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The Toyminator (Gollancz S.F.)
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Gollancz (2007-07-12)
ISBN: 0575079517
EAN: 9780575079519
Dewy Decimal #: 823.914
Paperback: 320 pages
Edition: New Ed
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Customer Reviews
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toytown and beyond
Rating  (3)
Date: 2007-12-03
a new novel by humourist writer robert rankin, who usually writes novels that are the height of absurdity in their style. best described as an english spike milligan. this is a direct sequel to earlier novel the hollow chocolate bunnies of the apocalypse, set in a place called toytown where toys are real and live much like humans. the main characters of that book, teddy bear detective eddy and his human sidekick jack return in this volume to deal with another case.
Whilst still very funny in places, this isn't the best robert rankin novel ever. it feels a bit too long at 360 pages, the story rather marks time in the first two hundred pages, and although things do pick up once the setting expands midway through, that rather loses the uniqueness of the toytown idea. all is wrapped up in a predictably chaotic fashion, which does lead to a few good laughs.
But all in all a rather average rankin lacking the originality of his usual works
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A bear faced lie! (ahem)
Rating (3)
Date: 2007-09-30
Hollow Bunnies was great! The characters were funny and their rapport was entertaining. The Toy City scenario was interesting and offered new elements in which Rankin clearly delighted in penning. A sequel couldn't fail right? The Eddie Bear character is still very well written, a delight to read. However, his sidekick and the other characters and their actions seem to be facsimiles of the ones from the previous book. The setting of Toy City is poorly executed in Toyminator, with only a few clever new scenes. The biggest disappointment is that the title, the imagery it conjures (and indeed the untrue front cover) sets up the reader for expectations in the plot that do not exist. A different title would have made the book more palatable; it would deliver on the reader's expectation. Overall, there are some elements that are still great, but I feel that Rankin has rushed this one. There are moments where you are swept along as Rankin enjoys his writing, but they are too few and far between to make this stand out. Good, but definitely not great. Mr. Rankin - Make a real Toyminator book so that General Electric mini-gun gets a proper outing!
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Read Deathday Instead!
Rating  (4)
Date: 2007-04-10
0 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
Ive been reading this guy for years and he never lets you down but i think recent outings have staled a bit - i had a couple of years off reading RR to write my own book 'Deathday' - now ive finished that and got into reading again it feels fresher and fun again! Take my advise, have some time away and go back to him for all you that found it hard going - Its worth the wait - Oh yeah, Please now go and buy mine! Deathday. Am i allowed to advertise here? Amazon sell it anyway! Hey - Thanks! Eugene Bruce
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Judgement day for The Toyminator
Rating (3)
Date: 2007-01-10
2 out of 3 customers found this reveiw helpful
Yeees, I wanted to like this book after finding The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies to be a bit flat. The trouble with Rankins books are that they tend to suffer when they stray to far from Brentford. The Witches of Chiswick was kickass and The Brightonomicon was alright but The Toyminator I kind of read through in no time and Just felt, well, a bit like it had killed a bit of time. This is all a bit negative, Just to say that Rankins at his best when telling demented stories about suburbia (The Antipope, Snuff Fiction, Notradamus ate my Hamster) And that I'd take the ramblings of Pooley and Omally over the adventures of Eddy Bear any day of the week, exept tuesdays. Any way, feel free to disagree and besmerch my good name. As Joan of Arc once said
"Can anyone smell burning"
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He's Back!
Rating (4)
Date: 2006-10-04
11 out of 11 customers found this reveiw helpful
It is with great honour that I announce that Robert Rankin is back on form after a couple of disappointing outings. Gone is the well covered world of Brentford and instead we find ourselves with Jack and Eddie back in the fresh feeling Toy Town.
Since their last outing in 'The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse' Jack, a meathead, and Eddie, a talking teddy, have gone their separate ways. Eddie is now the former mayor and Jack is a cook in a greasy spoon restaurant. It's not long before our two heroes are thrust together once more as private detectives to solve an epic case where toys are evaporating into dust. This adventure will lead to other worlds, plenty of drinking and a conundrum over chickens.
'The Toyminator' is still not Rankin's strongest book but it has the great central premise that has been missing from his recent title such as 'Knees Up Mother Earth' - how come there are so many chickens? If each restaurant sells 500 chickens a day as well as 500 eggs that's 1000 potential chickens. Multiply this by the number of restaurants there are and you are talking an impossible number. 'The Toyminator' looks into this strange problem in a hilarious manner.
I loved the characters of Eddie and Jack and felt that Rankin has reeled in some of his overindulgences this time. I recommend this book to his fans but still advise new readers to read something like 'Apocolypso' or 'Snuff Fiction' first.
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Retail Price: £7.99
Amazon.com's Price:£0.01
That's 100% Off!
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