Snow White and the Seven Samurai

It makes perfect sense that Snow White should live with seven samurai, once youve got the hang of Tom Holts latest twisted fantasy comedy. Youngsters from our real world hack into fairylands Mirrors operating system–which naturally runs on the wicked queens magic mirror–and crash it so disastrously that all the stories get tangled. A spaghetti-western Dwarf With No Name (actually hes Dumpy) is hired to save three little pigs from the big bad wolf by recruiting a Magnificent Seven Dwarves defence team, starting with Rumpelstiltskin and Tom Thumb but goingdownhill from there. Meanwhile, Fang the wolf has problems with Frog Prince transformations, Snow White learns from her own mirror that she has excellent wicked-queen potential and Baron Frankensteins latest unholy creation proves to be Pinocchio. We also meet three colour-blind mice, the Beast fleeing in terror from Beauty, an elf who insists shes an “Indigenous Fairylander” and the Grimm Brothers–unconvincingly claiming that theyre mere independent observers. After which, things become really complicated and silly, as Storyland is further fragmented by various mirror-users efforts to gain control, until it seems quite reasonable that one little pig should find himself saying, “I am not a number. I am a free pig.” Splendidly deranged entertainment, with quips galore. Holts in good form.?ÿ–David Langford. This review refers to the hardback edition