A delight for Robert Rankin fans. Various characters from various other Rankin stories make special appearances, but the story stands up well on its own too. The story spans a year of time, which does tend to make the story drift a bit, but drifting into occasional narrative gullies of "talking toot" with a bar tender is part of the fun of a Rankin story. ( )

The radio adaption of Robert Rankin's Brightonomicon is simply brilliant. In 13 episodes Hugo Rune and his trusted acolyte Rizla, who can't remember his past, try to solve mindbogglingly difficult conundrums to prevent the end of the world. But be warned, there is Spaniel involvement.
Fans of Robert Rankin's work shouldn't miss this adaption as it works perfectly as a play. ( )

I occasionally give Mr. Rankin's books another chance, ever since I was so impressed by Armageddon: the musical. Unfortunately, every time I do I have to conclude that his brand of humour is an acquired taste that I have not acquired.

The main thing that didn't work for me was the lack of a wall between the reader and the story. "Suspension of disbelief" was a foreign and inapplicable concept. The characters freely admitted to the plot holes surrounding them. They also knew they were in a story set in the 1960's but written later, rather than actually being in that time. (For example, they knew that Kurt Cobain hadn't been born yet.) Many of the jokes referred directly to the text, as if the characters were reading along. This went on and on throughout the book, and I lost patience with it in chapter 3.

I don't doubt that this book may be extremely funny to some readers. I'm just not one of them. ( )

Love RR books but not this one, sorry but it didn't have the same humour as the others, esp the Brentford books, loved Rune and Rizla but that was about it. ( )