Customer Reviews

The Toyminator

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

 

 

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!

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.

If you are a fan of shamelessly laughing out loud while reading a book (and you've already read Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse), then you will most likely thoroughly enjoy this book. I have to admit that I would be content in reading just the day to day lives and banter of Eddie Bear and Jack. Robert Rankin's writing style infuses this book with colorful and strange language and humor that I never grow tired of. I think a third book in the series is a necessity.

Rankin has a way with words that few humourist can master or sustain... Think of the original "Red Dwarf", or anything by Douglas Adams. Suspend your logical thinking, climb on board for a wild ride of wry humour co-existing in a crazy acid-hazed alternate reality... I will seek each and every one of his gems out.

Plenty of humor. I enjoyed the idea of a teddy bear who goes to the pub and has a stash of toy weapons. Book gives some piercing insights into the "real" world and meat-head (human) behaviour. Beware the chickens !!

Backcover: Somewhere over the rainbow and just off 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 there are strange signs and portents in the Heavens. Preachers of Toy City's many religions are predicting that the End Times are approaching and that a Toy City Apocalypse will soon come to pass. But can this possibly be true, or is there a simple explanation--an alien invasion, for instance? With the body count rising and the forces of law and order baffled, it is the time for a hero to step forward and attempt to save the day. Well, two heroes, actually: Eddie Bear, Toy City Private Eye, and his loyal sidekick, Jack. Our courageous twosome are about to face their biggest challenge yet--to save not only toykind, but the world of mankind, too.

Sequel toThe Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse (Gollancz)

This is the second of Rankin's books I've read. I didn't enjoy the first, but thought I'd give him a second chance with another book. Unfortunately, it wasn't any better. Not only was this not funny, but it shared so many annoying things in common with the other book (which was The Greatest Show Off Earth), that I was disappointed in the lack of new thought. I even made a list of the (annoying) similarities in both books, and it came to seven (major) items. I won't go into all of them in detail now, but I'll cover the worst.

1. Starting 10 sentences in a row with the word "And". This was *really* annoying. Sure, if it only happens a few times, it's no big deal. However, it ran all the way through the book, and occurred in practically every chapter. Just about every time a complicated scene appeared, all the action would be described with Ands. It was boring, repetitive, and not a very good use of English. Besides, wasn't it enough to use it in one book already? Why two? Probably more, seeing as I haven't read any others yet.

2. This book was so sexist that I could be here all day going into the details. To be quick, I'll just point out that - with all the many colourful characters in the story - there was exactly ONE instance of a conversation between two women. Just one. And a brief, unimportant one at that. I dare readers to try and name one novel they've read which does not involve two male characters holding a conversation with each other. I know I can't think of one. Rankin doesn't seem to be interested in writing about two female characters talking, or writing women into scenes that don't involve them being leered at by men. It isn't just this book, either - The Greatest Show Off Earth was exactly the same.

I was flabbergasted at the way in which every single female character (even an inanimate one!) was highly sexualised, their sexual attractiveness closely scrutinised, and so on. If the same had been done to the male characters, I'd say this was fair, but there wasn't so much of even a mild "handsome" or "good-looking" adjective in there anywhere regarding any of the men. I found this really offensive, and I'm honestly saddened that women are still being objectified to this extent in published material even now. There were more worryingly subtle sexist implications in there as well that didn't seem to be linked to comedy, such as the implication that beer is a "man's drink", or cocktails are a "woman's drink". Anyone with half a brain knows this is rubbish. This may be a comic novel, but sexism isn't funny. Also, it seems like an excellent way of alienating 50% of one's potential audience. I hope Rankin reads this review at some point and fixes this in his subsequent novels, because it's quite appalling. At the very least, he needs to give his male characters the same treatment he's giving the women and at least make them *both* sex objects, if the idea of women not being sex objects is really so hard to fathom.

3. Running gags. The trouble with these is that if they don't work the first time, they're never going to, and the reader will continue to be subjected to them. Even in the footnotes, the mythical editor complained about how tedious they were. Well, author, listen to your mythical editor and get rid of them! Even if they are funny (which I'm sure they will be to at least *some* people), they're still repetitive and unoriginal.

I just couldn't find any humour in this book, even ignoring all the problems listed above (and the others I didn't list here). The story was fairly interesting and original, which is the only reason I'm not giving this book a one star rating, but it didn't make so much as the corners of my mouth twitch. I need a bit of intelligence and wit in my comedy, and this doesn't have it.

PS: If the author does nothing else, I hope he at least gets rid of the plague of Ands. They really were terrible.