Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
Really Chuffin' Funny, 18 Mar 1999
By A Customer
Read the first three Brentford books first (buy them all in one go if you haven't got them - you wont regret it). I couldn't put this book down. I wanted to know what would happen next and I was always left wanting more. If you like Pubs and Darts and can imagine last of the summer wine on acid then these are the books for you - hilarious.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Sprouts again, 2 Nov 2006
The fourth book of the five part trilogy. That might be someone else's hitch-hikeresque joke, but its a great way to start!
Although the book stands alone sufficiently to be read without its predecessors, I don't think it should be - the same gang are in on this one as always and therefore their introductions and character developments are not as complete and in depth as you might get by reading the other books, the characters and their quirks, or sheer madness, are the beauty of the series.
As usual the plot is nuts, the way we get from one end to the other is crazy and only a lunatic could believe that it could ever happen, but having said that the setting of the book in such a real down to earth setting and with people who at first glance aren't completely impossible gives the book something of a warmth. So you could almost imagine a little if you really wanted to.
Jim, John, Norman and all have to fight off evil (yes, generally its always just evil they have to fight, a true example of good v evil where the heroes aren't really quite what heroes should be) as the Olympics come to Brentford. The day may well be saved, but I reckon that the heroes come into much more peril than normal, and that is actually quite a shock, no longer are they almost completely safe (as heroes really ought to be, you cant kill a hero after all) but these guys are almost mortal, a nice touch that.
[...]
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Fun but formulaic, 17 April 2003
Rankin’s fourth ‘Brentford Trilogy’ books (following The Antipope, The Brentford Triangle and East of Ealing) is typically insane stuff, with another arcane evil threatening the Brentford locals. Jim Pooley and John Omally are supported by the full familiar cast of Inspectre (so much more mysterious than Inspector) Hovis, Professor Slocombe, Hugo Rune, Norman and of course Neville the part-time barman.There’s some great writing, some hilarious comedy scenes, and some jokes so awful only Robert Rankin would dare write them down, but on the negative side there is more than a faint whiff of formula about this outing. This is most apparent in this novels ‘evil villain’, a rather generic creature, and in the rather predictable structure of the novel. Still, fans of the previous three Brentford novels will find this is still essential lunacy.
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