Customer Reviews

The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse (Gollancz Sf S.)

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(16)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

Unlike many of the reviewers here, I like The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse. I understand what the critics disliked; those faults simply didn't irritate me. Instead, I found the book very funny... assuming you can pry yourself into a sort-of Monty Python mood and not take it seriously.

The story's premise is simple enough to impart: boy goes to the big city to seek his fortune, only to discover that the city is occupied by talking toys and by nursery rhyme characters. He shortly finds himself in the role of detective (or detective's assistant, really; Eddie the teddy bear is the real brains, even if those brains are made of sawdust). But in a way the plot isn't important, just as the plot of, say, Monty Python and the Holy Grail isn't what you went to see.

The writer's style is self-indulgent, like an actor who is aware of the audience's presence and speaks to them. He toddles off onto tangents because, it's obvious, *he* wanted to go down that street to find out what the characters were doing and what was served at that bar. To a degree (or, assuming that I'm in the right mood), I like this; the author is having fun and taking you on his adventure.

Amazon kept insisting that I'd love this book because I bought so many books by Jasper Fforde. I wish I hadn't known that, because I expected it to be Fforde-like. It's clever and English and has lots of literary references (Rankin is subtle about some of them). But the tone is entirely different. Fforde's books *are* for when you want Serious Funny stuff; this one is best suited to reading with a glass of beer (wine is for Fforde) after a really lousy week at work, when you want to escape to a completely silly reality and it's too much trouble to find your Rocky Horror DVD.

Basically, this is the kind of book where your reaction to the title and/or cover is a pretty good indicator of whether or not you'll enjoy the contents. It's silly stuff, sometimes dark, but mostly the kind of outsize fantasy/comedy British writers seem to manage to handle so well (Rankin is often mentioned in the same breath as Terry Pratchett and Douglas Adams). The concept at work here is that a serial killer is on the loose in a city populated by toys, striking down the rich and famous -- namely notables from nursery rhyme fame, such as Humpty Dumpty, Little Boy Blue, et al. Into this killing zone stumbles Jack, a 13-year-old boy come to "seek his fortune" in the big city. But almost immediately upon his arrival, the big city seeks his fortune instead, leaving him mugged and penniless in an alleyway. Fortunately, a kindly teddy bear named Eddie comes along to take him under his paw and get him involved the mystery. It seems Eddie is the sidekick of Toy City's eminent detective Bill Winkie (aka Wee Willie Winkie), who has gone missing. Soon Jack and Eddie are racing across Toy City in clockwork cars, checking out murder scenes, visiting Madam Goose's house of ill repute, and getting sloshed at Tinto's Bar, as they attempt to solve the case. If this sounds somewhat reminiscent of the 1988 film "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?", it should.

Part of the fun comes from the spoofing of nursery rhymes and childhood toys, including comically gruesome murders, thriller/noir goofing, and totally tongue in cheek action. The other part of the fun comes from the wacky wordplay. Rankin is fond of alliteration, punning, double-entendres, repetition of stock phrases, and from the mouth of Eddie, the incomplete simile. If there's one thing one will remember from this book it's the construction "It's as good as!" or "I was scared as!" It has to be said that the book runs on about 50-100 pages too long as the jokes start to wear a bit thin and the action starts to get too repetitive. Alas after all the buildup, the mystery itself is a bit of a shaggy dog story, and somewhat of a letdown. It is fairly inventive stuff, and kind of fun for the most part, but unless you think the title is hilarious you probably won't love the book.

I picked up Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse because of the absurd title. Never having read a Robert Rankin novel before, I wasn't prepared for how completely nutty he is. This book is hiliarious. Eddie Bear and Jack (from the human world) have to go through Toy City to discover who's murdering all the old heroes of the Nursery Rhymes-- or "pre-adolescent poetry personnages", as they prefer to be called. Fast-paced and action-packed, Rankin is a genius with wordplay and British wit. I know this book is hard to find in the States, and my assumption is that it's because of a thinly veiled reference to Bush and his wars near the end of the book. I don't think anyone in the states printed it, but you can find it pretty much anywhere in Canada or the UK, so get it, read it, and laugh hysterically.

Here's a sample of his writing style: "The moon, shining down upon the city, shone down also upon Jack, shone down upon the body of Jack, that was lying strewn in an alleyway. The moon didn't care too much about Jack. But then, the moon didn't care too much about anything. Caring wasn't in the moon's remit. The moon was just the moon, and on nights when there wasn't any cloud about, it just shone down, upon anything and everything really, it didn't matter what to the moon. The moon had seen most things before, and would surely see them again. And as for all the things that the moon hadn't seen, well, it would see them too eventually. On nights when there wasn't any cloud about. Not that it would care too much when it did. It was a moon thing, not caring. The moon couldn't help the way it was."

So, if you like this style enough to read 340 pages of it, go for it. If you are looking for a Douglas Adams clone, you'll be deeply disappointed. This book is in serious need of an editor and I believe the author got paid for this by the word because there was page after page of this kind of annoying and irrelevant pontificating that I found intolerable by about page 50. It's rare for me to give up on a book.

I fell into Robert Rankin's trap, and I have no one but myself to blame. I love all of Jasper Fforde's books, but I have read all of Thursday Next's adventures several times over (The Big Over Easy, as well) I went on a desperate search for someone who wrote similar types of stories. Who is top of that list, almost every time? Robert Rankin. And why, might you ask? As far as I can tell, this has been judged solely on the book summary. Believe me, fellow lovers of good literature, that is where the similarity ends. I finally received my copy of Hollow Chocolate Bunnies, and started reading immediately. I didn't even make it to the end of the first page before I knew I had made a horrible mistake. This is unreadable. Wonderful concept, but Mr. Rankin apparently thinks that he has no need of a copy editor. It reads like the ramblings of a mental patient who has gone off his meds. Good raw material here, but there is a lot of refining to do before it resembles anything worth publishing. Sorry to know that trees died so that this book could be printed.

Funny is so difficult. And, by all rights Rankin's 'The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of The Apocalypse' (hereafter called HCBA) should be funny. It has the irreverent banter, the broad characters, the absurdist plot twists, and the wacky situations. And Yet....

You see HCBA is about a young man, Jack, who is making his way in the city. 'Toy City' to be exact; where toys and nursery rhymes live in a remarkably modern, media obsessed society. All the while, they are governed over by a wholely indifferent 'Toymaker'. Jack meets a detective bear named Eddie who used to work with 'Wee Willie Winkie' solving crimes. (Get it - you see Bill Winkie was naturally inclined to be a detective, what with all the spying into lock, and running around town at night.) Together they begin to investigate a series of killings of prominent 'Toy City' residents.

It's like HCBA tries to hard for the laughs. Mainly, the book has a witty style that twists words, quite deftly, in some cases. But witty isn't neccessarily funny. And Rankin doesn't know when to stop. There are pages and pages of this wordplay. It amounts to several recycled jokes that really fall flat.

All that being said, HCBA does surprise. While I never got a laugh from the book, I did get a surprisingly pointed critique of relegion and politics in modern society. Albiet, it didn't come until page 250 of a 340 page book. Still, like good science fiction, the book provided a mirror onto today's society, and for that it wasn't a waste of time. But again satire and parody, isn't the same as a good belly laugh.

So, if you are looking for unique characters, witty dialoge, and sharp parodies, then HCBA has all thet in spades. Just don't go looking for the funny.

The story is fascinating and innovative - different than anything else I've ever read. Similar to Jason Fforde's Tuesday Next series, but only similar. I found myself throughout the book trying to see if I could still recite the nursery rhyme relevant to the nursery rhyme characters that appear in the book. I must admit I was only partly successful, :), but it was a fun aside.

And that sort of escape from the book was necessary to the bizarre writing style. It took a while to get used to. Once I got used the convoluted, conversational (if you're suffering from a psychosis) tone of the narration, it was kind of funny. Unfortunately, the author repeats the same jokes over and over and over ("It's a fact well known by those who know it well" appeared at least once per chapter if not more). By about 2/3 through the book I just wanted it to end. The storyline was innovative and engaging enough that I wanted to know who it ended, but I didn't want to have to sort through any more rambling conversations between Jack and Eddie the Bear.

I'm not sure whether I'd recommend the book or not. If you're someone who can tolerate a very unconventional and rambling writing style, the plot is excellent and it's worth reading. If that sort of style does not appeal, I would say read Jason Fforde's books instead.

If, like me, you're approaching this book having run out of Jasper Fforde to read, you will likely feel somewhat let down by this book. As was mentioned in other reviews, this is sort of a Fforde story run through the Douglas Adams/Terry Pratchett mashup blender. If you like Adams and Pratchett (which I do), then this book is somewhat enjoyable, and will add the phrase `complete gormster' to your vocabulary. However, if you're looking for something a bit more literary you might want to consider something by Jonathan Carroll (perhaps `Bones of the Moon' or `Land of Laughs') instead.

The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse is pretty much a crazy book--track it down and read it. From the reviews on these pages, it is harder to find this book than it was for Jack and Eddie, the young boy and stuffed bear heroes of the book to solve the mysterious murders in Toy City. Humpty Dumpty has been boiled to death--and other nursery rhyme protagonists soon follow. Toy City is a bizarre place where toys are real, as are people and nursery rhymes and other oddities. Jack is new to the town, and, like the reader, is perpetually amazed at the weirdness of Toy City. This book is very, very funny--a bit (well, more than a bit) off center--but just a delight to read. It's a blend of science fiction, fantasy, humor and mystery--somewhat like the Thursday Next series in its odd blending of multiple genres. Fun, weird fun, but still fun.

I bought this book for no other reason than because I saw it in the store and loved the title. It's pretty much the best title ever, I think. And much to my surprise, I absolutely loved this book! It's very reminiscent of the works of Monty Python and Douglas Adams: irreverent, scatter-shot, howlingly funny and sometimes in very questionable taste--and I mean that in a good way. I also loved the way the author sometimes goes on long, barely related, and very funny tangents right in the middle of the suspenseful parts, thereby both prolonging and defusing the tension at the same time. In addition to be being laugh out loud funny (I really embarrassed myself on the subway one morning) it's also a satisfying whodunnit for mystery fans, with good plotting, fully fleshed-out characters (although maybe flesh isn't such a good choice of words here), and a lot of honest to goodness suspense. Thoroughly enjoyable and highly recommended. In fact, I'm trying to get my book club to do this one next month so everyone can enjoy it.