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Robert Rankin

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The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse Hardcover – January 1, 2002

by Robert Rankin (Author)

4.3 383 ratings

Book 1 of 2: Eddie Bear

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Jack sets out to seek his fortune in Toy City and hooks up with Eddie Baer as they try to stop a serial killer who is murdering old nursery rhyme characters.

Book 1 of 2

Eddie Bear
Print length

352 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Victor Gollancz
Publication date

January 1, 2002
Dimensions

6.5 x 1.25 x 9 inches
ISBN-10

0575073136
ISBN-13

978-0575073135
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Robert Rankin
142
Hardcover
26 offers from $2.16

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Victor Gollancz; First Edition (January 1, 2002)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 352 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0575073136
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0575073135
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.5 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.5 x 1.25 x 9 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #3,291,091 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #37,934 in Contemporary Literature & Fiction
- #205,671 in Fantasy (Books)

Customer Reviews:
4.3 383 ratings

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About the author

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Robert Rankin

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Robert Rankin describes himself as a teller of tall tales. The Morning Star describes him as 'The Master of Silliness', and his publisher describes him as The Master of Far Fetched Fiction. He is the author of more than thirty novels, of which he has sold millions of copies, and he is published - and making people laugh - around the world.

Despite his remarkable publishing success, Robert has never taken himself too seriously. He loves going on tour, signing books for readers, and his appearances at signings and conventions are legendary, often including a stand-up routine, a song (accompanied by his 'air-ukulele'), and an always-entertaining question-and-answer session. Robert Rankin is a great entertainer, whether in person or through his novels, with wit, humour and an incredible personal warmth.

But that's not all! In addition to being a talented writer, comedian and musician, he's also an incredible artist . . . so incredible, that he creates his own stunning book covers.

Reading his books can and will inspire you, scare you, thrill you and, above all, entertain you. His novels are an outlet for the soul, and food for the imagination.

The Brentford Trilogy:

The Antipope

The Brentford Triangle

East of Ealing

The Sprouts of Wrath

The Brentford Chainstore Massacre

Sex and Drugs and Sausage Rolls

Knees Up Mother Earth

The Brightonomicon

The Armageddon Trilogy:

Armageddon: The Musical

They Came and Ate Us

The Suburban Book of the Dead

Cornelius Murphy Novels:

The Book of Ultimate Truths

Raiders of the Lost Car Park

The Most Amazing Man Who Ever Lived

The Trilogy That Dare Not Speak Its Name:

Sprout Mask Replica

The Dance of the Voodoo Handbag

Waiting for Godalming

The Witches Trilogy:

The Witches of Chiswick

Knees Up Mother Earth

The Brightonomicon

Eddie Bear Novels:

The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse

The Toyminator

Standalone Novels:

The Greatest Show Off Earth

The Garden of Unearthly Delights

A Dog Called Demolition

Nostradamus Ate My Hamster

Apocalypso

Snuff Fiction

Web Site Story

The Fandom of the Operator

The Da-da-de-da-da Code

Necrophenia

Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5

383 global ratings

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TundraBee

like nuttin' i ever read before, honey bunny!

Reviewed in the United States on August 30, 2005

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Who is killing all the old Preadolescent Poetic Personalities? (PPP being the new, politically correct term by which nursery rhyme characters now wish to be known.) Who or What Ever this sadistic serial slayer be, each rhyme crime - the dreadful murders with mayhem of Humpty-Dumpty*, Little Boy Blue, Jack Spratt etc.** is "signed" by leaving a hollow chocolate bunny - hence, the title "the hollow chocolate bunnies of the apocalypse." (all lower case, as most of the characters are wee creatures.) Farm boy Jack and his "bestest friend" Eddie the Teddy Bear are on the case.

With frequent wry winks at and through `the 4th wall,' sometimes more fumbling and bumbling than Colombo, always allegorical a la Animal Farm, and simmering with snide side-snipes at contemporary geo-politics and sociology, reminding this reviewer of Gregory Maguire's marvels, Robert Rankin's rollicking, roiling racontement is more fun that a basket of chocolate bunnies! /TundraVision, Amazon Reviewer

* We learn that conspiracy theories abound on just how Humpty Dumpty fell off that wall (Note that in Rankin's raucous version: 'There was a regiment of soldiers passing at the time, but they couldn't resuscitate him. Paramedics patched him up, though. They were conveniently close.' So, although all the King's soldiers and all the King's men couldn't put Humpty together again, he did live on - until his brutal boiling here in Rankin's book.) "Yet another theory has it that there was more than one Humpty Dumpty, but no wall involved: one Humpty fell from the side of a grassy knoll and another from the window of a book depository."

** For a refresher course on the victims and their back-stories, er - make that back-rhymes ;-) this is a fun and informative site: rhymes.org.uk

5 people found this helpful

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A very specific kind of humor; you need to be in the mood

Reviewed in the United States on March 26, 2006

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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.

61 people found this helpful

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Great book from the master

Reviewed in the United States on March 21, 2014

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Believe me when I tell you that I have laughed out loud while reading a book exactly twice. This book was one of those. It's funny, people, in ways you can't even imagine. Rankin is wildly funny, at times acerbic, and always spot on with his observations. The book leads you through a wild fairy tale wonderland in search of a killer, but at its heart, it's really about the human condition. Eddy the bear is hilarious and the perfect companion for our hero. I will caution parents. This is NOT a children's book. This is NOT Mother Goose. There are some situations, characters and language in this book that are not appropriate for children. That being said, it contained a host of lines that I still quote today and a ton of passages that I just had to read out loud to my husband. Nice work, Mr. Rankin. And if you ever need a new publisher....call me. I can hook you up.

3 people found this helpful

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J. Thompson

What is funny anyway?

Reviewed in the United States on March 25, 2005

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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.

12 people found this helpful

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T-Dot

Amazing story

Reviewed in Canada on March 17, 2022

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Amazing story and witty writing

k.gugelmeier

seid offen für die seltsamkeit von wunderbarem blödsinn.

Reviewed in Germany on February 18, 2019

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wie immer.er entäuscht nicht.alleine seine sprachindividualität ist erfreulich und genial.

One person found this helpful

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MomaBunnyBean

Wow!!!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 19, 2016

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I discovered Hollow Chocolate Bunnies purely by accident. I was browsing through the audiobooks in the library & the title caught my imagination, then the blurb on the back. I love fantasy fiction & wacky humour & this didn't disappoint. I must have looked rather silly at work, (I am an online shopper for one of the big supermarkets & we start work at 4am) wandering round shopping before the customers are in, wearing a silly grin on my face with my earbuds in. Trying to describe the hero, Jack, & Eddie Bear's working/friendly relationship, murders of Nursery Rhyme characters, Mother Goose's brothel ("so, Eddie, do you DO a dolly then?" asked Jack. "NO!!!" Eddie replied, "I'm a teddy & that would be just plain perverted!") was a lot of fun. My mother listened after I'd finished & she thoroughly enjoyed it too.
I ordered it for my kindle & also the sequel The Toyminator, as they will be ones I will re-read in the future. I'm looking forward to reading the Toyminator whilst I'm scoffing breakfast, as long as I don't choke on my Weetabix!
After the sad demise of the late, great Terry Pratchett, I felt there was a fantasy void in the book world. Now I have discovered an author that will fill that gap, in a slightly different way.
Keep up the good... no... GREAT work Mr Rankin!

2 people found this helpful

Dave Hough

Robert Rankin versus Kindle

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 18, 2012

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Brilliant book full of adventures and witty remarks.
Having said that,i bought my Kindle at Christmas,basicaly as i have little room left to store my favourite books.
I started reading Robert Rankin books a year ago,so bought the Kindle with the idea of reading and keeping his books on Kindle,but it appears there is only a limited number of his books to download for my Kindle.
Also,once on my Kindle the only option i have realy is either to keep them or delete them and not pass them on to anyone else.
So,"Chocolate Bunnies" brilliant,Kindle-i have my doubts.

L. Young

Good read in R Rankin style.

Reviewed in Canada on September 21, 2017

Verified Purchase

Good read. Will order other Rankin novels.

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