Robert Rankin in general

[Op on "Greatest Show Off Earth"] - Will be moved in the Fullness of Time. I`ve now read quite a few Robert Rankin (a Twelfth Dan Master of Dimac and Magus to the Illuminated order of the Celestial Sprout, incase you didn`t know.) books but still i haven`t decided for certain if i actually like his writing style or not, he has a certain unique humour, but it tends to dwell very near the bottom of the gutter, he lacks the wit of Pratchett and the creativity of Holt, but still.. a change is as good as a rest, so i continue to read each new novel to see if he`s finally done something to persuade me off the fence and onto one side of the garden.. ...  Read the complete review

After reading everything ever written by Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett, I despaired of finding another author who could achieve their standards of excellence. In Robert Rankin I believe I have found someone who surpasses that level and creates a whole new meaning of the word entertaining. These books are laugh out loud funny and though you will have heard many of the jokes before, you will find them refreshed when applied in a different context. I did not read Robert Rankin's books in the order that they were written, as prior to seeing his books on a shelf in W.H Smiths I had never heard of him. The title of one of the books caught my eye ...  Read the complete review

Robert Rankin is described by Time Out as "A born writer with a taste for the occult". This is to undersell his talent. He is on my "See the book, must buy it" list. A Robert Rankin book, on a skim will read like a bizarre stream of conciousness. The titles of his books are classic in their own right, in the same way that the Sun newspaper headlines do. Examples are "Nostradamus ate my hamster", and "The dance of the voodoo handbag." If you are going to get into his books you really need to start with the Brentford Triangle trilogy. You get introduced to a number of characters who turn up at one time or ...  Read the complete review

Robert Rankin is a man whom nobody can truly understand, and thus, is a man whom nobody can truly compare to, nor fault. He is in a class of his own; one could even say his own genre. Upon reading the cover slip from his latest book ("Web Site Story"), I noticed a paragraph claiming Robert Rankin set out to create his own personal genre (Far-Fetched Fiction, hence the title of my article), so that he would have no contemporaries, and his own section in WH Smith (!). When you read his books, you notice he has done just that. Sadly, I could not afford to buy his latest offering, because, it still being in hardback form, costs £16.99 or thereabouts, and, ...  Read the complete review

Many people will know (if that's the right word) of Robert Rankin as "the one whose books are next to Terry Pratchett's". This is a little unfair, not only because there's at least one sci-fi/fantasy author whose name begins with R-A-B, but because Rankin's work is at least comparable to Pratchett's. The problem is, however, that when it's compared it's found to be not as good. This sound extremelly critical, but it's certainly not intended to be. Pratchett's books are, on the whole, extremelly cleverly written and tightly formed, with amazing storylines and excellent characters. Rankin's style is far ...  Read the complete review