The Management Style of Supreme Beings, by Tom Holt

What if God decided to cash in and retire?  In The Management Style of Supreme Beings, God, after consulting with his son Jay, decides to sell out to the Venturi brothers, a sort of galactic holding company.  If this sounds like a silly set-up for a novel,  you're right.  If you think it sounds extremely blasphemous, well, it's all in good fun.  This is not a Christian novel, by any means, but I like to think even God might get a chuckle out of it.

Holt's characters include many we know, like God, Jay, the guy in the red suit at the North Pole (turns out he's a god of thunder), Uncle Gabe (the angel Gabriel), and, of course, the devil himself.  But the star of the show is Jay's little brother, Kevin, who lives in his famous brother's shadow and can't seem to do anything right.

The Venturis introduce a new cash-based moral code.  When you sin, a representative instantly appears and hands you a bill.  If you can't afford to pay the penalty, you wind up in their debtor's prison.  Needless to say, sinning (and crime) plummet, but people are miserable.  Kevin sets out to change things up, but not like his brother did.  Meanwhile, the red-suited guy isn't too happy with the current arrangement, either, and God and Jay question whether they should have retired in the first place.

Holt writes this as silly as you might expect, and has plenty of good lines that you might not expect.  Reflecting on the origin and current state of the world, Holt notes that "the eighth day, so legend has it, Dad, Jay, and Uncle Ghost spend hiding from the product liability lawyers."  Later, when Uncle Gabe is offering counsel to Kevin, he is offering parting words: "I was about to say, God be with you, but he's on Sinteraan [another planet where God is on a fishing trip with Jay], so you can forget that.  You're on your own now."  The book abounds with this sort of joke.

It's a romp, where the plot takes a back seat to the characters, and it's fun to read, even if it's rather shallow.  As a Christian, I felt a little bit like I should have been offended, but it is still pretty funny.


Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!