The Toyminator

Nuts, mad, completely off his trolley, strange, and damned funny, Robert Rankin belongs to that kind of crazy writers enjoying creating twisted worlds... just so as to completely thrash them then through total chaos! If you can appreciate puerile and stupid humour (not vulgar), then, go for it!

A surprising cast, hilarious dialogues, the American Dream materializing itself right under our eyes and, beers, beers, beers flowing and flowing: forget about drugs. Read this stuff instead!

Detective Eddie Bear (a stuffed toy) chases evil space chickens through 1950s Hollywood with the help of Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz (who's actually a ninja)...oh, and Marilyn Monroe too. It's all to solve a series of toy murders which is really the plot of a fast food chain seeking world domination. Yep, my type of book!

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; show more 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! show less

By Rankin's standards this is practically sane. As usual a great fun romp with all of the expected Rankin running gags making an appearance, in a plot that hangs together and real(and fake) characters you're intersted in following.

Great follow-up to The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse! Eddie and Jack take on a new case. If they don't figure out who's behind the latest toy murders, it could mean the end of Toy City.

Lots of comedy, many movie references, and great special effects!

Quit before I got halfway through. Word-to-plot ratio too high.