Now one of the many conventions I have been to over the years had Robert Rankin as a guest and I went along the the Q&A session he did and I have to say he was the funniest guy I have ever seen, he had the whole audience in stitches and if I could buy a DVD of that talk I so would as unfortunately over time, my memory of what was said and done has faded :-(
So anyway, after this convention I went out and bought one of his books - I can't even remember the title now, but it was quite disappointing as it didn't have the same flair as he did in person. But I stuck it out and thought it was ok and I did buy another book, which I don't think I managed to finish as I just wasn't enjoying it, so I wasn't really looking forward to reading this book to be honest.
The Brentford Triangle is technically book 2 in a trilogy but it doesn't appear necessary to read book 1 in order to understand book 2, and I found this to be true. The backcover synopsis is:
'Omally groaned. "It is the end of mankind as we know it. I should never have got up so early today" and all over Brentford electrical appliances were beginning to fail...'
Could it be that Pooley and Omally, whilst engaged on a round of allotment golf, mistook laser-operated gravitational landing beams for the malignant work of Brentford Council?
Does the Captain Laser Alien Attack machine in the bar of the Swan possess more sinister force than its magnetic appeal for youths with green hair?
Is Brentford the first base in an alien onslaught on planet Earth?
Despite the novel being only 240 pages long, it did take me a little while to get through as I wasn't finding it the most engaging book, even though I was desperate to finish it early so I could read one of my own books from the ever growing pile of 'waiting to be read books'. To put things in perspective, it took me 12 days to read those 240 pages, but the current book I am now reading (The Passage by Justin Cronin) has taken me 5 days to read 269 pages - and the day isn't over yet.
I like the tongue in cheek way that Rankin writes his novels, but it all gets a bit samey and too much for a full length novel. I feel he tries too hard to make his characters feel normal and everyday-like. I actually found it a little confusing that he called one character Neville and one Norman, I did at times forget which one was which.
Overall I didn't think too much of it and I haven't even gone in to any details of the book as I can't be bothered going through the story as it just wasn't that great. Although the book did include aliens and strange happenings, I didn't feel it was overly science fiction-y or fantasy, but not sure what I would class it as.
I'd give this book 4 out of 10
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