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Incompetence (Gollancz S.F.)
 
 
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Incompetence (Gollancz S.F.) (Paperback)

by Rob Grant (Author) "The flight was uneventful enough, except the pilot accidentally touched down at a slightly wrong airport and forgot to lower the landing gear, so we..." (more)
4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (30 customer reviews)
RRP: £7.99
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Product details

  • Paperback: 336 pages
  • Publisher: Gollancz; New Ed edition (1 Oct 2004)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0575074493
  • ISBN-13: 978-0575074491
  • Product Dimensions: 17.2 x 11 x 2.4 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (30 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 27,012 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

DAILY MIRROR
'Crime Fantasy Fawlty Towers-style' --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review
'Crime Fantasy Fawlty Towers-style' (DAILY MIRROR )

'A revolutionary black comedy... he is spookily similar to that other science ficiton writer... Douglas Adams' (Paul Pickering THE DAILY EXPRESS )

'It's a tequila-sniffing, lemon-in-the-eye kind of affair - all wrong, but so right' (MAXIM )

'Who needs Red Dwarf? Rob Grant doesn't any more...' (SFX )

'A surreal, Monty Python-esque detective novel peppered with laugh-out-loud gags and elaborately conceived, vastly silly set-pieces' (DREAMWATCH )

'The jokes comes thick and fast' (Scotland on Sunday )

'Satire abounds in this consistently amusing comedy of errors' (Starburst ) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Inside This Book (Learn More)
First Sentence
The flight was uneventful enough, except the pilot accidentally touched down at a slightly wrong airport and forgot to lower the landing gear, so we left the plane by way of the emergency chute, and I lost my shoes. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
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What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

Incompetence (Gollancz S.F.)
85% buy the item featured on this page:
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4% buy
Red Dwarf Omnibus: Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers AND Better Than Life: "Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers" 4.9 out of 5 stars (21)
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The Last Human (Red Dwarf)
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Customer Reviews

30 Reviews
5 star:
 (15)
4 star:
 (10)
3 star:
 (4)
2 star:
 (1)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.3 out of 5 stars (30 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Ignorance is bliss - Incompetence is better., 27 Feb 2004
Rob Grant is one of the best comedy writers I have seen, better than Ben Elton in my opinion. His style and humour are brilliant and he would have had me rolling about on the floor in hysterical laughter if it wasn't for all the dog hair.

The book is based on Europe in the not distant enough future, Europe is now known as the United States of Europe and incompetence is a way of life. Political correctness has gone mad and discrimination is not allowed no matter what a persons sex, age, race or incompetence. In fact the worse you do the quicker you will climb the ever so slippery ladder of sucess. This is a bit of a problem for Harry Salt, you see he is actually good at his job - too good! Harry Salt (just one of his many identities but the one he goes by mostly in the book) is an agent working for an establishment mearly known as The Agency. He's abit like a private detective but with a bigger expense account, more authority and the ability to dispose of anyone in his way - okay so not very much like a private detective but he does solve crimes, and a hell of a lot better than the police.

The plot is predictable and the solution even more so, but it is not that that makes the book a worthwile read. It is the journey there and the characters Harry meets along the way that will have you in stitches within minutes.

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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars utterly compelling, 11 Aug 2005
By Grant Dow (Angus, Scotland) - See all my reviews
not normaly a reader (i spend far too much time in front of this bloody PC) but an avid RD fan from the 1st showing of the 1st episode all those years back, & an even bigger fan of the books, i bought this to take on holiday with the hope it would give me something to do for days of sitting next to my girlfriend fixated on aiding the onset of skin cancer. I could not have been more wrong. We got to our holiday appartment (after 19 hours overall travel) & before i could even suggest going food shopping the girlfriend had already stripped off & was smothering sun tan lotion on while moaning at me for not doing the same. I agreed to go & sit with her but in the shade as i couldn't be bothered with sun at the time. got started reading this not knowing what to expect & within minutes i was hooked & hours passed in an instant. My girlfriend was fully annoyed when i continued reading & laughing every minute i could until by the end of the 2nd day i'd finished it & actualy felt sad. I could have kept reading about Harry & the hillarious laws in the EU of the future (or literal interpritation of current laws) for months.
I can not stress how good a book this is.

Buy it, Read it, love it!

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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Good book, 16 Feb 2006
By BC (Warwickshire, UK) - See all my reviews
Now this is Grant approaching top form, I was a bit dubious about his recent offerings after the average 'Colony', but this book is much better. Faster paced with plenty of laughs, although is a bit cliched in places.

Overall though, a good read.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars sdrawkcaB
After reading Grant's other non-Red Dwarf novel - Fat - I had pretty low expectations of this. Fortunately I was pleasantly surprised; the story is much more cohesive than 'Fat',... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Binro The Heretic

3.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining
Incompetence is full of great humour, witty one liners and amusing thoughts. Rob Grant has a unique and old school sense of humour, which is undeniably English to the core... Read more
Published 5 months ago by Mr. G. Battle

4.0 out of 5 stars Well worth a stab
I really enjoyed this book. It won't win any prizes for originality or go down in history as a classic of English literature, but the great characters, fun and pacey storyline,... Read more
Published 15 months ago by A. Cook

4.0 out of 5 stars Never mind the plot, here's the action
The plot of this book could probably be equally well told in about 3 pages. What makes this a very entertaining read is the other 300+ pages of, in the main, slapstick humour as... Read more
Published 16 months ago by P. J. Bragg

5.0 out of 5 stars Rib-bustingly funny
Not many books make me laugh out loud but Incompetence made me laugh out loud on pretty much every page. Read more
Published 18 months ago by C. Cripps

5.0 out of 5 stars Side splittingly Funny
One of the funniest things I've ever read, as funny as the best parts of Red Dwarf and far more intelligent. Some really biting wit in there. Brilliant.
Published 20 months ago by J. Greenhow

5.0 out of 5 stars Frightening in its accuracy!
An excellent reference book as well as an intriguing plot line. There are some truly incompetent individuals in the world and Rob Grant has succeeded in exposing them all. Read more
Published on 24 Nov 2006 by David Thomas Scott

4.0 out of 5 stars "A novel of the far too near future"
"Incompetence" is a satirical black comedy set in an extreme near-future world. Rob Grant has taken trends he perceives in modern society, extrapolated them ad absurdum, and had... Read more
Published on 19 Nov 2006 by Marshall Lord

4.0 out of 5 stars Planes, trains and automobiles....
I bought this book purely because of reading the preview pages here on Amazon, and I would say that it is a much better read than Grant's previous novel, "Colony"... Read more
Published on 19 Oct 2006 by A. Edge

4.0 out of 5 stars Not Red Dwarf
As a complete non-fan of Red Dwarf I was initially wary of this book but I was soon won over. Although it's a comedy the thriller element works very well and the humour blends in... Read more
Published on 16 Jul 2006 by M. Marshall

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