The Antipope: The First Part of the Brentford Trilogy

The book is in the vein of Douglas Adams or Terry Pratchett but in the occult rather than sci-fi or fantasy. A friend recommended this book a long time ago and I never got around to getting a copy. Browsing audible I saw it and thought I would give it a try. It was an excellent choice on my part, which shows I do make some occasionally. It is well written and superbly read, with wry, dry humour and characters that don't just live but are likeable, and I really wanted to see how it would pan out. I subsequently got 'Hollow chocolate bunnies of the apocalypse' which I also enjoyed. In a publishing world where clones of success swarm, Rankin and his work stand apart. You get the idea that he is a genuine story teller who wants about all to entertain, which certainly does. The only negative comment is that none of the rest of the series are available on audible. If they do become available I will be the first to buy.

I have missed reading Roberts books, to be honest id forgotten how enjoyable and funny they are and to have the legendary Pooley and O'Mally actually talking to me was great. I am dyslexic and Roberts books were some of the only books I have read, kept me interested and wanting to keep reading no mater how hard. The antipope was the first I read 10 years ago and was overjoyed that I found it on audible and look forward to reading more, found the brentonicon so thats next .

In Robert Rankin's first book in the Brentford Triangle series - which I originally bought as a paperback because I was intrigued by the playfulness of later titles in the series and wanted to read them in the right order, if at all - the author makes a good fist of introducing us to a whole new scenario that would become very familiar to his fan base. It's hard to objectively report whether the audio book does that as effectively as the book itself, because returning to the streets of Pooley and Omally's Brentford is now like coming home.



Rich, well defined characters, beautifully crafted situations and a wholly implausible storyline that plays out exceptionally well - if you're prepared to let your imagination off the lead - this is an excellent introduction to Rankin's flavour of Far Fetched Fiction, a host of characters that you will grow to believe you know personally and the joys of the running gag.



Any chance of the other three books in this trilogy at least? Okay, four if you include the later Brentford Chainsaw Massacre.

Not perfect by any means, but manic and fun, and once I got over the characters not sounding exactly as they should have (in my head obviously) it settled down into a really good version of the better kind of lunacy that Robert Rankin offered before I gave up reading his stuff as he seemed to me to have followed Terry Pratchett into formulaic writing (for which I don't fault him in any way if he truly has, at the end of the day its what ever pays the bills and why kill off a golden goose?)