- Taschenbuch: 342 Seiten
- Verlag: Gollancz; Auflage: New Ed (1. August 2003)
- Sprache: Englisch
- ISBN-10: 0575074019
- ISBN-13: 978-0575074019
- Größe und/oder Gewicht: 18,3 x 17,2 x 2,3 cm
- Durchschnittliche Kundenbewertung: 4.0 von 5 Sternen Alle Rezensionen anzeigen (2 Kundenrezensionen)
- Amazon Bestseller-Rang: Nr. 193.967 in Englische Bücher (Siehe Top 100 in Englische Bücher)
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The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse
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Amazon.co.uk
In Robert Rankin's latest warped fantasy, a serial killer is murdering notable nursery-rhyme characters and leaving very special sweeties as calling cards at the scene of each crime: The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse.
Humpty Dumpty is the first of Toy City's upper crust to sleep with the fishes. Boiled alive in his own swimming pool. A nasty fate, but maybe not as nasty as Little Boy Blue's, with his own shepherd's crook thrust a long way into a place where the sun does not shine.
Bill Winkie the P.I. has gone missing, and his hard-drinking teddybear sidekick Eddie takes up the case. Down these mean streets a bear must go. He needs a hand, though--two hands, owing to a lack of opposable thumbs--and reluctantly teams up with "gormster" country boy Jack, who foolishly thinks he can make his fortune in Toy City.
Of course the police, jolly bouncy rubber policemen who are sadistic at heart, object to interfering freelances. So does the mystery assassin, who seems to be a curvaceous woman in a kinky rubber outfit--death on high heels. Even kindly old Mother Goose, madame of the Toy City brothel, gets her neck wrung before she can talk, and Eddie is in serious danger of losing his very stuffing.
Fast, demented, fairytale-noir action, filled with gruesomely silly deaths, self-referential thriller gags, and the true meanings of those nursery rhymes whose royalties made Humpty and the rest so rich.
Robert Rankin is fond of introducing peculiar, repeated figures of speech, and this book's is the Maddeningly Incomplete Simile. Like this: Hollow Chocolate Bunnies is as good as. It's as weird as. It's as deeply bonkers as. In short, it's as Rankin as.--David Langford -- Dieser Text bezieht sich auf eine vergriffene oder nicht verfügbare Ausgabe dieses Titels.
Pressestimmen
"Rankin is a master of sophisticated (and sophmoric) practical jokes. His novels are cult classics."
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In diesem Buch
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Einleitungssatz
'Once upon a time,' said the big fat farmer, 'it was all fields around here.' Lesen Sie die erste Seite
Buchdeckel | Copyright | Auszug | Rückseite
'Once upon a time,' said the big fat farmer, 'it was all fields around here.' Lesen Sie die erste Seite
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Ausgewählte Seiten ansehenWortanzeiger
Buchdeckel | Copyright | Auszug | Rückseite
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4 von 4 Kunden fanden die folgende Rezension hilfreich
Format:Gebundene Ausgabe|Von Amazon bestätigter Kauf
Basierend auf einer wirklich originellen Idee entwickelt Rankin in dem für ihn typischen Erzählstil soviel Witz, Spannung und schräge Sichten auf die Realität wie in kaum einem seiner Werke. (Ich bin ein großer Rankin-Fan und habe alle (!) seine Bücher gelesen.) Das Buch ist ein Kindertraum, aber kein Kinderbuch. Es spricht das Kind im Erwachsenen an. Es gibt genug Sex&Crime und es wird endlich die Frage beantwortet: "Wie würde ich meinen Teddy-Bär heute haben wollen, wenn ich noch mit Teddies spielen würde?". Allein die Gestalt von Eddy Bär ist es wert, dieses Buch zu lesen. Die Story ist einfach erzählt und folgt dem Muster des klassischen "Film-Noir". (Rankin hat seinen Drehbuch-Stil perfektioniert) Ein Outsider (Jack) kommt in eine seltsame, nur von Spielzeug bewohnte Stadt um sein Glück zu suchen. Die Idylle trügt und schon bald gilt es, den ersten Mord aufzuklären. Der berühmte Privatdetektiv wird selbst vermißt und so muß Jack, zusammen mit dem Gehilfen des Detektivs, Eddy Bär, den Mord, der sich schon bald zu einer Mordserie (ähnlich "Theater des Grauens") entwickelt, selbt aufklären. Die Toy-Umgebung wird nicht überstrapaziert, sorgt aber für wirklich gute und neue Gags (...oder wollten Sie nicht schon immer wissen, wie sich ein Teddy-Bär betrinkt und was ganz genau in einem Spielzeugbordell abläuft??) Schon bald wird unseren beiden Helden klar, daß das BÖSE in die Stadt eingedrungen ist und sie in den Grundfesten bedroht... Dabei entwicklet sich eine echte Männerfreundschaft zwischen den beiden - hinreißend komisch.
Ein echter Rankin, fast so gut wie "The Book of Ultimate Truth". Unbedingt lesen.
2 von 4 Kunden fanden die folgende Rezension hilfreich
Format:Taschenbuch
Im Grunde ist die Idee nicht schlecht: das Buch ist eine Satire auf bekannte Kinderbuchidyllen und Märchenklischees. Ungefähr das erste Drittel fand ich auch wirklich komisch; danach geht dem Autor die Puste aus, viele Witze wiederholen sich (ohne wirklich die Komik eines "running gag" zu erreichen) und es wird zuweilen langatmig. Im Ganzen halte ich das Buch für lesbar, allerdings nicht aufregend.
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48 von 49 Kunden fanden die folgende Rezension hilfreich
A very specific kind of humor; you need to be in the mood
26. März 2006
Format:Taschenbuch|Von Amazon bestätigter Kauf
Unlike many of the reviewers here, I like The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse. I understand what the critics disliked; those faults simply didn't irritate me. Instead, I found the book very funny... assuming you can pry yourself into a sort-of Monty Python mood and not take it seriously.
The story's premise is simple enough to impart: boy goes to the big city to seek his fortune, only to discover that the city is occupied by talking toys and by nursery rhyme characters. He shortly finds himself in the role of detective (or detective's assistant, really; Eddie the teddy bear is the real brains, even if those brains are made of sawdust). But in a way the plot isn't important, just as the plot of, say, Monty Python and the Holy Grail isn't what you went to see.
The writer's style is self-indulgent, like an actor who is aware of the audience's presence and speaks to them. He toddles off onto tangents because, it's obvious, *he* wanted to go down that street to find out what the characters were doing and what was served at that bar. To a degree (or, assuming that I'm in the right mood), I like this; the author is having fun and taking you on his adventure.
Amazon kept insisting that I'd love this book because I bought so many books by Jasper Fforde. I wish I hadn't known that, because I expected it to be Fforde-like. It's clever and English and has lots of literary references (Rankin is subtle about some of them). But the tone is entirely different. Fforde's books *are* for when you want Serious Funny stuff; this one is best suited to reading with a glass of beer (wine is for Fforde) after a really lousy week at work, when you want to escape to a completely silly reality and it's too much trouble to find your Rocky Horror DVD.
The story's premise is simple enough to impart: boy goes to the big city to seek his fortune, only to discover that the city is occupied by talking toys and by nursery rhyme characters. He shortly finds himself in the role of detective (or detective's assistant, really; Eddie the teddy bear is the real brains, even if those brains are made of sawdust). But in a way the plot isn't important, just as the plot of, say, Monty Python and the Holy Grail isn't what you went to see.
The writer's style is self-indulgent, like an actor who is aware of the audience's presence and speaks to them. He toddles off onto tangents because, it's obvious, *he* wanted to go down that street to find out what the characters were doing and what was served at that bar. To a degree (or, assuming that I'm in the right mood), I like this; the author is having fun and taking you on his adventure.
Amazon kept insisting that I'd love this book because I bought so many books by Jasper Fforde. I wish I hadn't known that, because I expected it to be Fforde-like. It's clever and English and has lots of literary references (Rankin is subtle about some of them). But the tone is entirely different. Fforde's books *are* for when you want Serious Funny stuff; this one is best suited to reading with a glass of beer (wine is for Fforde) after a really lousy week at work, when you want to escape to a completely silly reality and it's too much trouble to find your Rocky Horror DVD.
42 von 44 Kunden fanden die folgende Rezension hilfreich
Fairly Amusing Premise Goes On Too Long
5. März 2005
Format:Taschenbuch
Basically, this is the kind of book where your reaction to the title and/or cover is a pretty good indicator of whether or not you'll enjoy the contents. It's silly stuff, sometimes dark, but mostly the kind of outsize fantasy/comedy British writers seem to manage to handle so well (Rankin is often mentioned in the same breath as Terry Pratchett and Douglas Adams). The concept at work here is that a serial killer is on the loose in a city populated by toys, striking down the rich and famous -- namely notables from nursery rhyme fame, such as Humpty Dumpty, Little Boy Blue, et al. Into this killing zone stumbles Jack, a 13-year-old boy come to "seek his fortune" in the big city. But almost immediately upon his arrival, the big city seeks his fortune instead, leaving him mugged and penniless in an alleyway. Fortunately, a kindly teddy bear named Eddie comes along to take him under his paw and get him involved the mystery. It seems Eddie is the sidekick of Toy City's eminent detective Bill Winkie (aka Wee Willie Winkie), who has gone missing. Soon Jack and Eddie are racing across Toy City in clockwork cars, checking out murder scenes, visiting Madam Goose's house of ill repute, and getting sloshed at Tinto's Bar, as they attempt to solve the case. If this sounds somewhat reminiscent of the 1988 film "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?", it should.
Part of the fun comes from the spoofing of nursery rhymes and childhood toys, including comically gruesome murders, thriller/noir goofing, and totally tongue in cheek action. The other part of the fun comes from the wacky wordplay. Rankin is fond of alliteration, punning, double-entendres, repetition of stock phrases, and from the mouth of Eddie, the incomplete simile. If there's one thing one will remember from this book it's the construction "It's as good as!" or "I was scared as!" It has to be said that the book runs on about 50-100 pages too long as the jokes start to wear a bit thin and the action starts to get too repetitive. Alas after all the buildup, the mystery itself is a bit of a shaggy dog story, and somewhat of a letdown. It is fairly inventive stuff, and kind of fun for the most part, but unless you think the title is hilarious you probably won't love the book.
Part of the fun comes from the spoofing of nursery rhymes and childhood toys, including comically gruesome murders, thriller/noir goofing, and totally tongue in cheek action. The other part of the fun comes from the wacky wordplay. Rankin is fond of alliteration, punning, double-entendres, repetition of stock phrases, and from the mouth of Eddie, the incomplete simile. If there's one thing one will remember from this book it's the construction "It's as good as!" or "I was scared as!" It has to be said that the book runs on about 50-100 pages too long as the jokes start to wear a bit thin and the action starts to get too repetitive. Alas after all the buildup, the mystery itself is a bit of a shaggy dog story, and somewhat of a letdown. It is fairly inventive stuff, and kind of fun for the most part, but unless you think the title is hilarious you probably won't love the book.
12 von 12 Kunden fanden die folgende Rezension hilfreich
What is funny anyway?
25. März 2005
Format:Taschenbuch
Funny is so difficult. And, by all rights Rankin's 'The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of The Apocalypse' (hereafter called HCBA) should be funny. It has the irreverent banter, the broad characters, the absurdist plot twists, and the wacky situations. And Yet....
You see HCBA is about a young man, Jack, who is making his way in the city. 'Toy City' to be exact; where toys and nursery rhymes live in a remarkably modern, media obsessed society. All the while, they are governed over by a wholely indifferent 'Toymaker'. Jack meets a detective bear named Eddie who used to work with 'Wee Willie Winkie' solving crimes. (Get it - you see Bill Winkie was naturally inclined to be a detective, what with all the spying into lock, and running around town at night.) Together they begin to investigate a series of killings of prominent 'Toy City' residents.
It's like HCBA tries to hard for the laughs. Mainly, the book has a witty style that twists words, quite deftly, in some cases. But witty isn't neccessarily funny. And Rankin doesn't know when to stop. There are pages and pages of this wordplay. It amounts to several recycled jokes that really fall flat.
All that being said, HCBA does surprise. While I never got a laugh from the book, I did get a surprisingly pointed critique of relegion and politics in modern society. Albiet, it didn't come until page 250 of a 340 page book. Still, like good science fiction, the book provided a mirror onto today's society, and for that it wasn't a waste of time. But again satire and parody, isn't the same as a good belly laugh.
So, if you are looking for unique characters, witty dialoge, and sharp parodies, then HCBA has all thet in spades. Just don't go looking for the funny.
You see HCBA is about a young man, Jack, who is making his way in the city. 'Toy City' to be exact; where toys and nursery rhymes live in a remarkably modern, media obsessed society. All the while, they are governed over by a wholely indifferent 'Toymaker'. Jack meets a detective bear named Eddie who used to work with 'Wee Willie Winkie' solving crimes. (Get it - you see Bill Winkie was naturally inclined to be a detective, what with all the spying into lock, and running around town at night.) Together they begin to investigate a series of killings of prominent 'Toy City' residents.
It's like HCBA tries to hard for the laughs. Mainly, the book has a witty style that twists words, quite deftly, in some cases. But witty isn't neccessarily funny. And Rankin doesn't know when to stop. There are pages and pages of this wordplay. It amounts to several recycled jokes that really fall flat.
All that being said, HCBA does surprise. While I never got a laugh from the book, I did get a surprisingly pointed critique of relegion and politics in modern society. Albiet, it didn't come until page 250 of a 340 page book. Still, like good science fiction, the book provided a mirror onto today's society, and for that it wasn't a waste of time. But again satire and parody, isn't the same as a good belly laugh.
So, if you are looking for unique characters, witty dialoge, and sharp parodies, then HCBA has all thet in spades. Just don't go looking for the funny.
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