Customer Reviews
sell your soul to the rock and roll - By: Paul Tapner, 21 Sep 2008 
latest novel from robert rankin, a writer best described as the english spike milligan. his novels are real world set, usuallly in brentford, & are highly inventive comic fantasies.
If you've never encountered his work before then this isn't probably the best place to start, as whilst you could get into it quite easily some recurring characters & themes do crop up. start instead with his novel the antipope, which is a good book to see whether or not his style is for you.
the book is about jonny hooker, a young man living in london who still has an imaginary friend despite being 27, as the friend refuses to go away. he gets a flyer saying he's won a competetion. investigating this further leads him into a tangled web of conspiraces, secret societies, celebrities, time travelling sprouts, & murder.
the usual rankin style, then.
whilst this does go over old ground to some extent, it's a return to form after two rather disappointing novels. funny, surreal, fourth walll breaking, & with lots of very interesting trivia, it's a fun read if you're a long term fan of his work up to his normal standard.
the book runs for 345 pages, & ends with a short note listing how to download music by robert rankin that acts as a soundtrack to it.
A difficult review to write - By: Ray Blake, 16 Mar 2008 
I've been a Rankin fan ever since I read 'The Antipope' in the 1980s, & I've got everything he's written, mostly first editions. Until now, I've never had a problem recommending any of his books to people who enjoy humorous writing. But this one doesn't deliver the Rankin magic, somehow. It's alll there - the heroic hero, the strangely formal dialogue, the wacky wander through alternative history, the end of the world, the rock & roll, the running gags...
Like a cake that didn't rise properly, this has alll the right ingredients, but somehow the whole conspires to be less than the sum of its parts. I think my biggest criticism is the problems with plot & continuity that Rankin self-referentiallly turns into jokes. Once or twice in a book, this is charming & makes you feel you're being let in on a secret joke. When it's done every chapter, it feels like lazy plotting, or a wish to avoid extensive redrafting.
Of course, no Rankin is write off & there is much here to celebrate & chortle at. But it's a pale substitute for one of the Rankin 'Golden Age' novels.
The Review - By: Lazlo Woodbine, 02 Jan 2008 It would be more like 2.5 stars having said that I thought it was much better than The Toyminator & shaded The Brightonomicon. Its just that its nothing we haven't read before, but I suppose you read Rankin because you like his style. Try Smalll Mercy, its Rankinesque
Rankin Delivers? - By: E. Bruce, 07 Dec 2007 Ive been a fan of Rankins for years now & have written a novel callled Deathday (check it out right here on Amazon!) & kindly some folk have likened me to Rankin but i hope not to this one...Unfortunately this is a little tired, he's tried to break away from his own unique formula but it hasn't worked...then again the mans a genius with more than 20 books to his name so who the hell am i to critisize! by the way DEATHDAY by Eugene Bruce Go on, you're already here!!
Not Roberts best - By: Gareth Wilson, 19 Sep 2007 
Ok, Robert Rankin is getting well known for his different take on the comedic tale that has become popular through the likes of Terry Pratchett & Tom Holt, however that said, to be honest I felt that this book was a let down & preferred others of his such as "Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse" & "The Toyminator." Whilst these two do prove that Robert is a great writer it reallly does come as a shock when another one of his novels just doesn't hit that itch that you've had.
As to why this book just didn't do a thing for me I suspect that a big part of that was due to me being unable to form a bond with the protagonist & as such reallly did make this a heavy slog. I disliked him & he seemed disjointed & rather unfunctional as a protagonist, which reallly did cling to my perception throughout the whole tale. If I were to have to recommend one of Robert's books to a new reader, others rank higher than this & I do hope that future books return to a more conventional form that works for him.
