The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse (Gollancz S.F.) |
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Robert Rankin
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Pages: 352 (Paperback)
ISBN: 0575074019
Pub: Gollancz
Pub date: 2003-08-01
Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 32485
Editorial Review:
In Robert Rankin's latest warped fantasy, a serial killer is murdering notable nursery-rhyme characters and leaving very special sweeties as calling cards at the scene of each crime: The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse.
Humpty Dumpty is the first of Toy City's upper crust to sleep with the fishes. Boiled alive in his own swimming pool. A nasty fate, but maybe not as nasty as Little Boy Blue's, with his own shepherd's crook thrust a long way into a place where the sun does not shine.
Bill Winkie the P.I. has gone missing, and his hard-drinking teddybear sidekick Eddie takes up the case. Down these mean streets a bear must go. He needs a hand, though--two hands, owing to a lack of opposable thumbs--and reluctantly teams up with "gormster" country boy Jack, who foolishly thinks he can make his fortune in Toy City.
Of course the police, jolly bouncy rubber policemen who are sadistic at heart, object to interfering freelances. So does the mystery assassin, who seems to be a curvaceous woman in a kinky rubber outfit--death on high heels. Even kindly old Mother Goose, madame of the Toy City brothel, gets her neck wrung before she can talk, and Eddie is in serious danger of losing his very stuffing.
Fast, demented, fairytale-noir action, filled with gruesomely silly deaths, self-referential thriller gags, and the true meanings of those nursery rhymes whose royalties made Humpty and the rest so rich.
Robert Rankin is fond of introducing peculiar, repeated figures of speech, and this book's is the Maddeningly Incomplete Simile. Like this: Hollow Chocolate Bunnies is as good as. It's as weird as. It's as deeply bonkers as. In short, it's as Rankin as.--David Langford
Reader Reviews:
This one got me hooked... (0/0 people found this helpful)
This was the first Rankin I brought and read, I never buy books without knowing I like the author or knowing something about the book before hand usually. This was the exception, I just brought it and I never regreted it.
Rankin has a unique style, however I found it easy to "adjust" and soon got right into the story. If you haven't yet read a Rankin book, just do it - but be warned you may become hooked and pulled into the weird and strange world of his books. Having read a few more of his books since, I think this one is a great way to start reading his work, although you can easily pick up any of his books and slide right into the story.
This is indeed a strange way to bring nursery rhyme characters back to life but that's what's so great about it all "expect the unexpected" and you'll do fine, really. A murder mystery in the most unlikely of places with coinciquences and causes you'd never imagine.
bringing nursery rhymes back to life! (0/0 people found this helpful)
I did like this book primarily for bringing nursery rhymes back to life. Ok so it's hardly a conventional way of doing it by making them all 'real' and killing several of them off but then I've already come to realise that Rankin is anything but conventional. If I had to sum up this book I'd say it was like the film toy story but definitely for older teens and adults.. it's not the funniest in terms of laugh out loud of his that I've read hence only 3 stars but then I can't give the most rounded opinion as this is only the 3rd of his I've completed. I would definitely say the Jack black poem and rhymey frog are the highlights and the parts surrounding Tommy Tucker are also funny in an albeit slightly warped way. I also liked the bit when Eddie and Jack go to the chocolate factory and they meet the talking head... and any similarities between it and charlie and the chocolate factory only go as far as: Whoever works there is pretty elusive. Still a must read though in my opinion...
Ahhh finally (0/0 people found this helpful)
Finally a book that has everything, drunkenness, violence, police brutality, sex, car chases, guns and soft toys.
This book is fantastic.
The four star rating is because it's not perfect. however for what it is, which is a funny weird mind expanding book it out does almost everything in terms or originality and kept me reading constantly.
Another reason for a four and not five star rating is because it made me get only three hours sleep on a Sunday night rendering me useless at work.
The story is fast moving and keeps you guessing; obviously there's no way you could know what's coming next in a book like this and that's why it's so much fun to read. This book is escapism at practically its greatest it takes the reader out of this sometimes overly serious world and gives the mind a chance to exorcise its imagination again.
This is the first fiction I have read for a few years and I don't know why I stopped. If you need a book to help get you through a little bit of life then this is it, conjuring up vivid images and hilarious conversations between the characters Robert Rankin has created a pearl of a book.
So in summary if you have a lot on your mind and need to forget, read this book it is funny and easy going. After a reading session you may (as I did) find yourself wondering how economic it must be for a teddy to go and get drunk.
READ IT!
What have you got to loose.
very very funny (1/1 people found this helpful)
if you have'nt read robert rankin before,stop at this point and just buy one,does'nt matter which ones as you will get hooked,if you want a bit more of a comment than this,you need to read more of his books!i first picked up one of his books in waterstones as i was just drifting through the books as you do.Picked up the Brightonomicon,laughed at rear cover and bought it,slightly embarrising to read in public, as you will laugh out loud,i went on to read sex drugs and sausage rolls and knees up mother earth,all very very funny,brilliantly written,but with running gags linking them all together,but themed around the same type of thing,ie john omally,count otto black,hugo rune,amongst others.
They just make you want to buy the rest,to keep the stories going.
The great thing with chocolate hollow bunnies is that its a completely diffrent tangent,heading off into the realm of all children,and do toys have lives...the brilliant twist is the adult humour painting pictures in your imagination with graphic lucidity.
in short,loved it,recommend it,but also read the others as they are very very good.
a laugh a minute read nothing too serious. (0/1 people found this helpful)
I Love Robert Rankin I brought this book because the title and the info on the back made me laugh. The book certainly did not disapoint. Silly writing that is made for anyone with a warp sense of humor who like silly funny things. Got toyminator for christmas can't wait to read it.
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Categories
Amazon.co.uk places this book into the following categories:
Books -> Subjects -> Humour -> Fiction
Books -> Subjects -> Science Fiction & Fantasy -> Fantasy
Books -> Subjects -> Fiction -> Authors, A-Z -> R -> Rankin, Robert
Books -> Subjects -> Fiction -> General
Books -> Special Features -> Search Inside!
Books -> Refinements -> Language (feature_browse-bin) -> English
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Books -> Refinements -> Format (binding_browse-bin) -> Paperback
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