Rankin, Robert

Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse (Gollancz)

Average customer rating:

What the hell was that?
Amusing, but not what I expected, exactly.
Cute, in a Douglas Adams meets Mother Goose kinda way
I do not get Rankin.
A fun read that made me laugh out loud

Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse (Gollancz)
Robert Rankin
Manufacturer: Orion Books Limited
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Comic | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

General | Mystery | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

General | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

General | Fantasy | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Fiction Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside Mystery & Thriller Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside Science Fiction & Fantasy Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

General | Mystery & Thrillers | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books

All 4-for-3 Deals | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

Foop!
The Big Over Easy: A Nursery Crime
A Dirty Job: A Novel
The Fourth Bear: A Nursery Crime
Sex and Drugs and Sausage Rolls

ASIN: 0575074019

Book Description

Toy Town—older, bigger, and certainly not wiser. The Old Rich, who have made their millions from the royalties on their world-famous nursery rhymes, are being murdered one by one. A psychopath is on the loose, and he must be stopped at any cost. It’s a job for Toy Town’s only detective—but he’s missing, leaving only Eddie Bear, and his bestest friend Jack, to track down the mad killer.

Customer Reviews:

What the hell was that?.......2007-05-21

Like many others, I could not resist the title, which is more entertaining than the main read. I give the author 3 stars because it rambled on too long, but the concept was pretty funny and the gist of the book was weird, but interesting. It was surprising, to say the least, but in a good way. It is a detective story in every sense of the word, but hardly a normal one. You have to love it for wandering way off the track.

It begins with a young boy named Jack making his way to the big city to seek his fortune. On the way he runs across a cannibalistic farmer who tries to kill him to eat. He steals the farmers horse and eventually arrives in Toy City, formally known as Toy Town where all the citizens are toys with a caste system. The old rich are the nursery rhymn characters, i,e, Humpty Dumpty, Little Miss Muffet. The old rich are being murdered in imaginative ways that relate to their ryhmns. Jack with the help of a drunken, set out to solve the crimes.

Amusing, but not what I expected, exactly........2007-05-01

I'm a big fan of comic fantasy. I hadn't read anything by Robert Rankin before, so thought I'd give it a try. This title pulled me in immediatley. I mean, Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of The Apocolypse? I read it and while I was mildly entertained, it wasn't quite what I expected, even after reading the blurb. I did enjoy it. Why only 3 stars? Well, while there are parts that move slowly in any given book, I found myself plodding through a few chapters. The humour rescued it, in the end. It is worth reading once, at the least. And for all those fuddy duddy's out there who say, not for kids warning...sexual content...blah blah blah... It's rather miniscule compared to something as racy as say, that piece of junk titled 'Scarlett'.

Have a care people... Read this book and enjoy...

Cute, in a Douglas Adams meets Mother Goose kinda way.......2007-03-15

Someone needs to come up with a moniker for this format, now that Robert Rankin and John Fforde have both launched franchises featuring the same schtick. Actually, I guess Stoppard started it with The Real Inspector Hound and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead: What if fictional characters had a life OUTSIDE of the story line? The format is fun, and Rankin pulls it off well.

I do not get Rankin........2007-02-09

And I do have a finely tuned sense of humor. I love to read, and manage over 65 books a year. I like new things. I like British writers, usually more than I do those on my own side of the pond. So I am simply baffled that anyone recommends a book such as this.

Yawn. Someone please tell me just what it is I'm missing with his books. Comparable to Jasper Fforde? No way!

A fun read that made me laugh out loud.......2007-01-06

This was my first Rankin read, and I was not disappointed. Rankin's prose isn't going to win any awards, but he does a good job of putting the reader into his imagination. And his world is worth the trip. I couldn't stop laughing when Eddie Bear and Jack were trying to drink themselves sober. The only thing that keeps this from 5 stars is the ending. I won't ruin it, but it didn't seem to fit with the rest of the book. I'll probably read more of Rankin's books, but if you like reading good detective stories with intelligent, dry, Hitchhikers'-esque humor, I more strongly recommend reading Jasper Fforde's books, especially the Jack Sprat novels (The Big Over Easy and The Fourth Bear).

Average customer rating:

A must have for graphic designers interested in magazine design

The Last Magazine
David Renard
Manufacturer: Universe
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Museums & Collections | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Instructional & How-To | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Art Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

SPD Solid Gold: 40 Years of Award-Wining Magazine Design
100 Years of Magazine Covers
Mag-Art: Innovation in Magazine Design
41st Publication Design Annual
The Anatomy of Design: Uncovering the Influences and Inspirations in Modern Graphic Design

ASIN: 0789314975
Release Date: 2006-12-26

Book Description

Presented here in this visual anthology are the current boutique periodicals so cutting-edge, they will continue to flourish in print even as their mainstream contemporaries move to digital. Selected from more than 20 countries are preeminent covers and layouts from over 150 independent magazines that advance the medium through their presentation (Gum, Kilimanjaro), content (Re, Richardson), design (Uovo, Werk), and tailoring to a niche market (Fantastic Man, Me). Featuring essays from top industry thinkers such as Steven Heller (New York Times Book Review), Terry Jones (ID), and Robert Sacks (High Times, Time Inc.), this will be the sourcebook for magazine aficionados and professionals. The Last Magazine is published in association with the traveling exhibition, Magazines in Transition, which opens in New York in September, 2006 and travels to museums and galleries in ten cities worldwide including Barcelona, Paris, Luxembourg, Tokyo and Hong Kong.

Customer Reviews:

A must have for graphic designers interested in magazine design.......2007-04-09

Wonderfully designed book with hundreds of images (but little text) of great magazine design. Works are from all over the world and all kinds of subjects. A great coffee table book for magazine lovers and an excellent resource for graphic designers.

Average customer rating:

Extremely funny and intelligent 'fantasy'
Elvis, a time sprout and Rex Mundi
READ MY BOOK!!
Madness.. utter Madness
Only two books have made me laugh out loud, this is one

Armageddon the Musical
Robert Rankin
Manufacturer: Dell
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Comic | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

General | Science Fiction | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Fiction Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside Science Fiction & Fantasy Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

Waiting for Godalming
The Antipope
The Brightonomicon (Brentford Trilogy)
Sex and Drugs and Sausage Rolls
Book of Ultimate Truths

ASIN: 0440503477
Release Date: 1991-01-05

Book Description

Aliens, time travel, intergalactic soap opera, talking vegetables, and Elvis--this hilariously wild futuristic adventure has it all! On par with A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Rankin's spectacular cosmic adventure comes to American audiences for the first time.

Customer Reviews:

Extremely funny and intelligent 'fantasy'.......2000-04-12

For all fans of comic literature, Robert Rankin does the goods. This is an extremely funny and weird book, which is also quite intelligently construed. I think some of Rankin's other works are even more funny, but all in all this book is miles ahead of most other works in the genre. If you like Terry Pratchett, you will definitely enjoy all of Rankin's books, and maybe even prefer the self-consciousness of his works over others. Very much recommended.

Elvis, a time sprout and Rex Mundi.......1999-12-23

All I can say is that this is one of the funniest books I have ever read! Not only that it is also possessed of a plot so complex that it only makes any kind of sense at all when you reach the grand finale but it also has so many running gags concerning "that amazing rotary machine gun that Blaine used in Predator" that every time you watch said film you will have a smile on your face. I have read many humourous sci-fi books in my time but this one had me laughing out loud whilst sitting on a train getting some very odd looks from fellow passangers. If only the Elvis Appreciation Society had not blocked moves to make the film...... Be that as it may, if you are just dicovering the sprout miester for the first time, this is the perfect place to start and get hooked. BEWARE however reading in public can cause very embarrassing hesterical laughter fits!

READ MY BOOK!!.......1999-03-03

LOOK, CHEEZMOS--READ MY BOOK! READ IT!! READ IT NOW!! DO IT!

Madness.. utter Madness.......1998-09-04

Rankin has been compared to Pratchett and Adams.. this is unfair. Rankin is Rankin in the same way as Pratchett is Pratchett, they shouldn't be compared because although both are brilliant they are brilliant in quite astoundingly different ways. All of Rankin's books have a different feel to them, and if you didn't know, you could swear that some were written by different authors.. but despite that there are always those rankin touches.. the Running Gag.. oh how we love the running gag.. not just running through chapters but running through every book. Armageddon the musical is a start of a trilogy of books all concerned with... yup, the end of the world. The good guys include Rex Mundi (King of the world, although only by name) Elvis Aron (or Aaron, no one is really sure) Presley.. Barry the loqacious sprout, what better could you ask for. The plot twists and weaves and is quite complex but it all makes sense and it all adds up to the really and tottaly unexpected trick ending (no, don't skip forward, you'll spoil it) I have heard it said that it's not as Rankin-esque as "The book of Ultimate Truths" but that's one of Rankin's Strengths, There's always something new. Buy this.. buy all his others too. You'll be happy.

Only two books have made me laugh out loud, this is one.......1998-06-10

It is hard to find a book, whereby you can say to people that it has made you laugh out loud, well this one plus Armagedon 2: They Came and Ate Us, probably the pre-curser to Truman,take the preverbial biscuit and without doubt a must read for anyone. Falls in with the other great talent of Douglas Adams, and Terry Pratchett.

Average customer rating:

Rankin's books are as strange as.
Great

The Toyminator
Robert Rankin
Manufacturer: Victor Gollancz Ltd.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Comic | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

General | Fantasy | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books

General | Science Fiction | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Fiction Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside Science Fiction & Fantasy Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

The Brightonomicon (Brentford Trilogy)
Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse (Gollancz)
The Fourth Bear: A Nursery Crime
Armageddon the Musical
Nostradamus Ate My Hamster

ASIN: 0575070102

Book Description

Somewhere over the rainbow and beyond the Yellow Brick Road stands Toy City, formerly known as Toy Town. And things are not going well for the city’s inhabitants. There have been outbreaks of STC—Spontaneous Toy Combustion—and strange signs and portents in the Heavens. Preachers of Toy City’s many religions are predicting that the End Times are nigh and that a Toy City Apocalypse will soon come to pass. But can it be true? Or is there a simple explanation—alien invasion, for instance? With the body count rising and the forces of law and order baffled, it’s time for a hero to step forward and save the day. Well, two heroes actually. Eddie Bear, Toy City Private Eye, and his loyal sidekick, Jack. And they are about to face their biggest challenge yet—to save not only toykind, but mankind as well.

Customer Reviews:

Rankin's books are as strange as........2007-03-03

The cover copy says this is the "longed-for sequel to The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse." That's a bit of publisher's hyperbole, but after four years, Rankin has indeed produced a sequel. Eddie Bear, Toytown PI (he used to be the bear of the late Bill Winkie), has been removed from the position of Mayor by the kindly, white-haired old toymaker who put him in that job at the end of the first book. Eddie, it appears, is a reformer and his efforts didn't go over too well. So he gets back together with Jack, his human partner (or, possibly, his "comedy sidekick"), who has been washing dishes in a diner (part of Nadine Sprat's franchise operation). At this point, you can see where Rankin's peculiarly English sense of humor is going, if you didn't already know. Anyway, the two get caught up in the investigation of the simultaneous murder of every cymbal-playing wind-up monkey in Toytown, followed by the abduction by chicken-aliens of a club band and the opera's orchestra, followed by an incursion into the meat-head world Beyond the Second Big O. Frankly, Rankin's idiosyncratic narrative style is more fun than the plot itself. (He not infrequently tries too hard.) Myself, I still prefer Terry Pratchett, but this isn't bad.

Great.......2007-01-04

If you liked Hollow Chocolate Bunnies Of The Apocalypse then you'll love the sequel, but make sure you read Hollow Chocolate Bunnies Of The Apocalypse first or you wont know what the hell is going on!

Average customer rating:

Excessively funny

A Dog Called Demolition
Robert Rankin
Manufacturer: Transworld
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Adventure | Science Fiction | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books

General | Science Fiction | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Science Fiction & Fantasy Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

The Garden of Unearthly Delights
Apocalypso
Dance of the Vodoo Handbag
Snuff Fiction
The Brentford Chainstore Massacre

ASIN: 0552142131

Book Description

Danny is not sad and lonely any more, because he has "the voice"—the voice of an imaginary dog called Demolition. The dog tells him what to do, like how to adjust the bar code reader in the shop so he can read what people are thinking. Soon, Danny can bend others to his will, and fears no other man.

Customer Reviews:

Excessively funny.......1999-10-17

Robert Rankin's style of surreal humour makes this and his other books possibly the funniest around.

Average customer rating:

I really wish I could read this wonderful sounding book
Robert Rankin at his best
Robert Rankin at his best

East of Ealing (Brentford Trilogy)
Robert Rankin
Manufacturer: Transworld
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

General | Science Fiction | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Science Fiction & Fantasy Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

Brentford Triangle (Brentford Trilogy)
The Antipope
The Sprouts of Wrath (Brentford Trilogy)
The Brentford Chainstore Massacre
Knees up Mother Earth (Brentford Trilogy)

ASIN: 0552138436

Book Description

This is the third book in "The Brentford Trilogy." Once again it features the further adventures of Jim Pooley, John Omally, and all the regulars at the Flying Swan.

Customer Reviews:

I really wish I could read this wonderful sounding book.......2006-10-04

I have not read this book. Why? Although I ordered it in NOVEMBER 2005, I have yet to receive it! I have written many letters to no avail. However, I read another review for a product sold by Amazon that the purchaser had some problem with, and their problem got resolved when they wrote a bad review. That's all I'm trying to do here, really; simply get my problem resolved.

Robert Rankin at his best.......2000-04-24

East of Ealing, a part of the "infamous" 5 book Brentford trilogy, will not disappoint the fans of the series. Find out in this book whether the flying swans patrons will once again outlive the fiendish schemes of the archvillain, or even worse, will their drinking be interrupted ("mine will be a pint of large , neville"). If you're a fan, you will love this book, if you are not, you have been wasting your precious few daily hours of sobriety ....

Robert Rankin at his best.......2000-04-24

Average customer rating:

666 the number of the chicken!
I like your new hat !
Superb
Typical Rankin - Brilliant

The Greatest Show Off Earth
Robert Rankin
Manufacturer: Corgi Adult
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Look Inside Science Fiction & Fantasy Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

The Suburban Book of the Dead
The Garden of Unearthly Delights
A Dog Called Demolition
Armageddon 2: The B Movie (Armageddon)
The Toyminator

ASIN: 0552139246

Book Description

Raymond's had a rough couple of days. Snatched from his allotment by a flying starfish from Uranus and sold as a delicacy in a Venusian food market, it seems like his luck has changed when he is rescued by the travelling circus.

But then this isn't an ordinary circus; this is the circus of Professor Merlin, which drifts between the planets in a Victorian steamship, a circus whose artistes perform the feats that simply can't be done. And the professor has a little job for Raymond. Release the two hundred people held captive on Saturn and save Planet Earth from extinction by Friday.

Raymond's best friend Simon has been having a rough time too. Hunted by the men in grey, Simon is falsely accused of being a serial killer and is thrown into the clutches of the sinister B.E.A.S.T. (an End Times cult that worships the demonic half-man half-chicken, Sate-Hen).

Even with the book from the future and those villagers with the flaming torches to help them out, getting things sorted by Friday could be cutting it fine...

Customer Reviews:

666 the number of the chicken!.......2004-09-18

Robert Rankin has without doubt the most bizarre sense of humour that I've run across. This isn't a bad thing, but it is a character trait I enjoy in a writer. I enjoy almost all I read by him, and this book is just as good as his others. People in danger on worlds far away, the cult of the daemon chicken Sate-Hen, an abomination of nature and of err... nature too, if you take my meaning and I'm sure that you do, and an abduction by astro starfish! What more could you wish for, cept a pint n a nice seat to sit on while you read. Make mine a large!

I like your new hat !.......2000-10-17

I stumbled upon this second hand book in a little store in Egypt (of all places) and read the whole thing through in less then two days. Not that it's this short, it's this good ! It completely obliterated all interest I had in pharao's and pyramids, i just couldn't put it down.

If you like Douglas Adams or Terry Pratchet, you're gonna love this.

It's the first book of Robert Rankin i read and here I am, coming back for more.. ;-)

Superb.......1999-11-21

I will never tire of this book. In the three years since I first discovered it, I have read it well over ten times. Excellent value for money. A lot of Rankin's fans treat this as his worst bok, I say it is his best. It is superbly off-the-wall, with likeable, funny characters, and moments that continue to make me laugh out loud every time. Should be retitled The Greatest Book on Earth.

Typical Rankin - Brilliant.......1999-10-28

When you read a Rankin you have a good idea what your in for: wacky characters, daft running gags,a completely over-the-top plot and hours of humourous entertainment. 'The Greatest Show Off Earth' delivers this and more. If you are struggling to find good humour since the demise of Douglas Adams' Hitchhikers and Dirk Gently series then look no further than Rankin.

Average customer rating:

The Brightonomicon (Brentford Trilogy)
Robert Rankin
Manufacturer: Orion Books Limited
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Comic | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

General | Fantasy | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books

General | Science Fiction | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Science Fiction & Fantasy Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

All 4-for-3 Deals | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

Knees up Mother Earth (Brentford Trilogy)
The Toyminator
The Sprouts of Wrath (Brentford Trilogy)
Witches of Chiswick (Gollancz)
Nostradamus Ate My Hamster

ASIN: 0575077735

Book Description

Were you aware that there are, hidden in the streets of Brighton, twelve ancient constellations, like the Hangleton Hound and the Bevendean Bat? Well, there are, and on each one hangs a tale, a tale so strange that only The Lad Himself, that inveterate spinner of tales and talker of the toot, Hugo Rune, can get to the bottom of them. And he'd better do it quickly, because if he doesn't solve the dozen mysteries before the year is out, that'll be the end of the world as we know it.

Average customer rating:

A mostly Wonderful Book
passing it on
thoroughly entertaining comic fantasy
Clever writer, lots of in-jokes, fun to read
Good until (just before) the last drop

Witches of Chiswick (Gollancz)
Robert Rankin
Manufacturer: Orion Books Limited
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Comic | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

General | Fantasy | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books

General | Science Fiction | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Science Fiction & Fantasy Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

All 4-for-3 Deals | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

Knees up Mother Earth (Brentford Trilogy)
Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse (Gollancz)
The Brightonomicon (Brentford Trilogy)
Armageddon the Musical
Waiting for Godalming

ASIN: 0575075457

Book Description

We have all been lied to—a great and sinister conspiracy exists to keep us from uncovering the truth about our past. Have you ever wondered how Victorians like Jules Verne and H.G. Wells dreamed up all that fantastic futuristic fiction? Did it ever occur to you that it might have been based upon fact? That War of The Worlds was a true account of real events? That Captain Nemo’s Nautilus even now lies rusting at the bottom of the North Sea? And what about the other stuff? Did you know, for instance, that Jack the Ripper was a terminator robot sent from the future? In this book, learn how a cabal of Victorian Witches from the Chiswick Townswomen’s Guild, working with advanced Babbage super computers, rewrote 19th-century history, and how a 21st-century boy called Billy Starling uncovered the truth about everything.

Customer Reviews:

A mostly Wonderful Book .......2007-01-13

Mr. Rankin has created a wonderful world here hats off to him. Sometimes the jokes are subtle and other times they are incredibly funny quite frankly words can't do justice to how funny parts of this book are.

You will love all the characters Will, other Will and Barry the time traveling sprout. There are also characters that are more familiar to us H.G Wells, Jack the Ripper and Queen Victoria just to name a few.

Great book, great story but the last 10 pages totally destroy whatever the author had been working towards. This is not enough to destroy a wonderful book but the ending is indeed a letdown. Either Rankin is setting things up for a sequel or he is just guilty of sloppy plot resolution. That is why it gets a fourth star and not the whole 5.

passing it on.......2006-10-21

In our 37 years of acquaintance, my brother has never recommended a book to me to read. The other day he called me from the cab of the truck he drives at work. He had to tell me about the book he was listening to on CD as he drove. That book was (of course) Robert Rankins Witches of Chiswick. On that recommendation, I went out the next day, purchased the book, interrupted the book I was reading at the time and began to read. Aside from periods of work (necessary to get money to buy books) and eating (necessary to keep energy up to read books) and sleeping (necessary... ahh who am I kidding? I didn't sleep) I read and finished the book. When it was done I was sorry there wasn't more. Funny, irreverent, at times irrelevent, and all together a rollicking, ride through the future, the past (more than one of each) and who knows where, this book is a must buy/borrow/steal/read. Oh, and there is more... Knees Up Mother Earth is the second book in the series. I'm passing on my brother's recommendation to you, the lusty reader of this review (if you're not so lusty, that's o.k. I'll recommend it to you too. However, if you can... get lusty, it'll help in the future. I'm not sure what it'll help with, just take my word for it, lusty is helpful).

In regards to the distressing plot point near the beginning... I was able to get past it and I wasn't disappointed. I have been known, in the past, to quit reading a book due to such things but, this book was all too compelling to give up on. Perhaps it was the continued references to a certain Governators movies, perhaps not (probably not but, it's as good a reason as any) but, I had to continue, you will too. If not, do it anyway.

Compelling? Ahh, why not? Compelling it shall stay.

thoroughly entertaining comic fantasy.......2006-02-18

Highly recommended for its comic riffs, manic flights of fantasy and wildly speculative science fiction - that is, its imagination. When so many books serve up all-too-predictable plot lines and dialogue, it's refreshing to find fiction that treats the reader to a smorgasboard of Imagination.

Clever writer, lots of in-jokes, fun to read.......2005-07-31

I found the characters and plot incidental to the humour, and I enjoyed the victorian steam punk environment and the book's premise. WOC borrows snippets from many popular films and songs, mercilessly sending them up, and for that it scores highly.
The Barry character was nothing but a pain in the ear - he served only to move things along at the right time, throwing in the odd 'told you so' when things went wrong. I noticed a few gaping plot holes, but this kind of fiction isn't supposed to be discussed at length in dreary university tutes - it's just for fun.

Good until (just before) the last drop.......2005-06-18

All the other reviews are right - this book is quite a fun roller coaster ride, taking the reader back and forth through time and different pasts and futures as Will and Tim get tangled up in an evil plot.

My only problem with this book is the ending. It really seemed to me that after such a wonderfully-written book, Rankin gave up about 10 pages before the end, and left way too many questions in my mind (most of which I won't spoil for you now) and wrote what I felt was a cop-out ending (which, by the way, only lasted for half a page).

I got attracted to Rankin's writing after exhausting (and re-reading) my Terry Pratchett collection; Rankin's "Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse" was my introduction and if these two books so far are any indication, I will enjoy the others I have ordered. Hopefully, though, from the front cover all the way to the back cover.

Average customer rating:

I'd review if I could read it!!!
The Antipope
pooley and omally- England's heroes.
Persistently amusing.
Ode to the drinking man

The Antipope
Rankin , and Robert Rankin
Manufacturer: Transworld
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

General | Science Fiction | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Science Fiction & Fantasy Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

Brentford Triangle (Brentford Trilogy)
East of Ealing (Brentford Trilogy)
The Sprouts of Wrath (Brentford Trilogy)
The Brentford Chainstore Massacre
Nostradamus Ate My Hamster

ASIN: 055213841X

Book Description

This story uncovers suburbia's darkest secrets—mostly in The Flying Swan, where Neville the barman and Archroy, owner of five magic beans, do battle with beasts of the occult—and in particular the rather unpleasant Pope Alexander VI, the last of the Borgias.

Customer Reviews:

I'd review if I could read it!!!.......2006-06-19

Order placed October 10, 2005. Two missed estimated time of delivery, and two complaints later -- still not in my possession.

Don't order this book here, You will never receive it. Best of luck!

The Antipope.......2006-01-22

Unfair judgement of this item!! After a month of waiting Amazon can't ship it or the Book of Ultimate Truth. US Rankin fans beware, this is not necessarily a proper outlet for order.

pooley and omally- England's heroes........2002-03-18

I've been reading Robert Rankin for three years, and I have to say, all the books in the Brentford triangle series are classics! The sheer silliness of his stories just have you in stiches for hours, The Antipoope is a favorite for one reason only. It's a first! It starts everything off, Neville the part-time bar man, the professor, the tramp... This book starts it all and I assure you, you'll never put the book down!

Persistently amusing........2001-04-26

This is one of my favorite books. It's the first of the Brentford series. I find the whole series to be comfortable, likable and highly amusing. It helps to have a taste for the surreal. I found the characters to be very likable. They have the carefree attitudes of the characters from Steinbeck's Tortilla Flat or Cannery Row, but they are intelligent and educated. They are not the type one would expect to be called upon to save the world. Essentially Brentford is the world. Should any character temporarily wander out of Brentford, Brentford would still be the reference point. The pub is the core essence of this world. Nothing is really serious unless if effects the pub. To this little world comes every silly notion that ever landed on the front page of the most bizarre tabloids. The Antipope is the place to start. It's one of the best, and will introduce you to the Brentford perspective. I found after reading a few pages, I wanted to take a break and wait for the smile on my face to ease up a little before I dared to proceed.

Ode to the drinking man.......2000-08-21

If you are unacquainted with Rankin's bizarre books, this may well be a good start. It's not his best book, but it's his first. Part of the fun reading Rankin is in the repetitions: Rankin quotes himself constantly, so you won't miss any of that when you start off from here.

"The Antipope" is the first novel in the Brentford series, in which an ordinary London suburb is the scene of grotesque battles between Good and Evil. It's up to Jim Pooley and John Omally, two bums with an insatiable appetite for beer, to save the world, with the help of a mysterious professor and some other highly improbable characters. In this book, the adversary is an evil tramp posessed with formidable powers, who is about to take control of the world as the Pope of some dark new Church.

Two things distinguish Robert Rankin from other comic SF/Fantasy writers like Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett: his profound knowledge of the occult, and the sheer outlandishness and pomp of his stories. Rankin calls himself a tall-tale teller and his books far-fetched fiction. Some scenes in this particular book, like the disastrous cowboy night, and the vain attempts to open a mysterious parcel, just project themselves before your eyes, as if you were watching a movie. And make you laugh aloud.

Authors:

Authors

Authors