Retromancer Paperback – 8 July 2010

The master of farfetched fiction appears to have increasingly lost the plot and not in a good way. Whilst once Robert Rankin was able to produce zany comedy science fiction that made sense, his more recent novels appear to be more about things happening to people for no logical reason. `Retromancer' falls into this camp and tells the story of Hugo Rune and Rizla as they are sent back in time to World War 2 to prevent a nuclear bomb being dropped on New York. Their adventures will take them to the high seas, but also plenty of pubs.Back in the days of `Snuff Fiction' and `Apocalypso', Rankin was able to produce a silly plot that also made sense, but in recent years this has eluded him. `Retromancer' has some great moments, but they feel like that - moments. The book is split into 12 cases, each of which the master of Dim Mac and his acolyte must solve. All these missions do is segment the book into almost separate sessions, there is little reason for one to be joined to the other. In fact, you could swap many of the chapters around between Rankin's later 00s books and make a story that is coherent as the one here.The lack of direction is one thing, but it does not stop the book from being entertaining. Rankin is a very intelligent writer and his style takes a bit of getting used to, but when you do it is great fun. The same in jokes are present that please the fans and having not read one of his novels in a few years it was nice to see them back again. However, as much as fans will glean some pleasure from this book, new readers will run a mile. Has Rankin started to lose his golden touch? `Retromancer' and his previous couple of outings would suggest so, but he is still a decent read.

I'm a big fan of Robert Rankin but after The Brightonomicon and The Da-da-da-de-etc Code was struggling to justify spending more of my money on him. When I discovered Retromancer was essentially a sequel to Brightonomicon I stayed away for ages but now finally gave in. I was thoroughly disappointed and it makes me think I need to spend my money elsewhere, as this book just seemed pieced together quickly to get something out of the door. It's a shame as he is a brilliant author and most of the other books are amazing but I just felt that Retromonacer was like that album a band makes due to contractual obligations, with no real passion and care about how it comes across. Maybe it's me, maybe it's RR, but either way I think I will have to start waiting the long time for my local library to get his future books in.

to be honest, if you're only now dicovering Rankin, this isn't the best starting point. although the twists and turns of his style and direction don't waver much, the brentford trilogy is still the most accessable. if you'ree familiar with his form of escapism madness, this won't let you down. The far-fetched fiction story telling harks back to the golden age of fantasy not bogged down by current trends of realism and solid continuity bring to mind the Michael Palin 'Ripping Yarns', with an abandon for the rules of logic, common sense or fundemental rationality. The literary world is a far better place with the inclusion of Rankin and if you're not familiar with his back catalogue, be prepared to be taken to places that only the written word can take you and in considerable preposterous style!

As entertaining as Rankin’s other work

A book totally in keeping with the new low standards rankin has set for himself.Not content with stealing jokes whole sale from Mitchel and webb he also rips off himself and decides to copy his own book, Brightonomicon. I think he should be ashamed for writing such garbage, especially when he's capable of so much more.No more rankin books for me, i fear.

This is not the worst book ever written. Not by a long shot. But when in the space of two pages you read the enigma machine has developed a life of its own and is now killing people, that there are some kind of time travelling Knights of the round table on their way to start attacking people because of the engima machine going crazy, something to do with Nazis, and then something else happens, you very may well think that this is the worst book ever written.

Interesting,funny, absurd, a good read like all his other books.wildly imaginative,etc etc etc etc etc etc so on and so forth.

excellent read