汤姆·霍尔特

托马斯·查尔斯·路易斯·霍尔特（1961年9月13日－），英国小说家。除以本名创作外，他还以K·J·帕克为笔名创作奇幻小说。

生平

霍尔特生于伦敦，是小说家黑兹尔·霍尔特之子，曾就读于威斯敏斯特公学、牛津大学瓦德汉学院和伦敦法学院。在成为全职作家前，他曾在萨默塞特郡担任事务律师七年。

他的其中一部分作品属于新神话主义小说，以幽默新颖的方式戏仿或重构神话、历史和文学元素。他还以"托马斯·霍尔特"为名创作了多部历史小说。1989年与史蒂夫·纳隆合作撰写自传体讽刺小说《我，玛格丽特》，以玛格丽特·撒切尔为主角。

K·J·帕克

K·J·帕克是霍尔特创作奇幻小说时使用的笔名。该身份被成功保密17年，直至2015年4月才公之于众。

帕克的小说虽设定在架空世界，拥有虚构地理和历史，但回避了魔法等典型奇幻元素。其短篇小说则常探讨魔法及其引发的困境，多呈现角色因无意行为导致自我毁灭的悲剧主题。帕克作品的其他核心主题包括政治博弈、技术创新（特别是颠覆性创新），以及两者作为权力手段时的作用。

Thomas Charles Louis Holt (born 13 September 1961) is a British novelist. In addition to fiction published under his own name, he writes fantasy under the pseudonym K. J. Parker.

Biography

Holt was born in London, the son of novelist Hazel Holt, and was educated at Westminster School, Wadham College, Oxford, and The College of Law, London. He worked as a solicitor in Somerset for seven years before writing full-time.

His works include mythopoeic novels which parody or take as their theme various aspects of mythology, history, or literature and develop them in new and often humorous ways. He has also written a number of historical novels writing as Thomas Holt. Steve Nallon collaborated with Holt to write I, Margaret, a satirical autobiography of Margaret Thatcher published in 1989.

K. J. Parker

K. J. Parker is the pseudonym under which Holt has published fantasy fiction. Holt's assumed identity as K. J. Parker was kept secret for 17 years, until April 2015.

While Parker's stories take place in secondary worlds with fictional geographies and world history, some of the typical features of fantasy fiction such as explicit use of magic are not present in his novels. His short stories, on the other hand, frequently deal with magic and the problems it brings for sorcerers. The stories tend to have tragic themes with characters whose actions are unintentionally, ultimately self-destructive. Other major themes in the books are politics, technology (especially disruptive innovation), and either or both of the former as a means to power.

Selected awards and nominations

Finalist for the Crawford Award for his first fantasy novel, Expecting Someone Taller.

Winner of World Fantasy Award—Novella in 2012 and 2013 for A Small Price to Pay for Birdsong and Let Maps to Other, and nominated in 2014. Nominated for the 2016 World Fantasy Award—Novel for Savages.

Bibliography of Tom Holt

J.W. Wells & Co.

Featuring J.W. Wells & Co., the magic firm from The Sorcerer by Gilbert & Sullivan:

The Portable Door (2003), which features office politics with a magical twist. Made into a film by The Jim Henson Company and Story Bridge Films in 2023.

In Your Dreams (2004), in which the Fey use people's dreams to try to invade the world of humans.

Earth, Air, Fire, and Custard (2005).

You Don't Have to Be Evil to Work Here, But It Helps (2006).

The Better Mousetrap (2008).

May Contain Traces of Magic (2009), where a JWW travelling salesman breaks the rules and converses with his car's demonical navigation system.

Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Sausages (2011), subtitled A Comedy of Transdimensional Tomfoolery, with a genius pig, human chickens, and reality misfunctions.

The Eight Reindeer of the Apocalypse: A J. W. Wells Novel (2023)

YouSpace

Featuring YouSpace, a multiverse-based entertainment system, with doughnuts as portals:

Doughnut (2013), a disgraced physicist is bequeathed a very strange legacy.

When It's a Jar (2013), an ordinary fellow becomes a reluctant hero.

The Outsorcerer's Apprentice (2014), a fairy tale universe is exploited economically.

The Good, the Bad and the Smug (2015), Rumplestiltskin-based economies and Evil goes for a new, more appealing look.

Standalone humorous fantasy novels

Expecting Someone Taller (1987), based on the mythology of Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen.

Who's Afraid of Beowulf? (1988), based on Norse mythology and history.

Flying Dutch (1991), based on the story of the Flying Dutchman.

Ye Gods! (1992), based on elements of Greek mythology including a parody of Heracles.

Overtime (1993), based on the legend of Blondel combined with time travel.

Here Comes the Sun (1993), based loosely on the Celestial Bureaucracy reinterpreted along the lines of the British civil service.

Grailblazers (1994), based on Arthurian romance and the quest for the Holy Grail.

Faust Among Equals (1994), an imagined continuation of the story of Faust.

Odds & Gods (1995), which features assorted pantheons and their adventures after "retirement".

Djinn Rummy (1995), based on the antics of various bottle-trapped djinn along the lines of a modern Aladdin.