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 Customer Reviews
sell your soul to the rock and roll, 21 Sep 2008
latest novel from robert rankin, a writer best described as the english spike milligan. his novels are real world set, usually in brentford, and are highly inventive comic fantasies.
If you've never encountered his work before then this isn't probably the best place to start, as whilst you could get into it quite easily some recurring characters and themes do crop up. start instead with his novel the antipope, which is a good book to see whether or not his style is for you.
the book is about jonny hooker, a young man living in london who still has an imaginary friend despite being 27, as the friend refuses to go away. he gets a flyer saying he's won a competetion. investigating this further leads him into a tangled web of conspiraces, secret societies, celebrities, time travelling sprouts, and murder.
the usual rankin style, then.
whilst this does go over old ground to some extent, it's a return to form after two rather disappointing novels. funny, surreal, fourth wall breaking, and with lots of very interesting trivia, it's a fun read if you're a long term fan of his work up to his normal standard.
the book runs for 345 pages, and ends with a short note listing how to download music by robert rankin that acts as a soundtrack to it.
A difficult review to write, 16 Mar 2008
I've been a Rankin fan ever since I read 'The Antipope' in the 1980s, and I've got everything he's written, mostly first editions. Until now, I've never had a problem recommending any of his books to people who enjoy humorous writing. But this one doesn't deliver the Rankin magic, somehow. It's all there - the heroic hero, the strangely formal dialogue, the wacky wander through alternative history, the end of the world, the rock and roll, the running gags...
Like a cake that didn't rise properly, this has all the right ingredients, but somehow the whole conspires to be less than the sum of its parts. I think my biggest criticism is the problems with plot and continuity that Rankin self-referentially turns into jokes. Once or twice in a book, this is charming and makes you feel you're being let in on a secret joke. When it's done every chapter, it feels like lazy plotting, or a wish to avoid extensive redrafting.
Of course, no Rankin is write off and there is much here to celebrate and chortle at. But it's a pale substitute for one of the Rankin 'Golden Age' novels.
The Review, 02 Jan 2008
It would be more like 2.5 stars having said that I thought it was much better than The Toyminator and shaded The Brightonomicon. Its just that its nothing we haven't read before, but I suppose you read Rankin because you like his style. Try Small Mercy, its Rankinesque
Rankin Delivers?, 07 Dec 2007
Ive been a fan of Rankins for years now and have written a novel called Deathday (check it out right here on Amazon!) and kindly some folk have likened me to Rankin but i hope not to this one...Unfortunately this is a little tired, he's tried to break away from his own unique formula but it hasn't worked...then again the mans a genius with more than 20 books to his name so who the hell am i to critisize! by the way DEATHDAY by Eugene Bruce Go on, you're already here!!
Not Roberts best, 19 Sep 2007
Ok, Robert Rankin is getting well known for his different take on the comedic tale that has become popular through the likes of Terry Pratchett and Tom Holt, however that said, to be honest I felt that this book was a let down and preferred others of his such as "Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse" and "The Toyminator." Whilst these two do prove that Robert is a great writer it really does come as a shock when another one of his novels just doesn't hit that itch that you've had.
As to why this book just didn't do a thing for me I suspect that a big part of that was due to me being unable to form a bond with the protagonist and as such really did make this a heavy slog. I disliked him and he seemed disjointed and rather unfunctional as a protagonist, which really did cling to my perception throughout the whole tale. If I were to have to recommend one of Robert's books to a new reader, others rank higher than this and I do hope that future books return to a more conventional form that works for him.
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Customer Reviews
sell your soul to the rock and roll, 21 Sep 2008
latest novel from robert rankin, a writer best described as the english spike milligan. his novels are real world set, usually in brentford, and are highly inventive comic fantasies.
If you've never encountered his work before then this isn't probably the best place to start, as whilst you could get into it quite easily some recurring characters and themes do crop up. start instead with his novel the antipope, which is a good book to see whether or not his style is for you.
the book is about jonny hooker, a young man living in london who still has an imaginary friend despite being 27, as the friend refuses to go away. he gets a flyer saying he's won a competetion. investigating this further leads him into a tangled web of conspiraces, secret societies, celebrities, time travelling sprouts, and murder.
the usual rankin style, then.
whilst this does go over old ground to some extent, it's a return to form after two rather disappointing novels. funny, surreal, fourth wall breaking, and with lots of very interesting trivia, it's a fun read if you're a long term fan of his work up to his normal standard.
the book runs for 345 pages, and ends with a short note listing how to download music by robert rankin that acts as a soundtrack to it.
A difficult review to write, 16 Mar 2008
I've been a Rankin fan ever since I read 'The Antipope' in the 1980s, and I've got everything he's written, mostly first editions. Until now, I've never had a problem recommending any of his books to people who enjoy humorous writing. But this one doesn't deliver the Rankin magic, somehow. It's all there - the heroic hero, the strangely formal dialogue, the wacky wander through alternative history, the end of the world, the rock and roll, the running gags...
Like a cake that didn't rise properly, this has all the right ingredients, but somehow the whole conspires to be less than the sum of its parts. I think my biggest criticism is the problems with plot and continuity that Rankin self-referentially turns into jokes. Once or twice in a book, this is charming and makes you feel you're being let in on a secret joke. When it's done every chapter, it feels like lazy plotting, or a wish to avoid extensive redrafting.
Of course, no Rankin is write off and there is much here to celebrate and chortle at. But it's a pale substitute for one of the Rankin 'Golden Age' novels. The Review, 02 Jan 2008
It would be more like 2.5 stars having said that I thought it was much better than The Toyminator and shaded The Brightonomicon. Its just that its nothing we haven't read before, but I suppose you read Rankin because you like his style. Try Small Mercy, its Rankinesque Rankin Delivers?, 07 Dec 2007
Ive been a fan of Rankins for years now and have written a novel called Deathday (check it out right here on Amazon!) and kindly some folk have likened me to Rankin but i hope not to this one...Unfortunately this is a little tired, he's tried to break away from his own unique formula but it hasn't worked...then again the mans a genius with more than 20 books to his name so who the hell am i to critisize! by the way DEATHDAY by Eugene Bruce Go on, you're already here!! Not Roberts best, 19 Sep 2007
Ok, Robert Rankin is getting well known for his different take on the comedic tale that has become popular through the likes of Terry Pratchett and Tom Holt, however that said, to be honest I felt that this book was a let down and preferred others of his such as "Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse" and "The Toyminator." Whilst these two do prove that Robert is a great writer it really does come as a shock when another one of his novels just doesn't hit that itch that you've had.
As to why this book just didn't do a thing for me I suspect that a big part of that was due to me being unable to form a bond with the protagonist and as such really did make this a heavy slog. I disliked him and he seemed disjointed and rather unfunctional as a protagonist, which really did cling to my perception throughout the whole tale. If I were to have to recommend one of Robert's books to a new reader, others rank higher than this and I do hope that future books return to a more conventional form that works for him.
THE BIG AUDIO ANTIPOPE, 10 Feb 2008
I hadn't realised just how good a writer Robert Rankin was until I heard this wonderful dramatisation back in 2003. The Audio Antipope is an eight-CD set, running to a little under ten hours, bravely complete and unabridged. Full cast list included after the review here...
I had previously read and loved some of the later Brentford novels, of course, but nothing in fact from the seminal pair of volumes that started it all. I specifically link 'The Antipope' and 'The Brentford Triangle' in this way, of course, for two startlingly good reasons. First, about one-third of the 'Antipope' ms had to be culled before Pan would publish it, and much of this material found its way into the sequel. Second, this abundence of preparation, combined with Robert taking the opportunity to write around-the-clock (as opposed to several months part-time) meant that the sequel was practically finished in about three weeks. And I now know what he means when he says that, once they are let loose, Messrs. Pooley and Omally and their contemporaries usually 'write themselves'. There is little sense here of pain in the composition, only (quite rightly) pain in the experiences of the characters themselves, as they are carried along only semi-voluntarily in a flood of unnatural events that at first glance belong in Brentford like a herd of rhino belong in the English National Ballet. Stranger things have surely never happened.
Pooley and Omally are a delightful pair of cowardly, malingering dipsomaniacs loosely based on the author himself and an old schoolfriend of his. I pass no judgement on the matter. The characters around them all have something of the night, even if the night in question is just a typical one at Brentford's Flying Swan public house once the blinds and bolts are down, for they are all of the author's real-life acquaintance, athough Norman's shop is in truth not so Norman's as it was twenty-odd years ago, and I use the term 'real-life' purely for the sake of brevity. Precis? The lads team up with the aged and kindly local enigma that is Professor Slocombe to fight the ancient evil that befalls their Borough. They drink, are intrigued, drink, make enquiries, drink, get into trouble, drink, get distracted, drink, fight, run away, drink some more and fight some more and finally meet the end of the novel where they pop off for a quick drink in readiness for the next one.
As Director and Co-Producer, not to mention uncredited cast member, extra and (most importantly) Editor, the remarkable Phil Viner has achieved here something that makes your typical audio book sound like canal mud drying. The casting is strong and performances thoroughly professional, right down to some wonderful little cameos by friends old and new. Greenhalgh, Crowe and Gooderson are believable as Pooley, Omally and Slocombe, while Murchie and Campbell make a suitably deranged Neville and Archroy when required, and special credit has to go to Harry Myers for bringing the title character to life without stifling his theatricality.
Under Viner's direction, the author himself has been thoroughly whipped into shape as a starring narrator. Robert's son William's music is a revelation, matching the moods of many scenes and building atmosphere beyond the reach of most radio productions. And Robert's then-partner Sally performs perfectly alongside Robinson, as brewery salesgirls Sandra and Mandy, among others (if you haven't heard of Lucy Robinson yet, buy a bloody television). This is marvellous late-night listening, that would be Radio 4's 'Book at Bedtime' for an entire month if the BBC management weren't still a load of talentless inbreds.
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DETAIL:
Starring
Andy Greenhalgh as Jim Pooley
Ben Crowe as John Omally
Robert Rankin as The Narrator
With
Nick Murchie as Neville
Colin Campbell as Archroy
David Gooderson as Professor Slocombe
Harry Myers as [Pope Alexander VI]
Sally Hurst as Sandra
Lucy Robinson (Pride & Prejudice, Emma, lots of telly) as Mandy
Directed by award-winner Phil Viner.
Produced by Jools Viner and Phil Viner.
"All other parts are played by members of the cast", although Norman was clearly one of those played by the Producer-Director himself.
Original music composed and performed by William Rankin.
Reprobates of the world UNITE!, 04 Feb 2008
You have nothing to loose but your shillings!
Came across this looking for an alternative to El Prat - and not disappointed.
A bit of a mix between fantasy and horror - twinges of King in there: And the sort of tramp you'd expect to find in waiting for Godot.
Not a belly laugh but certainly amusing - especially when you get to my age and start identifying with some of the more reprobate characters! Omally and his friend, Pooley, lead the sort of drunken existence that is the dream of many respectable males but which is impossible to sustain without serious damage to ones health and family.
Be warned though: Pre-decimalisation money (and I loved it). enjoyable, but not fully engaging, 14 Mar 2007
This is the first of this author's books I have read and I did find that it took a while to get into it. there are a lot of characters, and to start with, it's a bit hard to keep track of them, but as the book progresses the focus seems to become sharper, and the storyline stronger, and the book really gets into it's stride.
The characterisations are great, and it does contain one of the funniest sequences I have ever read (Wild West night). Having read some of the other comments I would be interested to read some of his more recent books. Making Normal Weird, 03 Jan 2005
The first book in the -arguably - five book series. We follow the lives of a range of Brentonians over a period of time that their way of life is under threat from a power crazed lunatic. Between them they have a range of bizarre adventures, mostly just outside the law and all completely hilarious, in their quest to destroy this threat. Throughout this book I got the sense that every character (save from the reincarnation of an evil power craved pope and his weird squat henchmen) was a normal person, with normal character traits. But the way in which Rankin manifests those traits in the story and the magic they create makes the characters much more than normal - eccentric, weird and lovable! I think you have to concentrate at times to keep up with which character is who and what the hell they have been doing, but thats part of the fun! Ive started the second one!
A life changing experience!, 10 May 2001
As a part-time barman myself, I thought I knew all there was to know about working in a pub in Brentford. Thank you Robert Rankin for changing my view of the world forever. Read Rankin and have your worldsphere distorted into the most insane, witty but mostly fun place you can possibly imagine!
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Customer Reviews
sell your soul to the rock and roll, 21 Sep 2008
latest novel from robert rankin, a writer best described as the english spike milligan. his novels are real world set, usually in brentford, and are highly inventive comic fantasies.
If you've never encountered his work before then this isn't probably the best place to start, as whilst you could get into it quite easily some recurring characters and themes do crop up. start instead with his novel the antipope, which is a good book to see whether or not his style is for you.
the book is about jonny hooker, a young man living in london who still has an imaginary friend despite being 27, as the friend refuses to go away. he gets a flyer saying he's won a competetion. investigating this further leads him into a tangled web of conspiraces, secret societies, celebrities, time travelling sprouts, and murder.
the usual rankin style, then.
whilst this does go over old ground to some extent, it's a return to form after two rather disappointing novels. funny, surreal, fourth wall breaking, and with lots of very interesting trivia, it's a fun read if you're a long term fan of his work up to his normal standard.
the book runs for 345 pages, and ends with a short note listing how to download music by robert rankin that acts as a soundtrack to it.
A difficult review to write, 16 Mar 2008
I've been a Rankin fan ever since I read 'The Antipope' in the 1980s, and I've got everything he's written, mostly first editions. Until now, I've never had a problem recommending any of his books to people who enjoy humorous writing. But this one doesn't deliver the Rankin magic, somehow. It's all there - the heroic hero, the strangely formal dialogue, the wacky wander through alternative history, the end of the world, the rock and roll, the running gags...
Like a cake that didn't rise properly, this has all the right ingredients, but somehow the whole conspires to be less than the sum of its parts. I think my biggest criticism is the problems with plot and continuity that Rankin self-referentially turns into jokes. Once or twice in a book, this is charming and makes you feel you're being let in on a secret joke. When it's done every chapter, it feels like lazy plotting, or a wish to avoid extensive redrafting.
Of course, no Rankin is write off and there is much here to celebrate and chortle at. But it's a pale substitute for one of the Rankin 'Golden Age' novels. The Review, 02 Jan 2008
It would be more like 2.5 stars having said that I thought it was much better than The Toyminator and shaded The Brightonomicon. Its just that its nothing we haven't read before, but I suppose you read Rankin because you like his style. Try Small Mercy, its Rankinesque Rankin Delivers?, 07 Dec 2007
Ive been a fan of Rankins for years now and have written a novel called Deathday (check it out right here on Amazon!) and kindly some folk have likened me to Rankin but i hope not to this one...Unfortunately this is a little tired, he's tried to break away from his own unique formula but it hasn't worked...then again the mans a genius with more than 20 books to his name so who the hell am i to critisize! by the way DEATHDAY by Eugene Bruce Go on, you're already here!! Not Roberts best, 19 Sep 2007
Ok, Robert Rankin is getting well known for his different take on the comedic tale that has become popular through the likes of Terry Pratchett and Tom Holt, however that said, to be honest I felt that this book was a let down and preferred others of his such as "Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse" and "The Toyminator." Whilst these two do prove that Robert is a great writer it really does come as a shock when another one of his novels just doesn't hit that itch that you've had.
As to why this book just didn't do a thing for me I suspect that a big part of that was due to me being unable to form a bond with the protagonist and as such really did make this a heavy slog. I disliked him and he seemed disjointed and rather unfunctional as a protagonist, which really did cling to my perception throughout the whole tale. If I were to have to recommend one of Robert's books to a new reader, others rank higher than this and I do hope that future books return to a more conventional form that works for him.
THE BIG AUDIO ANTIPOPE, 10 Feb 2008
I hadn't realised just how good a writer Robert Rankin was until I heard this wonderful dramatisation back in 2003. The Audio Antipope is an eight-CD set, running to a little under ten hours, bravely complete and unabridged. Full cast list included after the review here...
I had previously read and loved some of the later Brentford novels, of course, but nothing in fact from the seminal pair of volumes that started it all. I specifically link 'The Antipope' and 'The Brentford Triangle' in this way, of course, for two startlingly good reasons. First, about one-third of the 'Antipope' ms had to be culled before Pan would publish it, and much of this material found its way into the sequel. Second, this abundence of preparation, combined with Robert taking the opportunity to write around-the-clock (as opposed to several months part-time) meant that the sequel was practically finished in about three weeks. And I now know what he means when he says that, once they are let loose, Messrs. Pooley and Omally and their contemporaries usually 'write themselves'. There is little sense here of pain in the composition, only (quite rightly) pain in the experiences of the characters themselves, as they are carried along only semi-voluntarily in a flood of unnatural events that at first glance belong in Brentford like a herd of rhino belong in the English National Ballet. Stranger things have surely never happened.
Pooley and Omally are a delightful pair of cowardly, malingering dipsomaniacs loosely based on the author himself and an old schoolfriend of his. I pass no judgement on the matter. The characters around them all have something of the night, even if the night in question is just a typical one at Brentford's Flying Swan public house once the blinds and bolts are down, for they are all of the author's real-life acquaintance, athough Norman's shop is in truth not so Norman's as it was twenty-odd years ago, and I use the term 'real-life' purely for the sake of brevity. Precis? The lads team up with the aged and kindly local enigma that is Professor Slocombe to fight the ancient evil that befalls their Borough. They drink, are intrigued, drink, make enquiries, drink, get into trouble, drink, get distracted, drink, fight, run away, drink some more and fight some more and finally meet the end of the novel where they pop off for a quick drink in readiness for the next one.
As Director and Co-Producer, not to mention uncredited cast member, extra and (most importantly) Editor, the remarkable Phil Viner has achieved here something that makes your typical audio book sound like canal mud drying. The casting is strong and performances thoroughly professional, right down to some wonderful little cameos by friends old and new. Greenhalgh, Crowe and Gooderson are believable as Pooley, Omally and Slocombe, while Murchie and Campbell make a suitably deranged Neville and Archroy when required, and special credit has to go to Harry Myers for bringing the title character to life without stifling his theatricality.
Under Viner's direction, the author himself has been thoroughly whipped into shape as a starring narrator. Robert's son William's music is a revelation, matching the moods of many scenes and building atmosphere beyond the reach of most radio productions. And Robert's then-partner Sally performs perfectly alongside Robinson, as brewery salesgirls Sandra and Mandy, among others (if you haven't heard of Lucy Robinson yet, buy a bloody television). This is marvellous late-night listening, that would be Radio 4's 'Book at Bedtime' for an entire month if the BBC management weren't still a load of talentless inbreds.
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DETAIL:
Starring
Andy Greenhalgh as Jim Pooley
Ben Crowe as John Omally
Robert Rankin as The Narrator
With
Nick Murchie as Neville
Colin Campbell as Archroy
David Gooderson as Professor Slocombe
Harry Myers as [Pope Alexander VI]
Sally Hurst as Sandra
Lucy Robinson (Pride & Prejudice, Emma, lots of telly) as Mandy
Directed by award-winner Phil Viner.
Produced by Jools Viner and Phil Viner.
"All other parts are played by members of the cast", although Norman was clearly one of those played by the Producer-Director himself.
Original music composed and performed by William Rankin.
Reprobates of the world UNITE!, 04 Feb 2008
You have nothing to loose but your shillings!
Came across this looking for an alternative to El Prat - and not disappointed.
A bit of a mix between fantasy and horror - twinges of King in there: And the sort of tramp you'd expect to find in waiting for Godot.
Not a belly laugh but certainly amusing - especially when you get to my age and start identifying with some of the more reprobate characters! Omally and his friend, Pooley, lead the sort of drunken existence that is the dream of many respectable males but which is impossible to sustain without serious damage to ones health and family.
Be warned though: Pre-decimalisation money (and I loved it). enjoyable, but not fully engaging, 14 Mar 2007
This is the first of this author's books I have read and I did find that it took a while to get into it. there are a lot of characters, and to start with, it's a bit hard to keep track of them, but as the book progresses the focus seems to become sharper, and the storyline stronger, and the book really gets into it's stride.
The characterisations are great, and it does contain one of the funniest sequences I have ever read (Wild West night). Having read some of the other comments I would be interested to read some of his more recent books. Making Normal Weird, 03 Jan 2005
The first book in the -arguably - five book series. We follow the lives of a range of Brentonians over a period of time that their way of life is under threat from a power crazed lunatic. Between them they have a range of bizarre adventures, mostly just outside the law and all completely hilarious, in their quest to destroy this threat. Throughout this book I got the sense that every character (save from the reincarnation of an evil power craved pope and his weird squat henchmen) was a normal person, with normal character traits. But the way in which Rankin manifests those traits in the story and the magic they create makes the characters much more than normal - eccentric, weird and lovable! I think you have to concentrate at times to keep up with which character is who and what the hell they have been doing, but thats part of the fun! Ive started the second one!
A life changing experience!, 10 May 2001
As a part-time barman myself, I thought I knew all there was to know about working in a pub in Brentford. Thank you Robert Rankin for changing my view of the world forever. Read Rankin and have your worldsphere distorted into the most insane, witty but mostly fun place you can possibly imagine!
Still holding it's own, 31 Aug 2007
The Brentford Triangle is a stand-alone entry in to the myriad of novels that Rankin has centered around Brentford. The series hasn't really evolved much. They are still full of running gags, wry humour, clever prose and a multitude of oddball characters. The central characters are no stereotypical heroes, if anything their adventures happen to them, which of course is the lure of Rankin's work. The plot in Triangle is absurd, the action incredulous and it's a short enough read to keep it punchy. It's not as clever as later entries, but it's definitely worth a read, if you've any or none of Rankin's work you'll still enjoy this wacky, but not slapstick book.
A cracking yarn, 11 Nov 2006
A reviewer of Flann O'Brien's 'Third Policeman' claimed that O'Brien fans would love Rankin, but that Rankin fans would merely be interested in O'Brien - or words to that effect. I can see where this is coming from - the Rankin style, replete with bizarre inventions and crazy goings-on in an otherwise normal world, is so close to O'Brien's as to be considered a bed-partner. However, the two are not to be confused. 'Triangle' is a truly cracking yarn, with some wonderfully developed characters and a crisp control of narrative rhythm. The dialogue is exquisite, each line seemingly laden with delicious fruits of wordsmithery. Indeed, Rankin provides such an entertaining read that I'm astonished he's not better known - where's the promotion?! I would heartily recommend The Brentford Triangle to anyone who wants to become immersed in a world of gothic tomfoolery. That said, my ultimate loyalty still remains with O'Brien. The stupendous twist at the end of 'Policeman', along with the existential questions it poses, is the kind of thing entirely lacking in Rankin's work.
The plot thickens, 14 Jan 2005
The second instalment in the now 5 book series. I read this book far more easily and felt more immersed in it than the first. I think that is because I spent a long time in the first book trying to get a grip on each of the characters, each with their oh so normal traits, which are twisted to make them extraordinarily interesting. In this book I could go along with the story instead of concentrating on recognising who is who. (Though I still have trouble separating Omally and Pooley, they seem to merge into one distorted combination of weirdo's!) The story is once again down to earth in Brentford, dealing with people you could pass in the street, but who are doing the most fantastic things. At least three stories seem to run through this book and it was a little way in before I managed to assess which was the main one! Though they twist and turn like they belong together. On one hand we have a new craze for the golf fanatics being played out in allotment Brentford, we have an extraterrestrial plot to take the Earth as a new home world and we have a crazy man who claims to have found some of Gods treasures. All of it fantastic. I rarely laugh out loud at books, but towards the end I couldn't help it - this one really hit the spot.
Good read, but long intro, 28 Oct 2003
Rankin takes his time getting to the good stuff in this part of the trilogy, then its all aover too quick and a little to extreme. In the next volume (there are 4) there is mention of the issues in the last volumes, which is weird seeing as it was written as a triology and the fourth added as an after thought! Not as much fun to read as Rob Rankins more imaginative stuff, such as the Chocolate Bunnies (5*) or the Voodoo Handbag (4*) for instance. This volume is a bit of British life mixed with a storyline from 'The Goodies' only without the humour. Newbies should try something else in Rankins enormous repetoire first methinks.
(Sorry Pooley)
Omally and Pooley Better Than Ever, 09 Feb 2000
Robert Rankin's delirious humor is as sharp as ever in this second book of the five book Brentford Trilogy. Space aliens, video games, golf, and excorcism are all a part of this grand rollicking adventure. The influence of Flann O'Brien is not only obvious, it's absoultely fascinating to read the two back-to-back, as I just did. Rankin is arguably the most clever writer of Science Fiction currently writing, and I am looking forward to the day when America finally picks up on this and issues the books over here! If Terry Pratchett can do it...
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Product Description
In Robert Rankin's latest warped fantasy, a serial killer is murdering notable nursery-rhyme characters and leaving very special sweeties as calling cards at the scene of each crime: The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse. Humpty Dumpty is the first of Toy City's upper crust to sleep with the fishes. Boiled alive in his own swimming pool. A nasty fate, but maybe not as nasty as Little Boy Blue's, with his own shepherd's crook thrust a long way into a place where the sun does not shine. Bill Winkie the P.I. has gone missing, and his hard-drinking teddybear sidekick Eddie takes up the case. Down these mean streets a bear must go. He needs a hand, though--two hands, owing to a lack of opposable thumbs--and reluctantly teams up with "gormster" country boy Jack, who foolishly thinks he can make his fortune in Toy City. Of course the police, jolly bouncy rubber policemen who are sadistic at heart, object to interfering freelances. So does the mystery assassin, who seems to be a curvaceous woman in a kinky rubber outfit--death on high heels. Even kindly old Mother Goose, madame of the Toy City brothel, gets her neck wrung before she can talk, and Eddie is in serious danger of losing his very stuffing. Fast, demented, fairytale-noir action, filled with gruesomely silly deaths, self-referential thriller gags, and the true meanings of those nursery rhymes whose royalties made Humpty and the rest so rich. Robert Rankin is fond of introducing peculiar, repeated figures of speech, and this book's is the Maddeningly Incomplete Simile. Like this: Hollow Chocolate Bunnies is as good as. It's as weird as. It's as deeply bonkers as. In short, it's as Rankin as.--David Langford
Customer Reviews
sell your soul to the rock and roll, 21 Sep 2008
latest novel from robert rankin, a writer best described as the english spike milligan. his novels are real world set, usually in brentford, and are highly inventive comic fantasies.
If you've never encountered his work before then this isn't probably the best place to start, as whilst you could get into it quite easily some recurring characters and themes do crop up. start instead with his novel the antipope, which is a good book to see whether or not his style is for you.
the book is about jonny hooker, a young man living in london who still has an imaginary friend despite being 27, as the friend refuses to go away. he gets a flyer saying he's won a competetion. investigating this further leads him into a tangled web of conspiraces, secret societies, celebrities, time travelling sprouts, and murder.
the usual rankin style, then.
whilst this does go over old ground to some extent, it's a return to form after two rather disappointing novels. funny, surreal, fourth wall breaking, and with lots of very interesting trivia, it's a fun read if you're a long term fan of his work up to his normal standard.
the book runs for 345 pages, and ends with a short note listing how to download music by robert rankin that acts as a soundtrack to it.
A difficult review to write, 16 Mar 2008
I've been a Rankin fan ever since I read 'The Antipope' in the 1980s, and I've got everything he's written, mostly first editions. Until now, I've never had a problem recommending any of his books to people who enjoy humorous writing. But this one doesn't deliver the Rankin magic, somehow. It's all there - the heroic hero, the strangely formal dialogue, the wacky wander through alternative history, the end of the world, the rock and roll, the running gags...
Like a cake that didn't rise properly, this has all the right ingredients, but somehow the whole conspires to be less than the sum of its parts. I think my biggest criticism is the problems with plot and continuity that Rankin self-referentially turns into jokes. Once or twice in a book, this is charming and makes you feel you're being let in on a secret joke. When it's done every chapter, it feels like lazy plotting, or a wish to avoid extensive redrafting.
Of course, no Rankin is write off and there is much here to celebrate and chortle at. But it's a pale substitute for one of the Rankin 'Golden Age' novels. The Review, 02 Jan 2008
It would be more like 2.5 stars having said that I thought it was much better than The Toyminator and shaded The Brightonomicon. Its just that its nothing we haven't read before, but I suppose you read Rankin because you like his style. Try Small Mercy, its Rankinesque Rankin Delivers?, 07 Dec 2007
Ive been a fan of Rankins for years now and have written a novel called Deathday (check it out right here on Amazon!) and kindly some folk have likened me to Rankin but i hope not to this one...Unfortunately this is a little tired, he's tried to break away from his own unique formula but it hasn't worked...then again the mans a genius with more than 20 books to his name so who the hell am i to critisize! by the way DEATHDAY by Eugene Bruce Go on, you're already here!! Not Roberts best, 19 Sep 2007
Ok, Robert Rankin is getting well known for his different take on the comedic tale that has become popular through the likes of Terry Pratchett and Tom Holt, however that said, to be honest I felt that this book was a let down and preferred others of his such as "Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse" and "The Toyminator." Whilst these two do prove that Robert is a great writer it really does come as a shock when another one of his novels just doesn't hit that itch that you've had.
As to why this book just didn't do a thing for me I suspect that a big part of that was due to me being unable to form a bond with the protagonist and as such really did make this a heavy slog. I disliked him and he seemed disjointed and rather unfunctional as a protagonist, which really did cling to my perception throughout the whole tale. If I were to have to recommend one of Robert's books to a new reader, others rank higher than this and I do hope that future books return to a more conventional form that works for him.
THE BIG AUDIO ANTIPOPE, 10 Feb 2008
I hadn't realised just how good a writer Robert Rankin was until I heard this wonderful dramatisation back in 2003. The Audio Antipope is an eight-CD set, running to a little under ten hours, bravely complete and unabridged. Full cast list included after the review here...
I had previously read and loved some of the later Brentford novels, of course, but nothing in fact from the seminal pair of volumes that started it all. I specifically link 'The Antipope' and 'The Brentford Triangle' in this way, of course, for two startlingly good reasons. First, about one-third of the 'Antipope' ms had to be culled before Pan would publish it, and much of this material found its way into the sequel. Second, this abundence of preparation, combined with Robert taking the opportunity to write around-the-clock (as opposed to several months part-time) meant that the sequel was practically finished in about three weeks. And I now know what he means when he says that, once they are let loose, Messrs. Pooley and Omally and their contemporaries usually 'write themselves'. There is little sense here of pain in the composition, only (quite rightly) pain in the experiences of the characters themselves, as they are carried along only semi-voluntarily in a flood of unnatural events that at first glance belong in Brentford like a herd of rhino belong in the English National Ballet. Stranger things have surely never happened.
Pooley and Omally are a delightful pair of cowardly, malingering dipsomaniacs loosely based on the author himself and an old schoolfriend of his. I pass no judgement on the matter. The characters around them all have something of the night, even if the night in question is just a typical one at Brentford's Flying Swan public house once the blinds and bolts are down, for they are all of the author's real-life acquaintance, athough Norman's shop is in truth not so Norman's as it was twenty-odd years ago, and I use the term 'real-life' purely for the sake of brevity. Precis? The lads team up with the aged and kindly local enigma that is Professor Slocombe to fight the ancient evil that befalls their Borough. They drink, are intrigued, drink, make enquiries, drink, get into trouble, drink, get distracted, drink, fight, run away, drink some more and fight some more and finally meet the end of the novel where they pop off for a quick drink in readiness for the next one.
As Director and Co-Producer, not to mention uncredited cast member, extra and (most importantly) Editor, the remarkable Phil Viner has achieved here something that makes your typical audio book sound like canal mud drying. The casting is strong and performances thoroughly professional, right down to some wonderful little cameos by friends old and new. Greenhalgh, Crowe and Gooderson are believable as Pooley, Omally and Slocombe, while Murchie and Campbell make a suitably deranged Neville and Archroy when required, and special credit has to go to Harry Myers for bringing the title character to life without stifling his theatricality.
Under Viner's direction, the author himself has been thoroughly whipped into shape as a starring narrator. Robert's son William's music is a revelation, matching the moods of many scenes and building atmosphere beyond the reach of most radio productions. And Robert's then-partner Sally performs perfectly alongside Robinson, as brewery salesgirls Sandra and Mandy, among others (if you haven't heard of Lucy Robinson yet, buy a bloody television). This is marvellous late-night listening, that would be Radio 4's 'Book at Bedtime' for an entire month if the BBC management weren't still a load of talentless inbreds.
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DETAIL:
Starring
Andy Greenhalgh as Jim Pooley
Ben Crowe as John Omally
Robert Rankin as The Narrator
With
Nick Murchie as Neville
Colin Campbell as Archroy
David Gooderson as Professor Slocombe
Harry Myers as [Pope Alexander VI]
Sally Hurst as Sandra
Lucy Robinson (Pride & Prejudice, Emma, lots of telly) as Mandy
Directed by award-winner Phil Viner.
Produced by Jools Viner and Phil Viner.
"All other parts are played by members of the cast", although Norman was clearly one of those played by the Producer-Director himself.
Original music composed and performed by William Rankin.
Reprobates of the world UNITE!, 04 Feb 2008
You have nothing to loose but your shillings!
Came across this looking for an alternative to El Prat - and not disappointed.
A bit of a mix between fantasy and horror - twinges of King in there: And the sort of tramp you'd expect to find in waiting for Godot.
Not a belly laugh but certainly amusing - especially when you get to my age and start identifying with some of the more reprobate characters! Omally and his friend, Pooley, lead the sort of drunken existence that is the dream of many respectable males but which is impossible to sustain without serious damage to ones health and family.
Be warned though: Pre-decimalisation money (and I loved it). enjoyable, but not fully engaging, 14 Mar 2007
This is the first of this author's books I have read and I did find that it took a while to get into it. there are a lot of characters, and to start with, it's a bit hard to keep track of them, but as the book progresses the focus seems to become sharper, and the storyline stronger, and the book really gets into it's stride.
The characterisations are great, and it does contain one of the funniest sequences I have ever read (Wild West night). Having read some of the other comments I would be interested to read some of his more recent books. Making Normal Weird, 03 Jan 2005
The first book in the -arguably - five book series. We follow the lives of a range of Brentonians over a period of time that their way of life is under threat from a power crazed lunatic. Between them they have a range of bizarre adventures, mostly just outside the law and all completely hilarious, in their quest to destroy this threat. Throughout this book I got the sense that every character (save from the reincarnation of an evil power craved pope and his weird squat henchmen) was a normal person, with normal character traits. But the way in which Rankin manifests those traits in the story and the magic they create makes the characters much more than normal - eccentric, weird and lovable! I think you have to concentrate at times to keep up with which character is who and what the hell they have been doing, but thats part of the fun! Ive started the second one!
A life changing experience!, 10 May 2001
As a part-time barman myself, I thought I knew all there was to know about working in a pub in Brentford. Thank you Robert Rankin for changing my view of the world forever. Read Rankin and have your worldsphere distorted into the most insane, witty but mostly fun place you can possibly imagine!
Still holding it's own, 31 Aug 2007
The Brentford Triangle is a stand-alone entry in to the myriad of novels that Rankin has centered around Brentford. The series hasn't really evolved much. They are still full of running gags, wry humour, clever prose and a multitude of oddball characters. The central characters are no stereotypical heroes, if anything their adventures happen to them, which of course is the lure of Rankin's work. The plot in Triangle is absurd, the action incredulous and it's a short enough read to keep it punchy. It's not as clever as later entries, but it's definitely worth a read, if you've any or none of Rankin's work you'll still enjoy this wacky, but not slapstick book.
A cracking yarn, 11 Nov 2006
A reviewer of Flann O'Brien's 'Third Policeman' claimed that O'Brien fans would love Rankin, but that Rankin fans would merely be interested in O'Brien - or words to that effect. I can see where this is coming from - the Rankin style, replete with bizarre inventions and crazy goings-on in an otherwise normal world, is so close to O'Brien's as to be considered a bed-partner. However, the two are not to be confused. 'Triangle' is a truly cracking yarn, with some wonderfully developed characters and a crisp control of narrative rhythm. The dialogue is exquisite, each line seemingly laden with delicious fruits of wordsmithery. Indeed, Rankin provides such an entertaining read that I'm astonished he's not better known - where's the promotion?! I would heartily recommend The Brentford Triangle to anyone who wants to become immersed in a world of gothic tomfoolery. That said, my ultimate loyalty still remains with O'Brien. The stupendous twist at the end of 'Policeman', along with the existential questions it poses, is the kind of thing entirely lacking in Rankin's work.
The plot thickens, 14 Jan 2005
The second instalment in the now 5 book series. I read this book far more easily and felt more immersed in it than the first. I think that is because I spent a long time in the first book trying to get a grip on each of the characters, each with their oh so normal traits, which are twisted to make them extraordinarily interesting. In this book I could go along with the story instead of concentrating on recognising who is who. (Though I still have trouble separating Omally and Pooley, they seem to merge into one distorted combination of weirdo's!) The story is once again down to earth in Brentford, dealing with people you could pass in the street, but who are doing the most fantastic things. At least three stories seem to run through this book and it was a little way in before I managed to assess which was the main one! Though they twist and turn like they belong together. On one hand we have a new craze for the golf fanatics being played out in allotment Brentford, we have an extraterrestrial plot to take the Earth as a new home world and we have a crazy man who claims to have found some of Gods treasures. All of it fantastic. I rarely laugh out loud at books, but towards the end I couldn't help it - this one really hit the spot.
Good read, but long intro, 28 Oct 2003
Rankin takes his time getting to the good stuff in this part of the trilogy, then its all aover too quick and a little to extreme. In the next volume (there are 4) there is mention of the issues in the last volumes, which is weird seeing as it was written as a triology and the fourth added as an after thought! Not as much fun to read as Rob Rankins more imaginative stuff, such as the Chocolate Bunnies (5*) or the Voodoo Handbag (4*) for instance. This volume is a bit of British life mixed with a storyline from 'The Goodies' only without the humour. Newbies should try something else in Rankins enormous repetoire first methinks.
(Sorry Pooley)
Omally and Pooley Better Than Ever, 09 Feb 2000
Robert Rankin's delirious humor is as sharp as ever in this second book of the five book Brentford Trilogy. Space aliens, video games, golf, and excorcism are all a part of this grand rollicking adventure. The influence of Flann O'Brien is not only obvious, it's absoultely fascinating to read the two back-to-back, as I just did. Rankin is arguably the most clever writer of Science Fiction currently writing, and I am looking forward to the day when America finally picks up on this and issues the books over here! If Terry Pratchett can do it...
This one got me hooked..., 05 Mar 2008
This was the first Rankin I brought and read, I never buy books without knowing I like the author or knowing something about the book before hand usually. This was the exception, I just brought it and I never regreted it.
Rankin has a unique style, however I found it easy to "adjust" and soon got right into the story. If you haven't yet read a Rankin book, just do it - but be warned you may become hooked and pulled into the weird and strange world of his books. Having read a few more of his books since, I think this one is a great way to start reading his work, although you can easily pick up any of his books and slide right into the story.
This is indeed a strange way to bring nursery rhyme characters back to life but that's what's so great about it all "expect the unexpected" and you'll do fine, really. A murder mystery in the most unlikely of places with coinciquences and causes you'd never imagine.
bringing nursery rhymes back to life!, 05 Feb 2008
I did like this book primarily for bringing nursery rhymes back to life. Ok so it's hardly a conventional way of doing it by making them all 'real' and killing several of them off but then I've already come to realise that Rankin is anything but conventional. If I had to sum up this book I'd say it was like the film toy story but definitely for older teens and adults.. it's not the funniest in terms of laugh out loud of his that I've read hence only 3 stars but then I can't give the most rounded opinion as this is only the 3rd of his I've completed. I would definitely say the Jack black poem and rhymey frog are the highlights and the parts surrounding Tommy Tucker are also funny in an albeit slightly warped way. I also liked the bit when Eddie and Jack go to the chocolate factory and they meet the talking head... and any similarities between it and charlie and the chocolate factory only go as far as: Whoever works there is pretty elusive. Still a must read though in my opinion...
Ahhh finally, 15 Oct 2007
Finally a book that has everything, drunkenness, violence, police brutality, sex, car chases, guns and soft toys.
This book is fantastic.
The four star rating is because it's not perfect. however for what it is, which is a funny weird mind expanding book it out does almost everything in terms or originality and kept me reading constantly.
Another reason for a four and not five star rating is because it made me get only three hours sleep on a Sunday night rendering me useless at work.
The story is fast moving and keeps you guessing; obviously there's no way you could know what's coming next in a book like this and that's why it's so much fun to read. This book is escapism at practically its greatest it takes the reader out of this sometimes overly serious world and gives the mind a chance to exorcise its imagination again.
This is the first fiction I have read for a few years and I don't know why I stopped. If you need a book to help get you through a little bit of life then this is it, conjuring up vivid images and hilarious conversations between the characters Robert Rankin has created a pearl of a book.
So in summary if you have a lot on your mind and need to forget, read this book it is funny and easy going. After a reading session you may (as I did) find yourself wondering how economic it must be for a teddy to go and get drunk.
READ IT!
What have you got to loose.
very very funny, 17 Apr 2007
if you have'nt read robert rankin before,stop at this point and just buy one,does'nt matter which ones as you will get hooked,if you want a bit more of a comment than this,you need to read more of his books!i first picked up one of his books in waterstones as i was just drifting through the books as you do.Picked up the Brightonomicon,laughed at rear cover and bought it,slightly embarrising to read in public, as you will laugh out loud,i went on to read sex drugs and sausage rolls and knees up mother earth,all very very funny,brilliantly written,but with running gags linking them all together,but themed around the same type of thing,ie john omally,count otto black,hugo rune,amongst others.
They just make you want to buy the rest,to keep the stories going.
The great thing with chocolate hollow bunnies is that its a completely diffrent tangent,heading off into the realm of all children,and do toys have lives...the brilliant twist is the adult humour painting pictures in your imagination with graphic lucidity.
in short,loved it,recommend it,but also read the others as they are very very good.
a laugh a minute read nothing too serious., 08 Jan 2007
I Love Robert Rankin I brought this book because the title and the info on the back made me laugh. The book certainly did not disapoint. Silly writing that is made for anyone with a warp sense of humor who like silly funny things. Got toyminator for christmas can't wait to read it.
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Customer Reviews
sell your soul to the rock and roll, 21 Sep 2008
latest novel from robert rankin, a writer best described as the english spike milligan. his novels are real world set, usually in brentford, and are highly inventive comic fantasies.
If you've never encountered his work before then this isn't probably the best place to start, as whilst you could get into it quite easily some recurring characters and themes do crop up. start instead with his novel the antipope, which is a good book to see whether or not his style is for you.
the book is about jonny hooker, a young man living in london who still has an imaginary friend despite being 27, as the friend refuses to go away. he gets a flyer saying he's won a competetion. investigating this further leads him into a tangled web of conspiraces, secret societies, celebrities, time travelling sprouts, and murder.
the usual rankin style, then.
whilst this does go over old ground to some extent, it's a return to form after two rather disappointing novels. funny, surreal, fourth wall breaking, and with lots of very interesting trivia, it's a fun read if you're a long term fan of his work up to his normal standard.
the book runs for 345 pages, and ends with a short note listing how to download music by robert rankin that acts as a soundtrack to it.
A difficult review to write, 16 Mar 2008
I've been a Rankin fan ever since I read 'The Antipope' in the 1980s, and I've got everything he's written, mostly first editions. Until now, I've never had a problem recommending any of his books to people who enjoy humorous writing. But this one doesn't deliver the Rankin magic, somehow. It's all there - the heroic hero, the strangely formal dialogue, the wacky wander through alternative history, the end of the world, the rock and roll, the running gags...
Like a cake that didn't rise properly, this has all the right ingredients, but somehow the whole conspires to be less than the sum of its parts. I think my biggest criticism is the problems with plot and continuity that Rankin self-referentially turns into jokes. Once or twice in a book, this is charming and makes you feel you're being let in on a secret joke. When it's done every chapter, it feels like lazy plotting, or a wish to avoid extensive redrafting.
Of course, no Rankin is write off and there is much here to celebrate and chortle at. But it's a pale substitute for one of the Rankin 'Golden Age' novels. The Review, 02 Jan 2008
It would be more like 2.5 stars having said that I thought it was much better than The Toyminator and shaded The Brightonomicon. Its just that its nothing we haven't read before, but I suppose you read Rankin because you like his style. Try Small Mercy, its Rankinesque Rankin Delivers?, 07 Dec 2007
Ive been a fan of Rankins for years now and have written a novel called Deathday (check it out right here on Amazon!) and kindly some folk have likened me to Rankin but i hope not to this one...Unfortunately this is a little tired, he's tried to break away from his own unique formula but it hasn't worked...then again the mans a genius with more than 20 books to his name so who the hell am i to critisize! by the way DEATHDAY by Eugene Bruce Go on, you're already here!! Not Roberts best, 19 Sep 2007
Ok, Robert Rankin is getting well known for his different take on the comedic tale that has become popular through the likes of Terry Pratchett and Tom Holt, however that said, to be honest I felt that this book was a let down and preferred others of his such as "Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse" and "The Toyminator." Whilst these two do prove that Robert is a great writer it really does come as a shock when another one of his novels just doesn't hit that itch that you've had.
As to why this book just didn't do a thing for me I suspect that a big part of that was due to me being unable to form a bond with the protagonist and as such really did make this a heavy slog. I disliked him and he seemed disjointed and rather unfunctional as a protagonist, which really did cling to my perception throughout the whole tale. If I were to have to recommend one of Robert's books to a new reader, others rank higher than this and I do hope that future books return to a more conventional form that works for him.
THE BIG AUDIO ANTIPOPE, 10 Feb 2008
I hadn't realised just how good a writer Robert Rankin was until I heard this wonderful dramatisation back in 2003. The Audio Antipope is an eight-CD set, running to a little under ten hours, bravely complete and unabridged. Full cast list included after the review here...
I had previously read and loved some of the later Brentford novels, of course, but nothing in fact from the seminal pair of volumes that started it all. I specifically link 'The Antipope' and 'The Brentford Triangle' in this way, of course, for two startlingly good reasons. First, about one-third of the 'Antipope' ms had to be culled before Pan would publish it, and much of this material found its way into the sequel. Second, this abundence of preparation, combined with Robert taking the opportunity to write around-the-clock (as opposed to several months part-time) meant that the sequel was practically finished in about three weeks. And I now know what he means when he says that, once they are let loose, Messrs. Pooley and Omally and their contemporaries usually 'write themselves'. There is little sense here of pain in the composition, only (quite rightly) pain in the experiences of the characters themselves, as they are carried along only semi-voluntarily in a flood of unnatural events that at first glance belong in Brentford like a herd of rhino belong in the English National Ballet. Stranger things have surely never happened.
Pooley and Omally are a delightful pair of cowardly, malingering dipsomaniacs loosely based on the author himself and an old schoolfriend of his. I pass no judgement on the matter. The characters around them all have something of the night, even if the night in question is just a typical one at Brentford's Flying Swan public house once the blinds and bolts are down, for they are all of the author's real-life acquaintance, athough Norman's shop is in truth not so Norman's as it was twenty-odd years ago, and I use the term 'real-life' purely for the sake of brevity. Precis? The lads team up with the aged and kindly local enigma that is Professor Slocombe to fight the ancient evil that befalls their Borough. They drink, are intrigued, drink, make enquiries, drink, get into trouble, drink, get distracted, drink, fight, run away, drink some more and fight some more and finally meet the end of the novel where they pop off for a quick drink in readiness for the next one.
As Director and Co-Producer, not to mention uncredited cast member, extra and (most importantly) Editor, the remarkable Phil Viner has achieved here something that makes your typical audio book sound like canal mud drying. The casting is strong and performances thoroughly professional, right down to some wonderful little cameos by friends old and new. Greenhalgh, Crowe and Gooderson are believable as Pooley, Omally and Slocombe, while Murchie and Campbell make a suitably deranged Neville and Archroy when required, and special credit has to go to Harry Myers for bringing the title character to life without stifling his theatricality.
Under Viner's direction, the author himself has been thoroughly whipped into shape as a starring narrator. Robert's son William's music is a revelation, matching the moods of many scenes and building atmosphere beyond the reach of most radio productions. And Robert's then-partner Sally performs perfectly alongside Robinson, as brewery salesgirls Sandra and Mandy, among others (if you haven't heard of Lucy Robinson yet, buy a bloody television). This is marvellous late-night listening, that would be Radio 4's 'Book at Bedtime' for an entire month if the BBC management weren't still a load of talentless inbreds.
-------
DETAIL:
Starring
Andy Greenhalgh as Jim Pooley
Ben Crowe as John Omally
Robert Rankin as The Narrator
With
Nick Murchie as Neville
Colin Campbell as Archroy
David Gooderson as Professor Slocombe
Harry Myers as [Pope Alexander VI]
Sally Hurst as Sandra
Lucy Robinson (Pride & Prejudice, Emma, lots of telly) as Mandy
Directed by award-winner Phil Viner.
Produced by Jools Viner and Phil Viner.
"All other parts are played by members of the cast", although Norman was clearly one of those played by the Producer-Director himself.
Original music composed and performed by William Rankin.
Reprobates of the world UNITE!, 04 Feb 2008
You have nothing to loose but your shillings!
Came across this looking for an alternative to El Prat - and not disappointed.
A bit of a mix between fantasy and horror - twinges of King in there: And the sort of tramp you'd expect to find in waiting for Godot.
Not a belly laugh but certainly amusing - especially when you get to my age and start identifying with some of the more reprobate characters! Omally and his friend, Pooley, lead the sort of drunken existence that is the dream of many respectable males but which is impossible to sustain without serious damage to ones health and family.
Be warned though: Pre-decimalisation money (and I loved it). enjoyable, but not fully engaging, 14 Mar 2007
This is the first of this author's books I have read and I did find that it took a while to get into it. there are a lot of characters, and to start with, it's a bit hard to keep track of them, but as the book progresses the focus seems to become sharper, and the storyline stronger, and the book really gets into it's stride.
The characterisations are great, and it does contain one of the funniest sequences I have ever read (Wild West night). Having read some of the other comments I would be interested to read some of his more recent books. Making Normal Weird, 03 Jan 2005
The first book in the -arguably - five book series. We follow the lives of a range of Brentonians over a period of time that their way of life is under threat from a power crazed lunatic. Between them they have a range of bizarre adventures, mostly just outside the law and all completely hilarious, in their quest to destroy this threat. Throughout this book I got the sense that every character (save from the reincarnation of an evil power craved pope and his weird squat henchmen) was a normal person, with normal character traits. But the way in which Rankin manifests those traits in the story and the magic they create makes the characters much more than normal - eccentric, weird and lovable! I think you have to concentrate at times to keep up with which character is who and what the hell they have been doing, but thats part of the fun! Ive started the second one!
A life changing experience!, 10 May 2001
As a part-time barman myself, I thought I knew all there was to know about working in a pub in Brentford. Thank you Robert Rankin for changing my view of the world forever. Read Rankin and have your worldsphere distorted into the most insane, witty but mostly fun place you can possibly imagine!
Still holding it's own, 31 Aug 2007
The Brentford Triangle is a stand-alone entry in to the myriad of novels that Rankin has centered around Brentford. The series hasn't really evolved much. They are still full of running gags, wry humour, clever prose and a multitude of oddball characters. The central characters are no stereotypical heroes, if anything their adventures happen to them, which of course is the lure of Rankin's work. The plot in Triangle is absurd, the action incredulous and it's a short enough read to keep it punchy. It's not as clever as later entries, but it's definitely worth a read, if you've any or none of Rankin's work you'll still enjoy this wacky, but not slapstick book.
A cracking yarn, 11 Nov 2006
A reviewer of Flann O'Brien's 'Third Policeman' claimed that O'Brien fans would love Rankin, but that Rankin fans would merely be interested in O'Brien - or words to that effect. I can see where this is coming from - the Rankin style, replete with bizarre inventions and crazy goings-on in an otherwise normal world, is so close to O'Brien's as to be considered a bed-partner. However, the two are not to be confused. 'Triangle' is a truly cracking yarn, with some wonderfully developed characters and a crisp control of narrative rhythm. The dialogue is exquisite, each line seemingly laden with delicious fruits of wordsmithery. Indeed, Rankin provides such an entertaining read that I'm astonished he's not better known - where's the promotion?! I would heartily recommend The Brentford Triangle to anyone who wants to become immersed in a world of gothic tomfoolery. That said, my ultimate loyalty still remains with O'Brien. The stupendous twist at the end of 'Policeman', along with the existential questions it poses, is the kind of thing entirely lacking in Rankin's work.
The plot thickens, 14 Jan 2005
The second instalment in the now 5 book series. I read this book far more easily and felt more immersed in it than the first. I think that is because I spent a long time in the first book trying to get a grip on each of the characters, each with their oh so normal traits, which are twisted to make them extraordinarily interesting. In this book I could go along with the story instead of concentrating on recognising who is who. (Though I still have trouble separating Omally and Pooley, they seem to merge into one distorted combination of weirdo's!) The story is once again down to earth in Brentford, dealing with people you could pass in the street, but who are doing the most fantastic things. At least three stories seem to run through this book and it was a little way in before I managed to assess which was the main one! Though they twist and turn like they belong together. On one hand we have a new craze for the golf fanatics being played out in allotment Brentford, we have an extraterrestrial plot to take the Earth as a new home world and we have a crazy man who claims to have found some of Gods treasures. All of it fantastic. I rarely laugh out loud at books, but towards the end I couldn't help it - this one really hit the spot.
Good read, but long intro, 28 Oct 2003
Rankin takes his time getting to the good stuff in this part of the trilogy, then its all aover too quick and a little to extreme. In the next volume (there are 4) there is mention of the issues in the last volumes, which is weird seeing as it was written as a triology and the fourth added as an after thought! Not as much fun to read as Rob Rankins more imaginative stuff, such as the Chocolate Bunnies (5*) or the Voodoo Handbag (4*) for instance. This volume is a bit of British life mixed with a storyline from 'The Goodies' only without the humour. Newbies should try something else in Rankins enormous repetoire first methinks.
(Sorry Pooley)
Omally and Pooley Better Than Ever, 09 Feb 2000
Robert Rankin's delirious humor is as sharp as ever in this second book of the five book Brentford Trilogy. Space aliens, video games, golf, and excorcism are all a part of this grand rollicking adventure. The influence of Flann O'Brien is not only obvious, it's absoultely fascinating to read the two back-to-back, as I just did. Rankin is arguably the most clever writer of Science Fiction currently writing, and I am looking forward to the day when America finally picks up on this and issues the books over here! If Terry Pratchett can do it...
This one got me hooked..., 05 Mar 2008
This was the first Rankin I brought and read, I never buy books without knowing I like the author or knowing something about the book before hand usually. This was the exception, I just brought it and I never regreted it.
Rankin has a unique style, however I found it easy to "adjust" and soon got right into the story. If you haven't yet read a Rankin book, just do it - but be warned you may become hooked and pulled into the weird and strange world of his books. Having read a few more of his books since, I think this one is a great way to start reading his work, although you can easily pick up any of his books and slide right into the story.
This is indeed a strange way to bring nursery rhyme characters back to life but that's what's so great about it all "expect the unexpected" and you'll do fine, really. A murder mystery in the most unlikely of places with coinciquences and causes you'd never imagine.
bringing nursery rhymes back to life!, 05 Feb 2008
I did like this book primarily for bringing nursery rhymes back to life. Ok so it's hardly a conventional way of doing it by making them all 'real' and killing several of them off but then I've already come to realise that Rankin is anything but conventional. If I had to sum up this book I'd say it was like the film toy story but definitely for older teens and adults.. it's not the funniest in terms of laugh out loud of his that I've read hence only 3 stars but then I can't give the most rounded opinion as this is only the 3rd of his I've completed. I would definitely say the Jack black poem and rhymey frog are the highlights and the parts surrounding Tommy Tucker are also funny in an albeit slightly warped way. I also liked the bit when Eddie and Jack go to the chocolate factory and they meet the talking head... and any similarities between it and charlie and the chocolate factory only go as far as: Whoever works there is pretty elusive. Still a must read though in my opinion...
Ahhh finally, 15 Oct 2007
Finally a book that has everything, drunkenness, violence, police brutality, sex, car chases, guns and soft toys.
This book is fantastic.
The four star rating is because it's not perfect. however for what it is, which is a funny weird mind expanding book it out does almost everything in terms or originality and kept me reading constantly.
Another reason for a four and not five star rating is because it made me get only three hours sleep on a Sunday night rendering me useless at work.
The story is fast moving and keeps you guessing; obviously there's no way you could know what's coming next in a book like this and that's why it's so much fun to read. This book is escapism at practically its greatest it takes the reader out of this sometimes overly serious world and gives the mind a chance to exorcise its imagination again.
This is the first fiction I have read for a few years and I don't know why I stopped. If you need a book to help get you through a little bit of life then this is it, conjuring up vivid images and hilarious conversations between the characters Robert Rankin has created a pearl of a book.
So in summary if you have a lot on your mind and need to forget, read this book it is funny and easy going. After a reading session you may (as I did) find yourself wondering how economic it must be for a teddy to go and get drunk.
READ IT!
What have you got to loose.
very very funny, 17 Apr 2007
if you have'nt read robert rankin before,stop at this point and just buy one,does'nt matter which ones as you will get hooked,if you want a bit more of a comment than this,you need to read more of his books!i first picked up one of his books in waterstones as i was just drifting through the books as you do.Picked up the Brightonomicon,laughed at rear cover and bought it,slightly embarrising to read in public, as you will laugh out loud,i went on to read sex drugs and sausage rolls and knees up mother earth,all very very funny,brilliantly written,but with running gags linking them all together,but themed around the same type of thing,ie john omally,count otto black,hugo rune,amongst others.
They just make you want to buy the rest,to keep the stories going.
The great thing with chocolate hollow bunnies is that its a completely diffrent tangent,heading off into the realm of all children,and do toys have lives...the brilliant twist is the adult humour painting pictures in your imagination with graphic lucidity.
in short,loved it,recommend it,but also read the others as they are very very good.
a laugh a minute read nothing too serious., 08 Jan 2007
I Love Robert Rankin I brought this book because the title and the info on the back made me laugh. The book certainly did not disapoint. Silly writing that is made for anyone with a warp sense of humor who like silly funny things. Got toyminator for christmas can't wait to read it.
toytown and beyond, 03 Dec 2007
a new novel by humourist writer robert rankin, who usually writes novels that are the height of absurdity in their style. best described as an english spike milligan. this is a direct sequel to earlier novel the hollow chocolate bunnies of the apocalypse, set in a place called toytown where toys are real and live much like humans. the main characters of that book, teddy bear detective eddy and his human sidekick jack return in this volume to deal with another case.
Whilst still very funny in places, this isn't the best robert rankin novel ever. it feels a bit too long at 360 pages, the story rather marks time in the first two hundred pages, and although things do pick up once the setting expands midway through, that rather loses the uniqueness of the toytown idea. all is wrapped up in a predictably chaotic fashion, which does lead to a few good laughs.
But all in all a rather average rankin lacking the originality of his usual works
A bear faced lie! (ahem), 30 Sep 2007
Hollow Bunnies was great! The characters were funny and their rapport was entertaining. The Toy City scenario was interesting and offered new elements in which Rankin clearly delighted in penning. A sequel couldn't fail right? The Eddie Bear character is still very well written, a delight to read. However, his sidekick and the other characters and their actions seem to be facsimiles of the ones from the previous book. The setting of Toy City is poorly executed in Toyminator, with only a few clever new scenes. The biggest disappointment is that the title, the imagery it conjures (and indeed the untrue front cover) sets up the reader for expectations in the plot that do not exist. A different title would have made the book more palatable; it would deliver on the reader's expectation. Overall, there are some elements that are still great, but I feel that Rankin has rushed this one. There are moments where you are swept along as Rankin enjoys his writing, but they are too few and far between to make this stand out. Good, but definitely not great. Mr. Rankin - Make a real Toyminator book so that General Electric mini-gun gets a proper outing!
Read Deathday Instead!, 10 Apr 2007
Ive been reading this guy for years and he never lets you down but i think recent outings have staled a bit - i had a couple of years off reading RR to write my own book 'Deathday' - now ive finished that and got into reading again it feels fresher and fun again! Take my advise, have some time away and go back to him for all you that found it hard going - Its worth the wait - Oh yeah, Please now go and buy mine! Deathday. Am i allowed to advertise here? Amazon sell it anyway! Hey - Thanks! Eugene Bruce
Judgement day for The Toyminator, 10 Jan 2007
Yeees, I wanted to like this book after finding The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies to be a bit flat. The trouble with Rankins books are that they tend to suffer when they stray to far from Brentford. The Witches of Chiswick was kickass and The Brightonomicon was alright but The Toyminator I kind of read through in no time and Just felt, well, a bit like it had killed a bit of time. This is all a bit negative, Just to say that Rankins at his best when telling demented stories about suburbia (The Antipope, Snuff Fiction, Notradamus ate my Hamster) And that I'd take the ramblings of Pooley and Omally over the adventures of Eddy Bear any day of the week, exept tuesdays. Any way, feel free to disagree and besmerch my good name. As Joan of Arc once said
"Can anyone smell burning"
He's Back!, 04 Oct 2006
It is with great honour that I announce that Robert Rankin is back on form after a couple of disappointing outings. Gone is the well covered world of Brentford and instead we find ourselves with Jack and Eddie back in the fresh feeling Toy Town.
Since their last outing in 'The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse' Jack, a meathead, and Eddie, a talking teddy, have gone their separate ways. Eddie is now the former mayor and Jack is a cook in a greasy spoon restaurant. It's not long before our two heroes are thrust together once more as private detectives to solve an epic case where toys are evaporating into dust. This adventure will lead to other worlds, plenty of drinking and a conundrum over chickens.
'The Toyminator' is still not Rankin's strongest book but it has the great central premise that has been missing from his recent title such as 'Knees Up Mother Earth' - how come there are so many chickens? If each restaurant sells 500 chickens a day as well as 500 eggs that's 1000 potential chickens. Multiply this by the number of restaurants there are and you are talking an impossible number. 'The Toyminator' looks into this strange problem in a hilarious manner.
I loved the characters of Eddie and Jack and felt that Rankin has reeled in some of his overindulgences this time. I recommend this book to his fans but still advise new readers to read something like 'Apocolypso' or 'Snuff Fiction' first.
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Customer Reviews
sell your soul to the rock and roll, 21 Sep 2008
latest novel from robert rankin, a writer best described as the english spike milligan. his novels are real world set, usually in brentford, and are highly inventive comic fantasies.
If you've never encountered his work before then this isn't probably the best place to start, as whilst you could get into it quite easily some recurring characters and themes do crop up. start instead with his novel the antipope, which is a good book to see whether or not his style is for you.
the book is about jonny hooker, a young man living in london who still has an imaginary friend despite being 27, as the friend refuses to go away. he gets a flyer saying he's won a competetion. investigating this further leads him into a tangled web of conspiraces, secret societies, celebrities, time travelling sprouts, and murder.
the usual rankin style, then.
whilst this does go over old ground to some extent, it's a return to form after two rather disappointing novels. funny, surreal, fourth wall breaking, and with lots of very interesting trivia, it's a fun read if you're a long term fan of his work up to his normal standard.
the book runs for 345 pages, and ends with a short note listing how to download music by robert rankin that acts as a soundtrack to it.
A difficult review to write, 16 Mar 2008
I've been a Rankin fan ever since I read 'The Antipope' in the 1980s, and I've got everything he's written, mostly first editions. Until now, I've never had a problem recommending any of his books to people who enjoy humorous writing. But this one doesn't deliver the Rankin magic, somehow. It's all there - the heroic hero, the strangely formal dialogue, the wacky wander through alternative history, the end of the world, the rock and roll, the running gags...
Like a cake that didn't rise properly, this has all the right ingredients, but somehow the whole conspires to be less than the sum of its parts. I think my biggest criticism is the problems with plot and continuity that Rankin self-referentially turns into jokes. Once or twice in a book, this is charming and makes you feel you're being let in on a secret joke. When it's done every chapter, it feels like lazy plotting, or a wish to avoid extensive redrafting.
Of course, no Rankin is write off and there is much here to celebrate and chortle at. But it's a pale substitute for one of the Rankin 'Golden Age' novels. The Review, 02 Jan 2008
It would be more like 2.5 stars having said that I thought it was much better than The Toyminator and shaded The Brightonomicon. Its just that its nothing we haven't read before, but I suppose you read Rankin because you like his style. Try Small Mercy, its Rankinesque Rankin Delivers?, 07 Dec 2007
Ive been a fan of Rankins for years now and have written a novel called Deathday (check it out right here on Amazon!) and kindly some folk have likened me to Rankin but i hope not to this one...Unfortunately this is a little tired, he's tried to break away from his own unique formula but it hasn't worked...then again the mans a genius with more than 20 books to his name so who the hell am i to critisize! by the way DEATHDAY by Eugene Bruce Go on, you're already here!! Not Roberts best, 19 Sep 2007
Ok, Robert Rankin is getting well known for his different take on the comedic tale that has become popular through the likes of Terry Pratchett and Tom Holt, however that said, to be honest I felt that this book was a let down and preferred others of his such as "Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse" and "The Toyminator." Whilst these two do prove that Robert is a great writer it really does come as a shock when another one of his novels just doesn't hit that itch that you've had.
As to why this book just didn't do a thing for me I suspect that a big part of that was due to me being unable to form a bond with the protagonist and as such really did make this a heavy slog. I disliked him and he seemed disjointed and rather unfunctional as a protagonist, which really did cling to my perception throughout the whole tale. If I were to have to recommend one of Robert's books to a new reader, others rank higher than this and I do hope that future books return to a more conventional form that works for him.
THE BIG AUDIO ANTIPOPE, 10 Feb 2008
I hadn't realised just how good a writer Robert Rankin was until I heard this wonderful dramatisation back in 2003. The Audio Antipope is an eight-CD set, running to a little under ten hours, bravely complete and unabridged. Full cast list included after the review here...
I had previously read and loved some of the later Brentford novels, of course, but nothing in fact from the seminal pair of volumes that started it all. I specifically link 'The Antipope' and 'The Brentford Triangle' in this way, of course, for two startlingly good reasons. First, about one-third of the 'Antipope' ms had to be culled before Pan would publish it, and much of this material found its way into the sequel. Second, this abundence of preparation, combined with Robert taking the opportunity to write around-the-clock (as opposed to several months part-time) meant that the sequel was practically finished in about three weeks. And I now know what he means when he says that, once they are let loose, Messrs. Pooley and Omally and their contemporaries usually 'write themselves'. There is little sense here of pain in the composition, only (quite rightly) pain in the experiences of the characters themselves, as they are carried along only semi-voluntarily in a flood of unnatural events that at first glance belong in Brentford like a herd of rhino belong in the English National Ballet. Stranger things have surely never happened.
Pooley and Omally are a delightful pair of cowardly, malingering dipsomaniacs loosely based on the author himself and an old schoolfriend of his. I pass no judgement on the matter. The characters around them all have something of the night, even if the night in question is just a typical one at Brentford's Flying Swan public house once the blinds and bolts are down, for they are all of the author's real-life acquaintance, athough Norman's shop is in truth not so Norman's as it was twenty-odd years ago, and I use the term 'real-life' purely for the sake of brevity. Precis? The lads team up with the aged and kindly local enigma that is Professor Slocombe to fight the ancient evil that befalls their Borough. They drink, are intrigued, drink, make enquiries, drink, get into trouble, drink, get distracted, drink, fight, run away, drink some more and fight some more and finally meet the end of the novel where they pop off for a quick drink in readiness for the next one.
As Director and Co-Producer, not to mention uncredited cast member, extra and (most importantly) Editor, the remarkable Phil Viner has achieved here something that makes your typical audio book sound like canal mud drying. The casting is strong and performances thoroughly professional, right down to some wonderful little cameos by friends old and new. Greenhalgh, Crowe and Gooderson are believable as Pooley, Omally and Slocombe, while Murchie and Campbell make a suitably deranged Neville and Archroy when required, and special credit has to go to Harry Myers for bringing the title character to life without stifling his theatricality.
Under Viner's direction, the author himself has been thoroughly whipped into shape as a starring narrator. Robert's son William's music is a revelation, matching the moods of many scenes and building atmosphere beyond the reach of most radio productions. And Robert's then-partner Sally performs perfectly alongside Robinson, as brewery salesgirls Sandra and Mandy, among others (if you haven't heard of Lucy Robinson yet, buy a bloody television). This is marvellous late-night listening, that would be Radio 4's 'Book at Bedtime' for an entire month if the BBC management weren't still a load of talentless inbreds.
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DETAIL:
Starring
Andy Greenhalgh as Jim Pooley
Ben Crowe as John Omally
Robert Rankin as The Narrator
With
Nick Murchie as Neville
Colin Campbell as Archroy
David Gooderson as Professor Slocombe
Harry Myers as [Pope Alexander VI]
Sally Hurst as Sandra
Lucy Robinson (Pride & Prejudice, Emma, lots of telly) as Mandy
Directed by award-winner Phil Viner.
Produced by Jools Viner and Phil Viner.
"All other parts are played by members of the cast", although Norman was clearly one of those played by the Producer-Director himself.
Original music composed and performed by William Rankin.
Reprobates of the world UNITE!, 04 Feb 2008
You have nothing to loose but your shillings!
Came across this looking for an alternative to El Prat - and not disappointed.
A bit of a mix between fantasy and horror - twinges of King in there: And the sort of tramp you'd expect to find in waiting for Godot.
Not a belly laugh but certainly amusing - especially when you get to my age and start identifying with some of the more reprobate characters! Omally and his friend, Pooley, lead the sort of drunken existence that is the dream of many respectable males but which is impossible to sustain without serious damage to ones health and family.
Be warned though: Pre-decimalisation money (and I loved it). enjoyable, but not fully engaging, 14 Mar 2007
This is the first of this author's books I have read and I did find that it took a while to get into it. there are a lot of characters, and to start with, it's a bit hard to keep track of them, but as the book progresses the focus seems to become sharper, and the storyline stronger, and the book really gets into it's stride.
The characterisations are great, and it does contain one of the funniest sequences I have ever read (Wild West night). Having read some of the other comments I would be interested to read some of his more recent books. Making Normal Weird, 03 Jan 2005
The first book in the -arguably - five book series. We follow the lives of a range of Brentonians over a period of time that their way of life is under threat from a power crazed lunatic. Between them they have a range of bizarre adventures, mostly just outside the law and all completely hilarious, in their quest to destroy this threat. Throughout this book I got the sense that every character (save from the reincarnation of an evil power craved pope and his weird squat henchmen) was a normal person, with normal character traits. But the way in which Rankin manifests those traits in the story and the magic they create makes the characters much more than normal - eccentric, weird and lovable! I think you have to concentrate at times to keep up with which character is who and what the hell they have been doing, but thats part of the fun! Ive started the second one!
A life changing experience!, 10 May 2001
As a part-time barman myself, I thought I knew all there was to know about working in a pub in Brentford. Thank you Robert Rankin for changing my view of the world forever. Read Rankin and have your worldsphere distorted into the most insane, witty but mostly fun place you can possibly imagine!
Still holding it's own, 31 Aug 2007
The Brentford Triangle is a stand-alone entry in to the myriad of novels that Rankin has centered around Brentford. The series hasn't really evolved much. They are still full of running gags, wry humour, clever prose and a multitude of oddball characters. The central characters are no stereotypical heroes, if anything their adventures happen to them, which of course is the lure of Rankin's work. The plot in Triangle is absurd, the action incredulous and it's a short enough read to keep it punchy. It's not as clever as later entries, but it's definitely worth a read, if you've any or none of Rankin's work you'll still enjoy this wacky, but not slapstick book.
A cracking yarn, 11 Nov 2006
A reviewer of Flann O'Brien's 'Third Policeman' claimed that O'Brien fans would love Rankin, but that Rankin fans would merely be interested in O'Brien - or words to that effect. I can see where this is coming from - the Rankin style, replete with bizarre inventions and crazy goings-on in an otherwise normal world, is so close to O'Brien's as to be considered a bed-partner. However, the two are not to be confused. 'Triangle' is a truly cracking yarn, with some wonderfully developed characters and a crisp control of narrative rhythm. The dialogue is exquisite, each line seemingly laden with delicious fruits of wordsmithery. Indeed, Rankin provides such an entertaining read that I'm astonished he's not better known - where's the promotion?! I would heartily recommend The Brentford Triangle to anyone who wants to become immersed in a world of gothic tomfoolery. That said, my ultimate loyalty still remains with O'Brien. The stupendous twist at the end of 'Policeman', along with the existential questions it poses, is the kind of thing entirely lacking in Rankin's work.
The plot thickens, 14 Jan 2005
The second instalment in the now 5 book series. I read this book far more easily and felt more immersed in it than the first. I think that is because I spent a long time in the first book trying to get a grip on each of the characters, each with their oh so normal traits, which are twisted to make them extraordinarily interesting. In this book I could go along with the story instead of concentrating on recognising who is who. (Though I still have trouble separating Omally and Pooley, they seem to merge into one distorted combination of weirdo's!) The story is once again down to earth in Brentford, dealing with people you could pass in the street, but who are doing the most fantastic things. At least three stories seem to run through this book and it was a little way in before I managed to assess which was the main one! Though they twist and turn like they belong together. On one hand we have a new craze for the golf fanatics being played out in allotment Brentford, we have an extraterrestrial plot to take the Earth as a new home world and we have a crazy man who claims to have found some of Gods treasures. All of it fantastic. I rarely laugh out loud at books, but towards the end I couldn't help it - this one really hit the spot.
Good read, but long intro, 28 Oct 2003
Rankin takes his time getting to the good stuff in this part of the trilogy, then its all aover too quick and a little to extreme. In the next volume (there are 4) there is mention of the issues in the last volumes, which is weird seeing as it was written as a triology and the fourth added as an after thought! Not as much fun to read as Rob Rankins more imaginative stuff, such as the Chocolate Bunnies (5*) or the Voodoo Handbag (4*) for instance. This volume is a bit of British life mixed with a storyline from 'The Goodies' only without the humour. Newbies should try something else in Rankins enormous repetoire first methinks.
(Sorry Pooley)
Omally and Pooley Better Than Ever, 09 Feb 2000
Robert Rankin's delirious humor is as sharp as ever in this second book of the five book Brentford Trilogy. Space aliens, video games, golf, and excorcism are all a part of this grand rollicking adventure. The influence of Flann O'Brien is not only obvious, it's absoultely fascinating to read the two back-to-back, as I just did. Rankin is arguably the most clever writer of Science Fiction currently writing, and I am looking forward to the day when America finally picks up on this and issues the books over here! If Terry Pratchett can do it...
This one got me hooked..., 05 Mar 2008
This was the first Rankin I brought and read, I never buy books without knowing I like the author or knowing something about the book before hand usually. This was the exception, I just brought it and I never regreted it.
Rankin has a unique style, however I found it easy to "adjust" and soon got right into the story. If you haven't yet read a Rankin book, just do it - but be warned you may become hooked and pulled into the weird and strange world of his books. Having read a few more of his books since, I think this one is a great way to start reading his work, although you can easily pick up any of his books and slide right into the story.
This is indeed a strange way to bring nursery rhyme characters back to life but that's what's so great about it all "expect the unexpected" and you'll do fine, really. A murder mystery in the most unlikely of places with coinciquences and causes you'd never imagine.
bringing nursery rhymes back to life!, 05 Feb 2008
I did like this book primarily for bringing nursery rhymes back to life. Ok so it's hardly a conventional way of doing it by making them all 'real' and killing several of them off but then I've already come to realise that Rankin is anything but conventional. If I had to sum up this book I'd say it was like the film toy story but definitely for older teens and adults.. it's not the funniest in terms of laugh out loud of his that I've read hence only 3 stars but then I can't give the most rounded opinion as this is only the 3rd of his I've completed. I would definitely say the Jack black poem and rhymey frog are the highlights and the parts surrounding Tommy Tucker are also funny in an albeit slightly warped way. I also liked the bit when Eddie and Jack go to the chocolate factory and they meet the talking head... and any similarities between it and charlie and the chocolate factory only go as far as: Whoever works there | | |