boring it is.
I don't think I will finish this book because I'm falling asleep all the time..

Brilliant

For a couple of days I was lost to my family as I was constantly listening to it with my headphones on. Cant wait to start volume 2.

Alternative!

I have just listened to another of Tom Holt's books, and I like his style, and his very quirky take on life! I liked this book, too and I have the next one in the series in my library. Some parts are very funny, other parts are just silly, but it grabs you and you just have to listen to find the answer! Narration is good, without any annoying lilts that sometimes iritate me. It's not "Discworld" but it's not far behind!

Best belly laugh I've had in ages, from Tom Holt.

I was dubious about listening to Tom Holts The portable door as I had previously read the book & enjoyed it so much that I didn't want to be disappointed which usually happens when watching a DVD of a previously read book, however the quite the reverse happened, I could not disconnect much to the angst of my family. they sat in growing irritation & grew rapidly thiner due to them not being able to feed themselves, (that will teach them to find the food closet themselves). The narrative was far better than even my reading & Tom Holts quirky humour had me belly laughing all the way through.The story line of a luckless geek battling with the unimaginable was priceless,

A bad mix of better authors

I've never read tom holt before and I wouldn't say I'd bother again. It's ok as an easy read but if you've read terry pratchet, Neil gaiman. Douglas Adams or tom Robbins you'll probably find this book entirely predictable. It feels like a bad mash up of all the authors that do this genre...

Strangely enjoyable

I was a little bit hesitant about this book at the beginning, however as it progressed I found myself looking forward to the next chapters with anticipation.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I have the next books in my wish list.

Not for me

Tedious. Gave up half way through chapter 3. Narration very slow. Even tried x1.3 but decided it was just not my thing.

Less than the sum of its parts

To start with, I want to make the point that I did enjoy this book. It was mostly entertaining, the plot was interesting, there were funny bits, and the narrator was pretty good at narrating.

But.....
Yes there were funny bits, but it seemed to be trying too hard sometimes. Jokes and "funny" comments seemed to be crammed in wherever possible. Sometimes less is more.

The plot was full of inconsistencies. For example, the author seems to change his mind about whether going back in time allows you to remember what happened first time round, or whether it's a reset switch.

The most noticeable annoyance was the discrepancy between the apparent age / era of the main 2 characters (19 or 20 it seems, in early 2000s), and the language they use. They are about the same age that I was at that time, but they speak as if their age is somewhere between my dad and my grandfather.

Having looked it up, it seems they're using words and phrases that exactly match what I'd expect from the age of the author - not the age of the characters. A minor issue, but a constant one, hence quite annoying.

Adrian Mole Meets Harry Potter

Any additional comments?

Finally I've found another brilliant book series to read. Although The Portable Door starts slow, it's worth the wait, and the early mundanity is entirely complimentary to the story line. In fact the whole of Tom Holt's magical world is a beautiful beige in comparison to the perhaps rainbow colours of Harry Potter to which it nods it's head more than once. It's hard to ignore the similarities, but to Tom Holts credit, he uses the device of a parallel wizarding universe to invent a vastly different creation which has a lot in common with the drab but completely hilarious world of Adrian Mole. In summary then : Harry Potter meets Adrian Mole (in the best possible way). Brilliantly read by Ray Sawyer, and worth more than the one credit that I paid.

Worth the Read

What other book might you compare The Portable Door to, and why?

This book is definitely from the Terry Pratchett school of writing. It is full of weird and wonderful creatures with a 21st century sense of humour.

Any additional comments?

It is a little slow to start, but hang on in there, it's worth it. I'm looking forward to reading more Holt in the future.

Forget the film this is the real deal

With its fancy new cover a completely inappropriate replacement for the previously brilliant simple pencil drawing, anyone lured here by the diabolical film version is in for a truly wonderous treat.

The film pays scant acknowledgement to this book which is brilliantly drole, wonderfully hilarious and spectacularly entertaining. I think beyond naming the two protagonists Paul and Sophie that's where any similarity ends.

Never has the phrase: "The book is so much better than the film" been more apt.

And Ray Sawyer's performance is nothing short of stellar. He alone outacts the author's prose better than the movie's entire cast. The person or persons who adapted the screenplay ought to hang their heads in shame. Perhaps they used Robinson Crusoe as their template. It certainly might have been closer to Tom Holt's vision.

I was so depressed after watching the woeful film I thought that maybe my recollections of the book's brilliance were flawed.

But no. Be of good cheer as buying this audiobook will give you the treat the film failed so spectacularly to deliver.

wonderful

I'm going to listen to the rest of the series immediately. Incredibly engaging and the characters are brilliant.