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Read Flying Dutch (1993)

Flying Dutch (1993)

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Rating
3.81 of 5 Votes: 1
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ISBN
044124193X (ISBN13: 9780441241934)
Language
English
Publisher
ace

Flying Dutch (1993) - Plot & Excerpts

This book gives a different account of the fate of Vanderdecker, the Flying Dutchman, and his crew from that presented in Wagner's opera and other sources. Instead of being cursed by the Devil, they accidentally drink an elixir created by the alchemist Juan de Montalban, which makes them immortal but also gives them a smell so foul they have to remain at sea in order to avoid bothering people with it. The part about going ashore every seven years is true, however, as that's when the smell temporarily dissipates. In the modern era, an accountant named Jane Doland meets Vanderdecker, and learns that he took out a life insurance policy. It has since accrued so much money that any attempt to pay out the benefits would bankrupt the entire world economy. Montalban also shows up again, and I wondered if he was based on a real person, but the closest I can find to someone with his name is a writer named Juan Perez de Montalban. Anyway, Montalban has been pulling the strings of various governments for years, and was responsible for both the invention of the computer and the nuclear industry, all so he could figure out a way to combat the foul smell. Danny Bennett, a character from Who's Afraid of Beowulf?, appears in this book as well. That's actually the only other Holt book I've read so far, and I liked Flying Dutch better. It takes the same idea of the world of myth and legend meeting up with the modern world in a humorous way, but develops it better.

After reading "Barking," and "You Don't Have To Be Evil To Work Here" in my local bookstore, I started looking in the library system for Holt's earlier work. "Dutch" is, as the title implies, a story of the Flying Dutchman of Wagnerian opera, but with a few little twists showing what the composer got wrong. The story is set in modern times, and features a seriously disturbed if somehow still marginally functional crew and their captain that is miles away from Disney's "Pirates" version. Somehow, I greatly prefer Holt's telling! As in his other books, the wit is constant and acerbic, and features characters stuck in mind-numbing, spirit killing jobs much like the rest of us (the heroine is an accountant!) who are given a chance to rise above their professions and gain a slightly more interesting life. Holt is frequently compared on book jackets to Pratchett and Douglass Adams, and while his subject matter is more fantastical than Adam's sci-fi-oriented / absurdist "Hitchhiker" series and more mundane / modern than Pratchett's "Diskworld," I do think that lovers of either author may find a kindred spirit in Holt. Highly recommended.

What do You think about Flying Dutch (1993)?

Flying Dutch by Tom Holt is a very silly book about Julius Vanderdecker, captain of the legendary ghost ship known since Wagner as the Flying Dutchman. Indeed, Vanderdecker and crew have been sailing the oceans since the 17th century, but they are not ghosts, something they have come to regret, actually. Having accidentally imbibed an elixir that bestowed on them both immortality and a terrible body odor that only lets up for one month out of every seven years, they have been driven out to sea from every port in the world. Jane Doland, an accountant with a conveniently defective sense of smell, discovers evidence of a 400-year-old life insurance policy yet to be paid out, and we’re off on a silly voyage of British comedy and Tom Holt satire far too convoluted to describe in full.
—Judith

There are perils associated with immortality, but a horrible reeking stink was not one I expected. Still, that's the cost of living forever for the crew of the Flying Dutchmen. For all but one week every seven years, they smell so bad that they stay at sea. A junior accountant who is sent on a routine audit starts to dig at some old accounts, which leads to Old World economic conspiracies, the quiet inventor of every piece of significant technology since the 1400s (who was only looking for a good deodorant), and ratings-hungry BBC television producers chasing the scoop of the century. Also, a nuclear power plant blows up in Scotland. Good stuff all around.
—Leigh Terry

I love this book. I've loved it, in fact, for years and years--I probably first encountered it in my early teens, though I have no idea how. How does a teenage girl living in the rural south come across a british comic fantasy novel about a 16th century sea captain and his cursed crew? It's a mystery lost to the ages.But I came across a copy in a used bookstore recently and couldn't resist rereading it. It was actually more delightful than I remembered, though possibly because now I understand a great deal more of the inherent britishisms in it--pips, quid, eccles cake, the fascination with tea, etc. (Perhaps it set into place my weird lifelong anglophilia that was to follow?)I was disappointed to discover that a lot of people have given this bad ratings because of what seems to be a comparison to the works of Terry Pratchett. Well, I read this long before I discovered Pratchett, but I was surprised how well it has aged, and while all comic fantasy tends to get lumped together, this isn't really like the Discworld novels at all, so I consider it an unfair comparison. (Comparisons are odious, right?)So, yes, I would suggest this novel. It's perfect escapist reading, funny but with heart, and with a truly marvelous cast of characters that I want to spend more time with. What more can you ask for?
—Stephanie

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