Guaranteed to Brighton Your Day (original) (raw)

The Brightonomicon, by Robert Rankin – Published in 2005, this book ties together and references a lot of Rankin’s earlier work. It’s sort of a sequel to The Witches of Chiswick, as well as a link between the Brentford Trilogy and the books about Hugo Rune. Actually, I believe Rune originated in one of the Brentford books, but it was the Cornelius Murphy series that really developed his character. This story features Rune and his acolyte Rizla, who is really another established character with a lost memory, solving cases based on the Brighton Zodiac. Apparently the landscape zodiac is a real thing, or at least it is in the minds of conspiracy theorists, with constellations formed from roads and other landmarks in various places. Each of the chapters in this bookties in with one of the constellations in Rankin’s native Brighton, although even the characters themselves note that some of the links are rather tenuous. I’m sure many of the jokes are best suited to people familiar with the locations in question, which I am not, but there were plenty universal gags as well. As usual, Rankin packs in a lot of different absurd plot devices, many based on conspiracy theories and urban legends, and quite a few referring back to bits from previous books of his. The Forbidden Zones from the Cornelius Murphy tales, the space pirates from The Greatest Show Off Earth, and the omnipresent barman Fangio all appear; and the main villain is Rune’s arch-nemesis Count Otto Black. Rankin’s style of humor isn’t for everyone, pretty much requiring a high tolerance for running gags and lampshade-hanging (a recurring joke is that the story is supposed to take place in the sixties, but there are constant anachronisms that the book itself points out), but I quite like it. I understand this book was made into a radio broadcast, but I haven’t heard it.