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Fishy Wishes by Tom Holt
01/05/2005 . Source: Phil Jones 
pub: Orbit/Times Warner. 646 page enlarged paperback. Price: £ 8.99 (UK), $21.00 (CAN). ISBN: 1-84149-347-3. Buy from Amazon US - Buy from Amazon UK
nb: US titles may only be available from Amazon US, and UK titles from Amazon UK. check out websites: www.OrbitBooks.co.uk
'Wish You Were Here' is the newer of the two books in this compilation written in 1998. It concerns a lake in Iowa, haunted by the ghost Okeewana, who if you fall into said lake will grant you your greatest desire. Unfortunately, most people don't really know what their greatest desire actually is and let alone your greatest desire at the exact moment you fall in the lake. This though comes at a cost.
'Wish You Were Here' follows four main characters that all fall in the lake and find themselves flip side of the lake with Okeewana. Calvin Dieb is a high flying lawyer whose time is money (literally). His desire is to find his keys to his car that he lost on the edge of the lake. Linda Lachuk, rather, is a somewhat cynical journalist who will find a story/conspiracy out of anything or anywhere. She looks for the animal angle and ends up with Australians selling nuclear warheads to the Vatican. She desperately seeks the major scoop of her career. Wesley Higgins, a man from Birmingham (UK), who seeks simply excitement and escapism. Janice De Weese who does not have a very high opinion of her looks wants sex appeal.
Each character bumps into a variety of people on the flip side. These range from Vikings who got lost in a complex story involving the great lakes, bears, Indians and the like.
Each character is given the opportunity to improve their personalities by Okeewana, but she only has limited resources which include a bit of magic and those who drowned in the past to call on. She makes the main characters realise how shallow their dreams are and tries to improve them.
The biggest problem with this story is that it is altogether quite depressing. It does feel like Tom Holt is having a major dig at both lawyers and Americans. The characters feel too much like caricatures. They act just as plot elements which are often only just below the surface. Each character goes through pretty much the same after falling into the lake and it just feels as though they are just cogs in comic joke constructs. You never feel attached to any of them.
The one saving grace for this story is that in parts it's still hysterically funny, but I think it shows too much of the dark side of Tom Holt's mind. Normally, Tom Holt's long running and complex jokes through out his books are a delight and compliment a range of interesting characters that you care about but in this regard this 'Wish You Were Here' fails. I think there are plenty of other Tom Holt books you should seek out and read before this one including the second book in this compilation 'Djinn Rummy'.
'Djinn Rummy' to me is more like the classically funny books of Tom Holt. Read this first, hint, hint. It concerns a Force Twelve genie. Yet again Tom Holt strays into familiar story (Fairy, Myth and the like) and turns it on its head.
A genie stuck in an aspirin bottle for fourteen years just happens to be let out by a woman hell bent on committing suicide. The woman liked beige! Not your usual full-blown Arabian Nights type magnificence. In the process, Kiss (otherwise known, with reference to his sponsor as Kawaguchiya Inte-grated Circuits III) is humiliated, threatened with loss of his divine status and involved in a huge fight with a fellow genie. Jane, the girl who wants to commit suicide over a lost love, improves her outlook on life when she finds out from Kiss' owners' manual affirms the fact that she is not limited to the usually three wishes. Life gets a bit more interesting though with the advent of another force twelve genie, Philly Nine.
This is Tom Holt on top form. Taking elements from a whole range of sources and shaking them up in a modern setting. Juggling with so many elements they all seem to land in the right place. The humour is very much situation-based but there are still a few digs at modern society. It still revolves around the usual genie elements of carpets and treasure, but he builds on these in new and interesting ways allowing humour to come out without it being forced as it sometimes feels in 'Wish You Were Here'. There are main layers to this tapestry and there is enough here to drive the book. Even though the sources are familiar, Holt still keeps it fresh and original.
If you want to see Holt doing what he does best then read this before 'Wish You Were Here'. In a way, it's a shame that these two books were put together. There is a real contrast between these two books. If you're a real Tom Holt fan then this is a good purchase as long as you don't expect too much from 'Wish You Were Here'. If you're new to Holt, then perhaps you would be better off looking at some of the other compilations or his newer books such as 'Portable Door'.
Phil Jones
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