The Antipope: Volume 1

by Robert Rankin

Book Overview

This story uncovers suburbia's darkest secrets--mostly in The Flying Swan, where Neville the barman and Archroy, owner of five magic beans, do battle with beasts of the occult--and in particular the rather unpleasant Pope Alexander VI, the last of the Borgias.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 055213841X
• ISBN13: 9780552138413
• Release Date: February 1992
• Publisher: Transworld Publishers
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 0.32 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.5" x 7.1"

Customer Reviews

How could I have missed reading these???

I am overjoyed to have discovered Robert Rankin! I can't believe I never read him before! I just finished the Antipope, which will be the first in months of happy reading! This is a wonderful, hilarious, gripping story of what happens when evil comes to a town in England, and the only people who can battle it are a group of perpetual drunks, and eastender stereotypes with a few odd Deus ex machina (dei ex machinis??) thrown in for fun. These people were somehow very endearing. The villain, a Borgia no less, is so bad, with his evil little minions, that we are aghast as the onslaught against truth, justice, and human decency is waged. To be 100% honest, when I first started reading, I thought I understood why I had a problem finding the books. They didn't seem to me like they would work well here in the USA. The humor seemed very, very British, and lots of phrases could only be understood in context (and here I thought we all spoke the same language!). Also, there is the fact that a few terms are terribly offensive to USA folks (some rude terms for Italians, for example). And, finally, we tend to find so much drinking as symptomatic of disease, not fine fun. Having said all that, by page 50 I was swept away. I LOVED this book! I LOVE the characters! I can hardly wait to read the next on the list!

pooley and omally- England's heroes.

I've been reading Robert Rankin for three years, and I have to say, all the books in the Brentford triangle series are classics! The sheer silliness of his stories just have you in stiches for hours, The Antipoope is a favorite for one reason only. It's a first! It starts everything off, Neville the part-time bar man, the professor, the tramp... This book starts it all and I assure you, you'll never put the book down!

Persistently amusing.

This is one of my favorite books. It's the first of the Brentford series. I find the whole series to be comfortable, likable and highly amusing. It helps to have a taste for the surreal. I found the characters to be very likable. They have the carefree attitudes of the characters from Steinbeck's Tortilla Flat or Cannery Row, but they are intelligent and educated. They are not the type one would expect to be called upon to save the world. Essentially Brentford is the world. Should any character temporarily wander out of Brentford, Brentford would still be the reference point. The pub is the core essence of this world. Nothing is really serious unless if effects the pub. To this little world comes every silly notion that ever landed on the front page of the most bizarre tabloids. The Antipope is the place to start. It's one of the best, and will introduce you to the Brentford perspective. I found after reading a few pages, I wanted to take a break and wait for the smile on my face to ease up a little before I dared to proceed.

Ode to the drinking man

If you are unacquainted with Rankin's bizarre books, this may well be a good start. It's not his best book, but it's his first. Part of the fun reading Rankin is in the repetitions: Rankin quotes himself constantly, so you won't miss any of that when you start off from here."The Antipope" is the first novel in the Brentford series, in which an ordinary London suburb is the scene of grotesque battles between Good and Evil. It's up to Jim Pooley and John Omally, two bums with an insatiable appetite for beer, to save the world, with the help of a mysterious professor and some other highly improbable characters. In this book, the adversary is an evil tramp posessed with formidable powers, who is about to take control of the world as the Pope of some dark new Church. Two things distinguish Robert Rankin from other comic SF/Fantasy writers like Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett: his profound knowledge of the occult, and the sheer outlandishness and pomp of his stories. Rankin calls himself a tall-tale teller and his books far-fetched fiction. Some scenes in this particular book, like the disastrous cowboy night, and the vain attempts to open a mysterious parcel, just project themselves before your eyes, as if you were watching a movie. And make you laugh aloud.

The start of a line of fabulous tales

Robert Rankin is probably the funniest writer today. This book is the first of the 'Brentford Triangle', and is a marvellous read. The story is gripping, the characters endearing, the humour is largely pub-based, and there's a whole chapter to support nothing but a fantastic pun. Brilliant.