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The Fandom of the Operator
 
 
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The Fandom of the Operator (Paperback)

by Robert Rankin (Author)
4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
RRP: £7.99
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Customers buy this book with Waiting for Godalming by Robert Rankin

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Product details

  • Paperback: 389 pages
  • Publisher: Corgi Books; New edition edition (1 April 2002)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0552148970
  • ISBN-13: 978-0552148979
  • Product Dimensions: 17.3 x 10.7 x 3 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 233,004 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in this category:

    #34 in  Books > Fiction > Authors, A-Z > R > Rankin, Robert

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Product Description

Amazon.co.uk Review

Another deranged performance from Robert Rankin: The Fandom of the Operator mixes surreal silliness, ghastly old jokes and a vein of apocalyptic bleakness, as in his previous novel Web Site Story.

Young hero or anti-hero Gary Cheese grows up in a warped 1950s Brentford with two main interests: death, and the Lazlo Woodbine private-eye novels (see Waiting for Godalming) by PP Penrose. When this revered author dies, it's only logical that Gary and his bestest friend Dave should plan to crash the wake and reanimate him with voodoo. Black comedy follows, with highly uncomic results.

Years later, Gary at 22 has a dead-end telecomms job of stupefying tedium. He waits for a light to come on, and turns it off. That's all. This work is implausibly connected to the FLATLINE project--phone contact with the afterlife. The dead can reveal bizarre and terrible secrets, but meanwhile there's a lot Gary hasn't been telling us about his own history. Just how many people has he killed? Or was it actually him?

The mixture includes a barman who senses customers' True Names ("If it isn't the Honourable Valdec Firesword, Archduke of Alpha Centuri"),unlikely celebrity parties, car chases, copious and disgusting zombie sex, alien mind control, yet another secret base under Mornington Crescent tubestation, an ever-growing body count, and so many onion-layers of conspiracy and secret masters as to produce an effect of cosmic, transcendent pointlessness. Eat your heart out, Philip K Dick.

Robert Rankin is uniquely off-the-wall, unparalleled in his eccentricity: there's no other comic fantasy author like him. Thank heavens for that. --David Langford --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review

'To call Rankin irreverent doesn't begin to describe just how good he is at playing with the rules'. MIRROR
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Customer Reviews

7 Reviews
5 star:
 (4)
4 star:
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3 star:    (0)
2 star:
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1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.3 out of 5 stars (7 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Darker humour than your average Rankin, 8 Feb 2002
By A Customer
This review is from: The Fandom of the Operator (Hardcover)
This is certainly a new direction for Rankin. The characters and comedy are much blacker than usual. The plot is as clever as ever, though more surreal than his normal (surreal) efforts.

On the down-side, the characters suffer from their normal lack of substance and depth. Also, the characters have few, if any, redeeming features, though to be fair they get what they deserve by the of the book.

Overall, a very enjoyable read, if you are prepared to accept something slightly different from the master of far-fetched fiction...

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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars His best book since The Poor Mouth, 8 Nov 2001
This review is from: The Fandom of the Operator (Hardcover)
Rankin is back on top form. This is the least self-referential, most dry, most sinister, most coherent and above all funniest novel since the departure from the beloved trilogies.

This is by far the closest thing to Flann O'Brien that Rankin has ever done. I don't know if he's broken his own rule about not reading fiction, but it seems he has fone right back to the source here. It maintains the tighrope walk betweem nighmarish surrealism, plot integrity and light comedy using the same devices that the venerable irishman used. Thing is; he's doing it better now.

What else to say? It's his best book for years, its got a new style, it's got Laz, its got sprouts, its in brentford. Buy it.

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Weird yet Clever, 13 Sep 2002
By Janice (England) - See all my reviews
This is the first book of Rankin of I have read. At first reading it, seeing it was in first person, I wasnt sure if I would enjoy it much, but much to my surprise, by the end of the day I was half way through. It is a great read. You aren't exactly sure what to expect next, and once your quite near the end, the "murders" start to unravel, and ties up the loose ends from earlier.

The dark humour in it gives it a good twist, and the contents of the plot is ranging from silly, to dark to humourous.

All in all, I would say there is something in there for everyone. A detective book, thriller/murder, sci-fi/fantasy or comedy.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Great!
This was the book that got me back into reading Rankin. Until I was 15 or so, I read every Rankin book I could get my hands on. Read more
Published 2 days ago by Eoghain O'Keeffe

5.0 out of 5 stars bulbtastic!
This is my favourite Rankin book.

The idea of a guy getting a job where he presses a button whenever a bulb lights up and not knowing why had me in stitches... Read more
Published on 14 Feb 2007 by DangermouseZilla

5.0 out of 5 stars Dead Good!
Robert Rankin's 23rd (gulp!) novel contains all of his usual insane inventiveness, here in the form of re-animated zombies, chat-lines that let you speak to the dead, alien... Read more
Published on 28 Sep 2006 by dogbarkssome

2.0 out of 5 stars I can't believe I am giving it two stars!
The latest Rankin offering is dismal. What happened to the man who had previously shown a witty insightful veiwpoint on life? Read more
Published on 3 Nov 2001

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