The publisher describes Rankin as a “beloved British Eccentric.” Wrong. He's a total wack job. But if you can understand...
Once again, Mankind faces doom in another indescribable Elvis-filled gumshoe fantasy grab-bag, Rankin’s 30th outing (The Da-Da-De-Da-Da Code, 2008, etc.).
Back in 1960s London, wannabe rock star and gumshoe Tyler, beguiled by Captain Lynch's stories of fabled Begrem, city of gold, forms a ukulele band, the Sumerian Kynges, only to get upstaged at his high-school concert by the Rolling Stones (who actually steal their ukuleles). But Tyler and his band have been promised fame and fortune by the mysterious Mr Ishmael (after having signed a contract in blood). Soon they're equipped with guitars, amps, drums, etc., only to have the equipment stolen. So Tyler, assisted by his mad brother Andy (he thinks he's a dog), sniffs out the equipment—in a graveyard populated by undead. The secret Ministry of Serendipity, who know about the zombies, capture Tyler and turn him into an amnesiac assassin. It turns out that the world is threatened by an evil magician and zombie master known as the Homunculus, whose ambition is to create a dead world, the Necrosphere. Arriving in New York with a traveling circus, Tyler will meet Lazlo Woodbine, the famous (fictional) detective, Elvis (of course Elvis) and Elvis's evil twin Keith (he's also the Pope). Eventually he’ll perfect the Tyler Technique of detecting, which involves (mostly) doing nothing at all. Confused yet?
The publisher describes Rankin as a “beloved British Eccentric.” Wrong. He's a total wack job. But if you can understand him, you'll find, oddly enough, that the more you think about it, the funnier it gets.Pub Date: Dec. 15, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-575-07871-0
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Gollancz/Trafalgar
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2008
The narrator is researching for his book, The Day the World Ended, when he comes up against his karass, as he later understands it through Bokononism. It leads him to investigate Dr. Hoenniker, "Father of the A-Bomb," whom his son Little Newt says was playing cat's cradle when the bomb dropped (people weren't his specialty). The good doctor left his children an even greater weapon of devastation in ice-nine, an inheritance which won his ugly daughter a handsome husband; little Newt, a Russian midget just his size for an affair that ended when she absconded with a sliver of ice-nine; and made unlikely Franklin the right hand man of Papa Monzano of San Lorenzo, a make-believe Caribbean republic. On the trail of ice-nine, the narrator comes in for Papa's death and is tapped for the Presidency of San Lorenzo. Lured by sex symbol Mona, he accepts, but before he can take office, ice-nine breaks loose, freezing land and sea. Bokonon, the aged existentialist residing in the jungle as counter to the strong man, formulates a religion that makes up for life altogether: since the natives are miserable and there is little hope for changing their lot, he takes advantage of the release of ice-nine to bring them a happy death. The narrator's karass is at last made clear by Bokonon himself, leaving him to commit a final blasphemy against whoever is up there. A riddle on the meaning of meaninglessness or vice versa in a devastation-oriented era, with science-fiction figures on the prowl and political-ologies lanced. Spottily effective.
Pub Date: March 18, 1963
ISBN: 038533348X
Page Count: 308
Publisher: Holt Rinehart & Winston
Review Posted Online: Oct. 6, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1963
Imperfect, but well constructed and engrossing nonetheless.
Cerúlia recovers from her wounds and decides it’s finally time to take back her throne in Kozloff’s (The Queen of Raiders, 2020, etc.) penultimate Nine Realms novel.
Badly burned and laid up in a Healing Center, Cerúlia is losing faith in herself. She misses the various friends she’s made along her journey, misses her home, and resents her limitations as she heals from injuries sustained in the previous novel. In the past, her magical “Talent” for talking to animals has helped her make friends with local creatures, but she’s worried that something has happened to her ability and fears using it. As she slowly recuperates and learns from the fellow residents in the healing center, Cerúlia comes to understand that she must face her responsibility to her people and find a way to become the Queen of Weirandale. To that end, she returns home to her nation’s capital, Cascada, only to discover that her long-lost foster sister, Percia, is about to marry the kindly son of the maniacal and power-hungry Regent Matwyck, the very person keeping Cerúlia from her throne. Reunited with her beloved foster family, Cerúlia decides it is time to stop hiding under aliases and disguises. But with no army to support her, how is she supposed to save herself from Matwyck’s clutches? And now that she’s seen more of the world and understands the lives of regular people, does she even believe in the idea of monarchy at all? Kozloff finally brings the action back to Weirandale in a compelling setup to the last novel in her series. Like Book 2, this one struggles a bit with standing on its own, but Kozloff uses these pages to make Cerúlia a more complex and compelling character. Threads following other characters from other nations are easy to follow and add dimension to the world, but as of now they still feel a bit too detached from the main plotline.
Imperfect, but well constructed and engrossing nonetheless.Pub Date: March 24, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-16866-5
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2020
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