The fact that Chuck Palahniuk has quite a sick fantasy was revealed in 'Fight Club' erkennen. 'Rant' isn't any less disturbing and passages of it are breathtakingly well written, but the longer it goes on the more tension and suspense is lost. Still the different and differentiated points of view that the insinuatedly oral accounts the story is made up of make it a fascinating read. ( )

I'm listening to it on audio and so far so good. It's wierd but chuck palahniuk always is. He's an acquired taste I suppose. ( )

First review: for those, who (like me) have previously followed Palahniuk's work with great interest and have read several of his other books. This one is a winner. It does use the anagnoresis formula that he refined in his early novels, but it does so better than ever. It also involves the praeternatural dynamics of stories like Lullaby and Diary, but this time the approach is science-fictional rather than fantasy-occultist. The "oral history" conceit plays to Palahniuk's strengths of idiosyncratic voices, unreliable narration, and epigrammatic punch. If you've read and enjoyed other Palahniuk books, you know you don't want me to tell you the plot, but the key themes include epidemiology, perception of time, control in urban societies, and messianic mythopoeia.

Second review: for the uninitiated. This book will take you for a wild ride. If you want a nice linear plot development where each piece immediately makes sense by being added to the ones that have come before, don't bother. In fact, the author exhibits the entire story on page four, in a sort of one-paragraph Shakespearean prologue replying to the question of how the speaker got such a good deal on an airplane ticket. But don't get too comfortable in the first hundred pages, because when you leave the small-town setting, you won't be in the world you had likely imagined. And you'll have no idea what's really going on until the last 20 pages out of over 300. What you will have is more sardonic humor, gutwrenching pathos, and profound ideas than you can shake a stick at. If you can take that sort of bewilderment, then by all means you should.

Third review: for my brother and sister Magicians. You never thought the Secret Chiefs could be like this! I'll see your Mahatma and raise him a Phil Dick and two David Cronenbergs. "Sun and moon give time the form of day and night. Sushumna is the eater of time. This is declared to be a secret." (Hatha Yoga Pradipika 4.17)

I might give something away here in terms of story. You have been warned.

I did not particularly care for this book. And yet, I keep coming back to it.
The story begins in a certain fashion, and goes pretty strong in that direction for about half the book. Then, the book turns a corner. This happens somewhat sloppily, and left me with the feeling that the author had no idea where to take the first story he was writing. He ran out of consistent plot, so he just threw the mother of all Monkey Wrenches into it, made it divert into a new field entirely.
He made it bad science fiction.
Despite this, a single pearl can be found here.
In all Science Fiction, at some point the author must explain to us a few things about the world he is writing. He has to explain to us how it differs from our world, normally in some piece of technology that allows for some greater plot function.
Here, Palahniuk handles that bit, which is normally the absolute worst part of any science fiction novel, with an incredible mastery. The trick was to introduce the bit of tech through the back story of a certain character.
As a stand alone short story, I would be applauding it till days end.
Here, it was simply the only note worthy part of a longer book I can only vaguely remember. ( )

I know I've said in the past that I was not going to read any more Palahniuk books because they were, frankly, just too weird and a bit disappointing. But this one promised a serial killer, so I fell for it and bought "Rant". It wasn't bad, but the whole "Party Crashers"-time travelling suplot left me cold. For Palahniuk fans only. ( )