Customer Reviews

The Da Da De Da Da Code (GollanczF.)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I have been for some time a fan of Robert Rankin and he never fails to entertain,and he does it again with off beat manic homour and a sense of the absurb.His characters are beliveable as sometime in our lives we have met them or know of them. I cant wait till the next manic installment.

Horrible. I'm a big Rankin fan but this was the worst of his book that I have read. The best I've read is Brightonomicon...far, far superior.

DA DA was flat, stale jokes, boring characters, too long, too zany without tying it all together in the end. It had its moments but they were few and far between.

I was fortunate enough to run across this book in my local library (and since I live in the US, this is not necessarily a given). What rock was I living under before I found Robert Rankin? You definitely need to be prepared to let go of reality and just enjoy the ride with this book. If you are uncomfortable with time-jumping, lots of characters, anachronisms, humorous asides, and self-referential jokes, then this probably isn't for you.

However, if you loved Douglas Adams' books, appreciate general silliness that is backed by intelligence, and could use a good laugh (not to mention a fun story), then you'll probably enjoy this book as much as I did (and plan to again).

This book was my first exposure to Robert Rankin, and I have to say it was a very pleasant surprise. A book that can make me laugh out loud is a rare find. It has the same zany appeal as Gaiman and Pratchett's "Good Omens" although it's a bit more uneven. The book has a good-natured silliness that I found very appealing. I sent a copy to a friend who said she started laughing at the second line. I have since started "The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse" and have, thus far, been disappointed that the wonderful turn of phrase and clever goofiness of The Code is missing in it. However, I plan to read more Rankin in the future.

I'm not completely sure why I keep torturing myself with Rankin's books, but I have a hunch that the blurbs have something to do with it. I doubt that Rankin writes his own blurbs (or, if he does, he should adopt that style of writing for the stories themselves). Every book of his I've picked up *looks* really interesting. The brief summaries on the inside cover *look* hilarious, and they *seem* attention-grabbing, and they *sound* unique. Then I read the actual stories and am bitterly disappointed every time.

This one's the worst yet. Everything I disliked about his other books is still present here, plus the added annoyance of being largely unable to follow the plot. But you know what? I think I've figured him out this time. I've cottoned on to the fact that all of Rankin's books are so bad for the same reasons because he's simply writing the same basic tale over and over - only with variations.

The story goes like this: A blokey bloke, with his friends the other blokey blokes, sit around in pubs all day, every day, talk to the bartender, and have run-ins with police constables. At the same time, a series of murders is going on, which turns out to be the work of a secret organisation (or more than one) that the general public knows nothing about. This inevitably leads to a close call with the apocalyptic end of the world. But blokey bloke saves the day and perves on women with his mates whilst doing so.

What's more, Rankin keeps reusing the same phrases in all his books. "Transperambulation of pseudo-cosmic antimatter" is one of them. References to "dimac" (supposedly the world's most lethal form of martial arts) and dimac's famous instructor are also in there. So is the same annoying method of transition between chapters that I've outlined in previous reviews. The only thing that wasn't in this one was the dreadful bunch of 'Ands' Rankin loves to use to start consecutive sentences with. At least that's *one* good thing about this book. The characters, too, may as well be the same generic set shifted from book to book but painted over with different physical appearances and backstories. Whatever interest factor they had in the first Rankin book I read has well and truly worn off by now.

Why, I ask? These books aren't sequels, and as far as I know they aren't even set in the same universe. I don't want to read about the same plot, the same fine details, the same unfunny jokes three times in a row. Probably a lot more than three, seeing as Rankin has published many more books and it seems like too much of a coincidence to assume that I just so happened to select the only three that have this identical plotline in them. It's very unimaginative.

Of course, this all indicates that the awful sexism of the other two books is still present in this, and yes, it is. Once again, women are almost solely described according to how attractive they look. The only female characters in the book are either gorgeous sex objects with no interesting role in the story whatsoever, or old ladies, also with no interesting role in the story whatsoever (with the possible exception of Queen Elizabeth, who at least gets to take part in secret talks), and rather disturbingly also portrayed as sex objects in most cases of this particular novel. Well, at least it isn't ageist in addition to being sexist. Once again, we never, ever see two females having a conversation with each other in this Rankin book. It just doesn't happen, because the women are clearly only in the story for the male characters to perve on extremely blatantly. In one scene, for example, a woman was described with practically every single mention as being amazingly gorgeous, with especial emphasis on her breasts. And yet, not a single man in the story is so much as fleetingly referred to as being attractive or ugly. I don't know, maybe this would appeal to some sleazy, low-brow subsection of the male population, but I didn't find it tolerable, let alone funny. It makes my blood boil! Even the most (which is to say, not very) prominent female character was constantly being referred to in terms of her breasts and bottom. It was really sickening to read. From reading a Rankin novel, anyone would think that women were worth no more than an average piece of (very pretty) furniture. I know it's a comedy - but then why aren't the *men* being similarly sexualised, huh? Huh? Why don't the women get to perve on the men?

Well, I gave this author three chances in the hope he'd improve, and all three turned out to be a total waste of my time. This is officially the last book of his that I will ever read, since the trend seems set to continue. I don't think I've ever made a conscious decision to not open a book by a particular author before (because, after all, most authors have their good and not-so-good novels), but there's a first for everything. Sayonara, Rankin. I'm glad I found these at the library and didn't waste any money on them.