Customer Reviews

Necrophenia (Gollancz)

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

 

 

Rankin hasn't produced anything really good since Brightonomicon and Necrophenia is just another failed attempt.

I love Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse and Brightonomicon...as well as Garden of Unearthly Delights, Knees Up Mother Earth (and The Brentford Trilogy [all 7 or so books of it] in general), etc. but I think he's turning out the same book over and over now. Perhaps Mr. Rankin needs to take a break and recharge his creative juices.

What's Wrong With This Book
1) Disjointed narrative that isn't usefully or aesthetically disjointed
2) Same characters...though some are going by different names
3) Same gags
4) Same fractured grammar that is fun for a while but gets old fast
5) Poor plotting and structure

Whenever he publishes I get the new title and they are always funny (on the funny side at least), but after Brightonomicon there hasn't been one to rival the best of his earlier books...and I am greedily anticipating this.

Some may feel this review is unfair but I paid money for this and feel, a little, cheated.

Not a bad book until measured against his earlier efforts...this is why only 2 stars. And a little over priced for an ebook.

Come on Bobby...get your game on!!! o_O

This is Rankin's thirtieth book if I counted correctly, and it's one of the more enjoyable ones of the last couple of years. This is classic Rankin: it has Lazlo Woodbine, Elvis, the Ministry of Serendipity and all the usual running jokes in it, but otherwise the book stands on its own. I assume Count Otto Black was left out of the story for that reason, although he would have been a logical choice in such an occult book. Also classic Rankin is the (anti-) hero who is an ordinary bloke who has to save the earth in a grotesque battle between Good and Evil. Almost. No aliens this time, but lots of zombies to compensate.

The plot is good and interesting, but there are a few loose ends that disappointed me a little. We never really find out who is the mysterious Ishmael, and the occasional recurrence of the main character's father creates an expectation that he will be involved in the plot's finale, but that expectation is not met. Otherwise, the many twists and turns of the plot are highly entertaining, and the number of jokes is amazingly high, as usual.

This is a highly recommended read, although you'll enjoy it more if you've read some of his books before. Nevertheless, this is as good a place as any to start discovering Rankin. Over the years, Rankin has perfected the art of introducing characters and plot elements in a smooth manner, and although it gets complicated at times, I never felt lost or disoriented.

There's a man named Robert Rankin out there. If you see him, he is to be exterminated immediately. Preferrably with something large and powerful like some kind of dalek planet-drilling laser or something. His crime? For being cruel and evil. Why cruel and evil? Because this man is determined to turn my funny bone into powder! He is trying his hardest to rip apart my sides with that awful device he is so fond of using - humour, which causes my sides to shake with fits of devastating and uncontrollable laughter. He must be stopped! Immediately!

I have said it once before, perhaps many times before, but the funniest book in existence is The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Robert Rankin, however, seems to want to fill the next thirty (!) or so slots. I'm terrified of him. Terrified he might actually have a book I have yet to read which will disembowel my entire belief system and turn out to be funnier than the Guide. My god, but he's so close to it just with the couple I've read so far. I'm biting my nails because I know I haven't read his best offerings yet. Could the world suddenly about to be turned on its pitiful head? Stranger axises of evil have been discovered this century so far. It's possible...

But, I ramble.

I finished reading Necrophenia about ten minutes ago, and I'm still shaking with the after effects of excess mirth.

Robert Rankin has introduced Tyler in this one. He's a private detective and former rock and roll legend. He has mastered the Tyler Technique - a system by which he solves his crimes. It's a successful system, and one I have always aspired to in my own life. To see it finally in print feels to me that part of my religion has been stolen from me, and for this I also wish to see Robert Rankin on a pike in front of my house. I'd do it myself, but the Tyler Technique is far too eerily similar to my own. The Tyler Technique is quite simple. Deceptively simple. Dastardly simple, perhaps. It involves doing nothing at all. In fact, the more nothing you do, the easier it is, and the more successful it becomes.

Plotwise, it's about how Tyler almost saves the world from the evil forces of forceful evil. He lives through the swinging sixties, flashes forward through each decade with decided cool and faces off against Elvis' evil brother in a grand finale guaranteed to give a giggle. It even has ninjas in it. I mean - NINJAS! Is Mister Rankin not the best at giving you everything you could possibly want and more, or what?

I'm a big fan of the do-nothing heroes. They're my favourite, because they're the ones I relate to most. Trinity from the old Bud Spencer and Terrance Hill movies was one of the best. Anyone who just sits around and lets it all out is just fine in my books. There's a vast element of discordianism raging through Robert Rankin's books, and you see it never more clearly defined than in Necrophenia. It's on for the show, and Tyler's belief system simply moves the world around for him - albeit with help from others. The Tyler Technique is simply the most simplest way you can describe Discordianism, I believe, and now when I am asked to explain this sharp little religion, I will simply offer them Necrophenia as a grimoire which will explain it all.

Is this book funny? It's terrifyingly funny. No man should be able to string along a set of jokes like this outside a Carry On film. It's simply mind-boggling how funny Robert Rankin is, and just how consistent his novels are. They are funny from beginning through to end, with no moment of boredom or slowness whereby you sit there thinking Mister Rankin got a little tired of his novel and went out for some tea while letting his secretary tap randomly away for a few chapters. His style is witty, sharp, eccentric and every bit as you could imagine if you, like me, ever wondered what would happen if a Discordian were let loose with a typewriter, an old grimoire, a Best Of the Rolling Stones album, a battered Mickey Spillane novel, a nude photoset of a rather popular weathergirl, two packs of chocolate, a hot cup of tea and a fistful of lsd. The results are astounding. And that's before the talking of the toot!

I cannot recommend Robert Rankin enough. The man is insane. Why isn't he locked up for the good of humanity? Keep his typewriter away from him! Don't let him near a pen, and for my sake don't let him near a computer!

Please, Mister Rankin, stop tormenting my sides!

Great book, but at times Rankin seems to fall back on old jokes and scenarios. Still, a good book, especially for Rankin completists.