Writer in "can't think of a title" shocker. (Incompetence - Rob Grant)

Member Name: The Duke

Product:	Incompetence - Rob Grant
Date:	08/07/04 (69 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Funny, Good plot

Disadvantages: Erm... none that I can think of offhand.

"Article 13199 of the Pan-European Constitution:
'No person shall be prejudiced from employment in any capacity, t any level, by reason of age, race, creed or incompetence'"

It's the near future and Europe is united. Cardew Vascular is on his way to a meeting in Rome, arranged by a man called Dick Klingferm. From the very start, the real world consequences of Article 13199 are very apparent. It seems that nothing is ever done correctly and that incompetence is, well, acceptable. By the end of the first page, Vascular's plane has crash landed due to the pilot forgetting or being unable to lower the undercarriage, the plane has touched down at the wrong airport (and in the wrong country), his luggage has been lost, he's saved a fortune on taxi fares because the cabbie forgot to charge him for a three hour journey, he's been checked into a hotel room which doesn't have a bed and the internal phone system only connects to the restaurant.

Cardew Vascular is not just an ordinary businessman, though. He's a spy-detective hybrid character; a member of a secret organisation and Klingferm is a colleague of his.

Arriving late at the rendezvous, he discovers that there's been an accident and as a result, Klingferm is dead. Was it an accident or was it murder dressed as incompetence? Why did Klingferm find it necessary to arrange a face to face meeting when that alone was a highly suspicious event? More importantly, what was Klingferm working on that was so important he was killed?

Vascular tries to put the pieces together and the investigation leads him across Europe on the trail of a psychotic killer who may, in a curious twist, actually be on Vascular's trail.

Incompetence is really a comedy of sorts. As a whodunit, it's not the most complicated mystery in the world, and I had most of it figured out well before the end. Incompetence is more about the ride to the conclusion.
The encounters with the myriad of characters that simply wouldn't be doing the jobs that they are doing when encountered by Cardew Vascular (or Harry Salt or Harry Tequila or any of his other aliases within the book) are what it's all about.

The run-ins with the Italian police officer with 'anger containment problems', the hotel guest liaison with 'sexually inappropriate response' and the flight ticket sale clerk with 'attention deficit issues' are practically characters in themselves, and it's these which provide most of the black humour in the book.

You don't really get a chance to know the characters in the book as the story only visits each location briefly apart from the narrator of the story (and we never even learn his real name). Those characters who do appear to get more story-time are basically reduced to whatever incompetence disorder they may have, and the lack of characterisation may be a surprise to those who would expect more from one of the co-creators of Red Dwarf.

In terms of style, I have to say that I think that Grant's work is very reminiscent of the late Douglas Adams, and that's not a bad thing. The observations and ludicrous nature of the experiences of the central character are all Adams-like, and with Douglas Adams' sad demise, this can only be welcomed.

Overall, I like this book. I suspect that part of the attraction is the similarity to Douglas Adams, but it's a good idea wrapped in a decent plot with plenty of humour throughout. I wouldn't say that it was laugh out loud funny, but the humour is more of that knowing wink type stuff and will make you smile and giggle.

If you're a Red Dwarf or Douglas Adams fan, then you're going to like this a lot. If you're not, this is still worth a look if you like black humour.

Publisher: Gollancz
ISBN: 0575074493
Price: £6.99

Summary: