Tom Holt Books in Order

Brother Desiderius, a nervous monk and gifted forger, teams up with knife‑happy Sister Svangerd to attend a grand church council and quietly assassinate a troublesome princess. Heresy, forged documents and inconvenient resurrections turn a simple job into a theological nightmare.

In their next outing, Sister Svangerd and Desiderius find that surviving one mission for the Church only qualifies them for even worse ones. Navigating devils they know—both literal and institutional—they’re forced to decide how much faith they really have in their employers.

Announced as a further exploration of Parker’s long‑running world, this book promises a story about people who don’t just live through history but actively script it—raising the question of what, and who, gets sacrificed to make a neat narrative for future generations.

In this forthcoming novella, a commission involving a monument and a controversial memory draws its protagonist into conflicts over who controls history. As chisels bite and stories clash, it becomes clear that some versions of the past are literally carved to last.

A substantial collection of K. J. Parker stories, this volume gathers novellas and short fiction about angels, demons, scholars and swindlers. Taken together, they showcase his fascination with craft, theology and the sly ways people rationalise what they want to do anyway.

Christmas meets corporate apocalypse as a J. W. Wells–adjacent caper tangles Santa’s reindeer with magical contracts, end‑times prophecies and office politics. Expect festive chaos, arguing ungulates and an uncomfortable amount of responsibility resting on one overworked team.

Tired of war and corpses, Saevus plans one last job and a quiet retirement. To pull it off he has to tidy his past, settle scores and commit an elegant murder—tasks that prove far messier than any battlefield cleanup.

Saevus Corax runs a battlefield salvage outfit, stripping arms and armour from the newly dead. It’s nasty but profitable work—until a routine stop reveals that his past identity, and a claim to a throne, didn’t stay as buried as he hoped.

Looking after his crew forces Saevus into the one job he never wanted: leading a siege. With no respect for conventional heroics, he relies on scams, shortcuts and a talent for improvisation to take a fortress while keeping as many of his people alive as possible.

Set in the same crooked world of theology and deals, this novella follows a character playing an extended con that spans decades, rival churches and infernal contracts. Every short‑term compromise feeds into a plan whose end only the protagonist truly understands.

A theology student with heavy gambling debts is told his grandfather once stole and imprisoned an angel. To avoid losing body parts, he must find the creature, prove the story and face the possibility that his entire understanding of God and free will is wrong.

A gifted bookbinder is hired to copy a forbidden treatise that could undermine the very idea of Truth. Deciding whether to reproduce, destroy or exploit the work forces him into a quiet, dangerous argument with censors, patrons and his own conscience.

A gifted translator and diplomat finds himself brokering peace—and then empire‑reshaping conquest—among warring powers. His knack for languages and compromise makes him indispensable, but also leaves him uncomfortably aware of the human cost behind tidy treaties and grand strategies.

Having once again faked his own death, Saloninus is persuaded by an old partner to attempt a perfect literary con: forging a "lost" masterpiece by himself. Selling new work as a posthumous rarity proves lucrative, until questions about art, ownership and honesty complicate the scam.

A former duke of Hell, now downgraded to a low‑key tempter distracting monks, is dragged into a plot that may upend the rules of Good and Evil. Trapped with a sadistic exorcist and bureaucratic superiors, he finds that even demons can be in over their heads.

A nameless exorcist, brutally efficient and not much interested in collateral damage, is sent to deal with a demon possessing the scholar Prosper of Schanz. When he realises Prosper is raising a supposed philosopher‑king, the moral arithmetic of his job becomes far murkier.

Notker, an actor and impressionist, is hired to impersonate a dead war hero in a city under siege. As he stumbles into real power, he has to balance propaganda, survival and conscience, all while knowing he’s playing a role that could get him killed.

When the capital’s army is annihilated and its rulers flee, bridge‑building engineer Orhan finds himself in charge of saving a city with no soldiers, no supplies and an unstoppable enemy. His defence relies on lies, improvisation and a talent for making do.

On his deathbed, an unnamed narrator looks back on a life steered by his older brother Nico from peasant poverty to the heart of imperial power. As he recalls compromises, crimes and coups, he struggles with how much of his beautiful life was really his own choice.

In a world that looks suspiciously like a role‑playing game, one orc wants a quiet life rather than endless quests and battles. Unfortunately, prophecies, adventurers and management have other ideas, and he’s forced into a very reluctant brush with heroism.

Bringing together a dozen novellas and stories, The Father of Lies offers a tour of Parker’s darker fantasies: devils striking bargains, gods with legal departments, and mortals who discover that getting exactly what they asked for can be the worst outcome of all.

Continuing the mosaic narrative, Volume Two widens the lens to include courtiers, quartermasters and members of a secretive Lodge whose card‑based rituals nudge history. Alliances twist, fronts shift and the reasons for the war grow ever more obscure to those fighting it.

The final volume draws together the many strands of the war between East and West. Long‑planned operations collide with luck, betrayal and exhaustion as soldiers and schemers alike discover what the struggle has really been about—and what victory could possibly mean.

This volume opens a sweeping civil‑war saga in a divided empire. From a farm boy drafted as an archer to a lethal agent named Telamon, shifting viewpoints show how a feud between two brilliant generals has trapped ordinary people in an endless, senseless conflict.

God and His son decide to sell the business of running the universe to a slick management team. When the new owners introduce performance targets, branding and ruthless efficiency, an ordinary family on Earth discovers what happens when creation is run like a franchise.

This collection volume brings together novellas and stories about words as weapons: contracts that damn, books that reshape belief, and storytellers whose work has sharper consequences than expected. It’s a compact tour of Parker’s preoccupation with language and power.

Old, ill and out of options, Saloninus strikes a bargain with a devil for more life. Both sides fully expect to cheat the other, and the resulting duel of loopholes, philosophy and legalese is as much about identity as it is about damnation.

Part of the shared anthology Five Stories High, this novella follows a character linked to a peculiar house whose rooms distort time, memory and identity. The “priest’s hole” at its heart hides secrets that refuse to stay safely walled up.

A somewhat bored goddess is forced, against her better judgment, to grant a reprieve to a mortal she would prefer to see dead. Saddled with an errand she doesn’t believe in, she discovers that meddling with fate is harder—and funnier—than it looks from on high.

The narrator has one magical talent: he can remove memories from other people and store them in his own mind. After a career erasing awkward truths for the powerful, he’s drowning in other lives—and some clients will kill to control what he remembers.

Evil has rebranded. In a fairytale economy run on exploitation and clever PR, an ambitious goblin executive tries to make villainy more marketable. Heroes, dragons and downtrodden henchfolk get dragged into a satirical struggle over what “good” and “evil” even mean.

An unnamed man wakes to find his life destroyed and reinvents himself in an empire permanently on the brink of war. As his path crosses that of a pacifist arms‑maker, a brilliant general, a forger and a counterfeiter, shifting identities drive a sprawling tale of conquest.

A trainee wizard discovers that the fairytale kingdom he works in has quietly been outsourced to a modern corporation. As cost‑cutting and management initiatives overhaul magic, princes, witches and villains alike find their traditional roles under threat.

An obsessive scholar of a half‑mythical country uncovers a lost account of its discovery and sets a powerful duke dreaming of new conquests. As expeditions are planned and motives tangled, questions about exploration, ownership and stories themselves come sharply into focus.

Maurice has just accidentally killed a dragon with a bread knife and stepped into a reality where heroics are mandatory. Guided by a mysterious jar and an alarming sense of déjà vu, he blunders through quests, battlefields and parallel worlds he never asked for.

Lucia’s hunger for status leads her into the orbit of minor royalty and foreign dignitaries. When a social misstep threatens to become an international embarrassment, she must deploy all her charm and brass to turn a looming scandal into another personal triumph.

When physicist Theo Bernstein inherits a bizarre legacy from his late mentor, he gains access to a doughnut‑shaped hole in reality that leads to countless alternate universes. Corporate interests, baffled relatives and malfunctioning physics soon make staying in one world look impossible.

A motley fencing team from one nation is sent on tour to a recent enemy state as a gesture of goodwill. Officially they’re athletes; unofficially they’re supposed to help prevent another war. Unfortunately, nobody has told their hosts to play along.

Lucia, now firmly established in social supremacy, takes her ambitions abroad. On an Italian holiday she juggles new acquaintances, old feuds and the challenge of maintaining her carefully curated image far from Tilling’s familiar battlegrounds.

On a distant colony world, the wealthy Gignomai family rules a backwater settlement with casual brutality. Youngest son Gignomai turns his talent for making things into a long, secret plan that involves guns, foundries and the careful reordering of an entire society.

Polly, a real‑estate solicitor, notices her coffee vanishing, her work doing itself and even her dry cleaner’s disappearing. Her brother Don acquires a ring that twists reality, and soon pigs, chickens and parallel worlds are tangled in a farcical battle over who controls the universe.

Basso, First Citizen of the Vesani Republic, has turned his city into a thriving commercial power through charm, nerve and ruthless calculation. When one rare mistake sets off a chain of disaster, he has to decide what, if anything, he can still save.

Saloninus, alchemist and occasional murderer, cheerfully admits to poisoning his wife and discovering how to turn lead into gold. As he narrates his attempts to flee execution, every anecdote raises new doubts about what really happened and what he wants the reader to believe.

On a distant planet, a race of intelligent dogs decides to destroy Earth because humans keep playing their music too loud. As their super‑weapon crosses space, misunderstandings, artificial intelligences and human oddities complicate what should have been a simple extermination.

Told entirely in letters, this novella traces the correspondence between reluctant emperor Nicephorus and his friend Phormio, sent to govern a rebellious province. Official dispatches in purple ink and personal notes in black chart friendship, war and the quiet corrosion of power.

Sales rep Chris Popham chats to the satnav in his company car, only to discover the navigation system contains an imprisoned demon. Once it starts talking back, he’s pulled into a struggle between occult regulations, rogue entities and dangerously enchanted consumer products.

Years after the war, five veterans and their former commander Kunessin decide to cash in an old promise: they’ll settle together on a remote island and build a small republic. Supplies, spouses and plans are arranged—then the discovery of gold changes everything.

Frank Carpenter owns a Portable Door and uses it for a neat insurance scam: he travels back in time to stop disasters before they happen. When things go predictably wrong, he and the people around him discover that rewriting history is a very risky business model.

Returning to E. F. Benson’s world, this novel shifts the spotlight to blustering Major Benjy Flint. Schemes, social manoeuvres and seaside gossip in Tilling continue as the Major blunders through financial scrapes, romantic tangles and the unstoppable force of Lucia.

As Ziani’s designs reach their final phase, his carefully built engine of war threatens to destroy far more than the city that exiled him. Old loyalties, family ties and the limits of foresight all snap under pressure in this conclusion to the Engineer trilogy.

Duncan is a not‑very‑good London lawyer whose friends are, inconveniently, werewolves and vampires. When he’s dragged into their tangled affairs, he discovers that supernatural packs, ex‑wives and unicorns can all be at least as terrifying as litigation.

Colin Hollinghead’s father plans to save their failing widget business by signing a very favourable labour deal—with Hell. As demonic fine print threatens to swallow the company, Colin turns to his dubious contacts at J. W. Wells & Co. for help.

Written for a quick‑read programme, this short, tense fantasy follows a professional hunter who has finally trapped one of the mysterious creatures preying on humans. In the dark beneath the earth, predator and prey face each other, and only one will come out alive.

Ziani’s long game draws Mezentia’s neighbours into a brutal war they think they understand. Dukes, queens and soldiers pursue their own tangled aims, unaware how deeply they’re enmeshed in one man’s engineering of disaster—and how high the eventual bill will be.

In 1037, a Byzantine official escorting the army payroll listens to two Viking guardsmen tell of a forgotten expedition west to a strange new land. Years later he records their tale, linking the Norse discovery of America to the rise of King Harald Hardrada.

Back in the world of J. W. Wells & Co., the elemental departments are misbehaving and reality is starting to leak at the edges. Junior staff must juggle office politics, eldritch hazards and a suspicious amount of custard to keep the company—and the world—intact.

Engineer Ziani Vaatzes is sentenced to death by his guild for tinkering with a supposedly perfect design. Escaping to a rival nation, he begins to construct an elaborate revenge that uses armies, politics and human relationships as carefully as any machine.

Tall Stories collects the novels Expecting Someone Taller and Ye Gods! in one binding, pairing Holt’s Wagner‑inspired farce with his Greek‑myth family comedy. It’s a handy introduction to his early, big‑idea comic fantasies.

An omnibus that brings together two of Holt’s mid‑career comic fantasies, Saints and Sinners lets readers enjoy connected tales of angels, demons and modern mortals in a single hefty volume.

Back at J. W. Wells & Co., Paul finds that the firm’s latest project involves exploiting people’s dreams as a route for the fair folk to infiltrate reality. Keeping his job, his sanity and his relationship with Sophie intact may require rewriting the small print.

This omnibus volume bundles several of Holt’s novels into a single doorstop, offering two long evenings’ worth of comic fantasy. It’s aimed at readers who want to binge his brand of myth‑twisting humour and contemporary absurdity without hunting individual titles.

Fishy Wishes packages the novels Wish You Were Here and Djinn Rummy, giving readers a two‑for‑one set of Holt’s reality‑bending comedies about wish‑granting lakes, restless spirits and the awkward consequences of getting exactly what you asked for.

History says Emperor Nero died in a ditch; Holt imagines that a double took his place while the real Nero slipped away as a street musician. On the run through a changing empire, the supposed monster gets an uneasy chance to hear his own legend.

Nervous graduate Paul Carpenter lands a job at mysterious firm J. W. Wells & Co. and quickly realises the company specialises in magic, not accountancy. As he and fellow intern Sophie hunt a missing door that opens anywhere, office life turns dangerously surreal.

Back on his native island, Poldarn finally uncovers the tangled, unpleasant truth of who he was before the battlefield. As dreams, rumours and hard facts converge, he has to decide whether living with his recovered memories is possible—or safe for anyone around him.

Collecting a pair of comic novels in one binding, The Divine Comedies showcases Holt’s fondness for celestial paperwork, demonic loopholes and mortals caught between Heaven and Hell. It’s a convenient doorway into his more overtly theological farces.

Still unsure of his true identity, Poldarn travels through a war‑torn land chasing hints from dreams and half‑remembered faces. Invisible enemies and old alliances shadow his steps as he returns toward the island he thinks might once have been home.

An omnibus volume pairing two of Holt’s comic fantasies, this book lets readers enjoy linked tales about the power of words, bureaucracy and magic. It’s ideal if you want a generous slice of his humour without tracking down individual editions.

Michael saw an elf once as a child and never quite got over it. Years later he discovers that his unpleasant stepfather has been exploiting real elves in a shoe factory, and that the “little people” have very definite views on payback and freedom.

Computer programmer David Perkins has uncovered a theory that humanity’s rise to civilisation was engineered by a secret cabal of immortal frogs. Unfortunately the frogs would prefer to keep that quiet, and reality itself seems ready to warp to shut him up.

This collection gathers shorter comic pieces and parodies from Tom Holt’s early career, circling Norse sagas, Beowulf and other heroic material. It’s a playful companion to his full‑length myth‑based novels, full of sideways jokes about warriors, bards and destiny.

A man wakes among corpses on a battlefield with no memory of who he is. Taking the name Poldarn, he tries to piece together his past while everyone who recognises him either flees or attacks, suggesting his former life was anything but harmless.

Karen, a Chinese dragon responsible for weather patterns, falls in love with a human and disguises herself to live among mortals. When her formidable father and the Dragon King’s bureaucracy come searching, the British climate—and Karen’s romance—veer wildly out of control.

In Holt’s version of the afterlife, Valhalla has diversified into a sprawling corporation handling dead heroes. When former cocktail waitress Carol Kortright turns up in the hall of the slain and refuses to play along, she exposes just how rickety the whole operation has become.

Years after Perimadeia’s fall, Bardas Loredan works at a remote testing ground where weapons are certified and old grudges smoulder. As past choices and unfinished wars catch up with him, he’s forced into one last attempt to set things right—or at least survivable.

Set around the first recorded Olympic Games in 776 BC, this historical comedy follows a group of schemers, athletes and officials whose ambitions vastly outweigh their competence. As myths accrete around them, Holt plays with how history is made, remembered and conveniently rewritten.

An omnibus volume that brings together two of Tom Holt’s early comic fantasies, giving readers a double dose of his myth‑bending humour in a single book. It’s a convenient way to sample his blend of folklore, farce and rapid‑fire jokes.

Exiled from Perimadeia, Bardas Loredan becomes commander of a besieging army instead of a defender. Archers, engineers and political exiles all have their own agendas as the struggle for the city continues far from its famous walls.

A group of human hackers meddle with the wicked queen’s magic mirror system, crashing the operating software that keeps Fairyland running. Nursery‑rhyme characters, fairy‑tale plots and computer errors tangle into chaos as everyone scrambles for a new happily‑ever‑after.

When the machinery of the afterlife glitches, souls start turning up in the wrong bodies and Heaven’s staff scramble to cover it up. Meanwhile on Earth, an ordinary man begins to suspect that his sudden change of fortunes isn’t entirely natural.

Euxenus, a cynical philosopher and grandson of Eupolis, recounts how a piece of theatrical trickery landed him a post at the Macedonian court. Tasked with advising young Alexander, he watches conquest, politics and legend grow from the sidelines—and occasionally nudges them himself.

Lake Chicopee grants wishes instead of drowning its victims, thanks to a bored local ghost. When holiday‑maker Wesley Higgins falls in and gets exactly what he thinks he wants, he discovers that wish fulfilment comes with fine print, side effects and cosmic workload issues.

An assortment of shorter pieces, commentary and curiosities from Tom Holt, this volume showcases his off‑beat humour outside the main run of novels. It offers glimpses of unfinished ideas, playful experiments and the skewed angles he brings to history and fantasy.

In the Triple City of Perimadeia, weary fencer‑at‑law Bardas Loredan wins a case that earns him a curse just as enemies prepare a once‑impossible siege. Legal sword‑duels, swordsmithing and slow, grinding war collide in this opening to the Fencer trilogy.

An innocent‑looking antique shop hides doors into stories, legends and other awkward places. When an unsuspecting customer stumbles into this network of narrative shortcuts, he finds himself dodging thieves, djinns and the literal consequences of saying the magic words.

This collection gathers Tom Holt’s parody lyrics and filk songs, riffing on well‑known tunes, books and genre tropes. It’s a snapshot of his sillier side: wordplay, pastiche and affectionate mockery aimed at everything from folk ballads to science fiction classics.

Sculptor Bianca Wilson’s commission of St George and the Dragon unexpectedly comes to life, reigniting an ancient feud. As saint and dragon resume their argument over good, evil and who cheated whom, Heaven and Hell look suspiciously like badly run bureaucracies.

Novelist Jane Helliwell’s fictional barbarian hero literally bursts out of her manuscript into real life, bringing his sword, his enemies and his complete lack of social skills. Keeping him out of trouble—and herself out of a breakdown—turns out to be harder than plotting an adventure.

Lesser deities, long past their prime, are living out retirement in a divine rest home. When management proposes rationalising the pantheon, these small gods must prove they still matter—or at least cause enough trouble to avoid being tidied away.

A high‑tech company’s experimental software accidentally entangles modern London with the world of genies and wish‑fulfilment. As computer systems, ancient spirits and human greed interact, a handful of ordinary people discover how dangerous three wishes can really be.

Centuries after the Quest, the Holy Grail is still missing and the original knights are bored, underemployed and running a pizza franchise. When a financial outfit from Atlantis threatens cosmic bankruptcy, the old heroes are dragged back into business.

Hell has gone corporate, and Mephistopheles is under pressure to hit his sales targets. When a long‑expired contract resurfaces and Earth’s bureaucracy tangles with infernal small print, a farcical struggle breaks out over who actually owns one particularly troublesome soul.

When Father Christmas goes missing and the machinery of Time starts to slip, a weary junior employee finds himself trying to keep the whole system running. Medieval legends, time travel and bureaucratic chaos collide in this brisk comic fantasy.

The universe is run like a creaky civil service, and the Sun itself is starting to break down. When celestial machinery begins to fail, a mortal management trainee named Jane is brought in to modernise operations before reality grinds to a halt.

Jason Derry just wants a normal life, but it’s hard when your mum’s a housewife and your dad is actually Jupiter, king of the gods. As sulking Olympians plot a comeback and parallel universes beckon, Jason finds himself dragged into a very reluctant hero’s journey.

The legendary captain of the Flying Dutchman and his crew were never cursed by the Devil—they were the victims of a botched alchemical experiment that made them immortal and unbearably smelly. As compound interest and modern finance catch up, the whole world’s economy is at risk.

In this sequel to Goatsong, comic dramatist Eupolis recounts Athens’ disastrous Sicilian expedition and its slide toward defeat. Between feuds with Aristophanes, a fractious marriage and treason charges, he watches his beloved city squander its ideals in war.

Young goatherd Eupolis is dragged from the hills into golden‑age Athens, where he stumbles into playwriting, politics and the early days of the Peloponnesian War. His sardonic account slices through the glamour of classical history with jokes, grudges and battlefield mud.

Archaeologist Hildy Frederiksen uncovers a Viking burial ship in Scotland and discovers its warriors weren’t dead—just sleeping. Now awakened into the late twentieth century, the baffled Norse heroes drag Hildy into their unfinished battle with an ancient sorcerer king.

After accidentally killing what appears to be a badger, unremarkable Malcolm Fisher inherits the Ring of the Nibelung, a magical helmet and legal title to rule the world. Unfortunately, the Norse gods and assorted immortals want their property back.

Lucia’s ambitions reach new heights as she manoeuvres for status, property and influence in post‑war Tilling. Old rivals, new fashions and shifting class lines all offer chances for both triumph and embarrassment in this continuation of Benson’s comedy of manners.

Picking up E. F. Benson’s saga, this novel finds Emmeline “Lucia” Pillson scheming and presiding over Tilling as the Second World War reshapes village life. Blackouts, rationing and evacuees become just more material for social one‑upmanship.