h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I am currently reading 'The Gardcen of Unearthly Delights', which is exactly as funny as I have come to expect from Rankin. When I visited WH Smith earlier today, I found that I had a copy of every single Rankin book on the shelf. I think that counts me as a fan.

Funny you should mention that one, because aside from the Armageddon trilogy, which I really didn't get on with at all, TGOUD is pretty much my least favourite Rankin. The odd thing is, I have no idea why. I just didn't "click" with it, and it's always my worry that I'll recommend a Rankin book to someone and they'll fail to click with that in the same way.

Thanks for reading this, btw... how did you find it?

H.

I think it's a good piece, and covers the material pretty succinctly. There might have been more on the recurring _characters_, though, especially Hugo Rune, Lazlo Woodbine, Sir John Rimmer, etc.
Funnily enough, I found the Armageddon books to be the best and always reccomend them as a place to start if someone asks me. In fact, I found them and the stand-alone novels to be rather better than the Brentford quintet, which never seemed to have quite as high a concentration of laughs.
Still, the worst Rankin book is better than average on most scales, in my opinion.

Oh I certainly agree there. The only disadvantage I find with them is stifling my guffaws on public transport...

So... how/why did you find this entry?

H.

I've got a bit at the bottom of my Personal Space where I state the book I've just read, the book I'm now reading, and the book I'll probably read next. Ever since I discovered how to do links in GuideML, I've been trying to turn nearly every single word of the PS text into a link to something or other, and as I was updating it I checked to see if I could link to anything for Rankin.
At the same time I also discovered that there is no Guide entry for TS Eliot.

Time to write one then, eh?

H.

I'm sure I've read an Entry on TS Elliot

Once read an Robert Rankin, you'll want to read them all!

My top 3 recomendation are 'Dance of the Voodoo Handbag', 'Notrodamus Ate My Hamster' and 'The Fandom of The Operator'

Have you updated the entry since the release of Chocolate Bunnies of The Apocolypse or Mention the forth coming trilogy, Hoovooloo?

By the time an entry achieves the hallowed status of "Edited", the original author has lost any ability to add to or otherwise modify it - this isn't Wikipedia!

So no, I haven't updated it, and in any case, I haven't read HCBOTA yet - when is it out in paperback?

H.

Just after the release of Witches Of Chiswick, so that will be late september early October... HCBOTA is only a tenner in H/back part Robert deal with his new publishers... I bought two copies at the book lauch

I only heard of RR since I have been on this site, so I duly set out to purchase a book immediately as I had just finished one book and was looking for another. I went to quite a few book shops and no-one had any in stock (Australia), the only place I could find ANYTHING was on the internet which meant I tortuously had to wait a bit for my book to arrive. I chose 'Sex and Drugs and Sausage Rolls' based on a difficult and complicated selection process (ie I liked the picture on the front) as due to the large range of books published it was kind of hard to know where to start. ANYWAY............

I am mid way through it and am enjoying it well enough, it HAS made me laugh out loud in various public places as promised by everyone who has ever read one, but I have to say, and I KNOW Im only halfway through and there are many more books to read, that I find his writing a teency bit amatuerish at times. He doesnt have the complete, through and through, clever,intelligent knack of saying something outrageously hilarious the way Douglas Adams or Ben Elton do. Sometimes things just feel a bit beginnerish???

I now feel bad and will away to find some examples of what I mean as I am probably not making sense, forgive me!

j888
(reeling from the slings and arrows........)

These a lack of passion in some of his novels that to the newcomer to his work can misinterpret as amaturish IMO.

I have enjoy some of Ben Eltons work but I would any Rankin is better than say Blast from the Past or the overrated Popcorn...

On the subject of being amateurish, I think this isn't the case and forms a deliberate part of Rankin's style. Eg. the room had a table in it and later you would read that Pooley sat down (on a chair that went previously unmentioned).

Obviously things like that could be down to being an amateur or, as in the case with Rankin, a reoccuring theme througout many of his books.

Another thing to mention is that I think some people associate good writing with exhaustive descriptions of things so that you can visualise exactly what the author is talking about. Rankin generally doesn't do this - you get the pertinant facts quickly and anything that you need to know and all of the unneccesary baggage is discarded in favour of moving the story along and having a laugh.

Robert Rankin is still the only author that makes me laugh out loud. Many make me smirk or smile but nobody else has had the effect of having to put the book down while laughing that hard that I thought I was going to black out.

Now, that's what I call a pro!