Rereading Robert Rankin, the father of Far Fetched Fiction
I first started reading Robert Rankin in the late 80s when I was still at school. I had seen the newly released Armageddon: The Musical in a bookshop while waiting for Douglas Adams and Sir Terry Pratchett to release their next novels.
I liked the title and gave it a go. It made Adams and Pratchett and nearly all other books seems grounded and normal in comparison. They are bonkers, but are written with charm and style, with incredibly likeable (if occasionally shallow) characters.
I had found another author whose annual releases I would snatch up the moment they came out. With titles like Nostradamus Ate my Hamster, The Suburban Book of the Dead, and The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse, his books are hard to resist.
I was recently visiting my parents and saw a pile of Rankin books in my old book case. I started reading The Antipope and was immediately hooked. It had been 30 years since I read a Rankin and I was immediately reminded of why I liked him.
Since then, I have been rereading his batshit crazy novels in order of publication and have been loving them.
Rankin books are described as ‘Far Fetched Fiction’
Robert Rankin pretty much invented his own genre of books – far fetched fiction. It is an apt title and some are more far fetched than others. Take Armageddon The Musical and the blurb that first caught my eye:
From the point of view of 2050, you’re history.
Theological warfare. Elvis on an epic time-travel journey – the Presliad. Buddhavision – a network bigger than God (and more powerful, too). Nasty nuclear leftovers. Naughty sex habits. Dalai Dan (the 153rd reincarnation of the Lama of that ilk) and Barry, the talkative Time Sprout. Even with all this excitement, you wouldn’t think a backwater planet like Earth makes much of a splash in the galactic pond.
But the soap opera called The Earthers is making big video bucks in the intergalactic ratings race. And alien TV execs know exactly what the old earth drama needs to make the off-world audience sit up and stare: a spectacular Armageddon-type finale. With a cast of millions – including you!
DON’T TOUCH THAT DIAL – IT’S GONNA BE A HELLUVA SHOW!
Who doesn’t want to read that? Someone who must be dead inside is who.
What I have reread so far
I have decided to read them in order of official publication. There are some character crossovers from various series (especially if it is a Brentford-based story), but a lot of his books are individual tales that can be read in any order.
The main recurring themes throughout his work are the borough of Brentford (in west London), where Rankin grew up. This resulted in the first Brentford trilogy. There are now multiple trilogies, but I think I only read the first two. There is a cast of returning characters with the main two being Pooley and Omally.
So far, I have reread the first trilogy and am now on book four.
The first Brentford trilogy
A quick summary –
The Antipope – A foul smelling beggar appears in Brentford and for some reason, everyone who meets him feels an urge to cross themselves afterwards. It turns out that this is because the tramp is the resurrected Pope Alexander VI, the last of the Borgias, and is now just evil. Pooley and Omally, along with colourful locals, must find a way to defeat him.
The Brentford Triangle – Aliens from Ceres return to Earth and they have their sights set on Brentford. Omally and Pooley must put a stop to it.
East of Ealing – Satan is trying to take over the Earth, and this time he is using technology. This was written in the mid-80s and predicts a terrifying world of a cashless society where you are reliant on banks for everything and cash is redundant. Everyone has to have a barcode tattooed on their hands and every barcode has a 666 in it. This fulfils an Exodus prophecy and means we are doomed. Plus, lots of people are being replaced by robots. This is less far fetched looking at the news.
Final thoughts and what I think after a reread
The fact that I am on book four – The Sprouts of Wrath – is obviously a strong clue that I am enjoying re-entering Rankin’s surreal world. Happily, it has been over three decades since I first read them and I have forgotten most of the plots.
They start off normal and get more bizarre. I remember sniggering at one point and Mrs WordofWard asked what I was reading. I explained it was an amusing scene featuring a genius shopkeeper, a floating camel trapped in a small shed, and the ghost of Edgar Allen Poe was trying to work out what was going on. Another time, I mentioned that the main characters were trapped in an underground world beneath Brentford and were being attacked by foul smelling demons but happily, Sherlock Holmes turned out to be real and had come out of suspended animation to help them out.
Getting to these plot points had happened kind of logically. This numbs you to the absurdity of the scenes to the point where you forget how mental the whole thing is.
Is he as good as Pratchett or Adams? I am not going to lie – not quite. Pratchett has better characters and more complete books, with plots that have consequences later on. Adams was funnier and had deeper philosophy and ideas. But Rankin is still great and writes utterly different stuff. (I guess the Dirk Gently books by Adams were the closest, but even they aren’t quite as odd.)
I would still highly recommend Rankin, and I have friends who prefer him to the others.
Rankin’s work is daft, fun, and well worth checking out.
If you want to try out some Rankin, here are some recommendations:
Check out the original Brentford trilogy, which I have decribed above and are great. They will give you a taste of his style and they are set in a real place. They are slightly dated, but only when it comes to the prices of things and the fact there aren’t any strong female characters.
The Armageddon books are fun. I remember the first book but not the rest. But this could be because I read the second two in the series in my 20s and was drinking a lot more.
The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse was fun from what I remember and is utterly different from the others. It features a teddy bear who is a detective living in Toy Town chasing after a serial killer.
The Witches of Chiswick – It turns out that a lot of Victorian science fiction was based on truth. The War of the Worlds really happened and the Nautilus is somewhere at the bottom of the ocean. But there is more – the Elephant man was a human/ET hybrid and Jack the Ripper was a killer robot from the future. Weirdness abounds.
That should be enough to be getting on with. Enjoy!
Other book recommendations and reviews can be found here in my Book tab.
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