The badger thought he would be defeated by a big burly blonde German warrior, not nerdy little Malcolm Fisher in his beat-up car. He really was Expecting Someone Taller.

Tom Holt brings the cursed Rhine gold ring to modern-day England by way of Ingolf the giant, disguised as a lowly badger to escape the greedy hands of Wotan and his army of valkyries. Malcolm’s life is turned upside down when he runs over the talking badger, inherits the ring of power and unleashes the wrath of gods who all think the ring is rightfully theirs.

Holt is a fan of Wagner, who composed a whole series of operas called The Ring of the Nibelung. He’s also quite the comedian, and Expecting Someone Taller will make you laugh out loud (if you’re one of those people who laughs out loud).

Of course, when I think of Wagner’s viking operas, I have another funny image in my head. The song goes, “Kill the wabbit, kill the wabbit…” I think Holt just had a thing for rabbits and decided to kill a badger instead.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 26th, 2007 at 11:00 pm and is filed under UK and Ireland, fantasticalities. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.