thearbiter89's review
4.0
The Educated Ape is a snickeringly amusing random entry point into the far-fetched fictive fun-fair that of Robert Rankin's books.
I bought this book, completely without premeditation, at one of those warehouse book sales where you fill a cardboard box with books, and if you can close the box, you get all the books for a mean $50. As such, I went into it completely unaware of what would be in store or that it was actually the third in a series of loosely connected books in the same universe.
Fortunately, Educated Ape, despite the many peculiarities of worldbuilding that were foisted on me with barely any exposition, was well enough within the realm of comprehensibility that easing into the story was not particularly onerous. Sure, there's the fact that this is set in an alternate 19th century in which Great Britain is a spacefaring power possessing Martian colonies, every other person of repute has a trained monkey companion, peers of the realm rub shoulders with Venusian ecclesiastics and jovial Jovians, and magic exists. But you get over all that culture shock quickly and take every weird facet of this brave new world in your stride.
Rankin creates out of this mishmash of literary and science-fictional references a surprisingly cohesive world; one that is strangely advanced in many ways but still assuredly Victorian in its manners; a civilisation at the pinnacle of its power and haughtiness, whose use of the English language is rather more florid than is strictly necessary (case in point: Rankin does this thing where he describes actions as 'X did Y-ing of his Z', as opposed to the usual 'X Y'ed his Z'. Like, Bell did steeplings on his fingers rather than Bell steepled his fingers (not a real example)).
There are hijinks galore, all written with heaping doses of (sometimes ribald) humor but with an abiding humanity. All manner of interesting figures abound - the Pipwick-like master detective Cameron Bell, upon whose exploits Sherlock Holmes is (in the story) alleged to be based, his on-and-off monkey partner, Queen Victoria's secret, evil cannibal twin, a gas-mask toting female vigilante known only as Lady Raygun, and a maid both spare and kempt. Historical figures, such as Ernest Rutherford and Nikola Tesla, feature as the scientific pioneers of the new age, as do time travel shenanigans, liberal use of dynamite as plot device, and the coming of the Antichrist, all layered together in one single twisting narrative but somehow still making sense.
Having read it nearly in its entirety during my annual in-camp training, I can say with confidence that The Educated Ape is precisely the sort of weird, humorous, but surprisingly easygoing tome that you'd want to while away the long boring hours of the day with nothing else to do.
I give this: 4 out of 5 bananas
I bought this book, completely without premeditation, at one of those warehouse book sales where you fill a cardboard box with books, and if you can close the box, you get all the books for a mean $50. As such, I went into it completely unaware of what would be in store or that it was actually the third in a series of loosely connected books in the same universe.
Fortunately, Educated Ape, despite the many peculiarities of worldbuilding that were foisted on me with barely any exposition, was well enough within the realm of comprehensibility that easing into the story was not particularly onerous. Sure, there's the fact that this is set in an alternate 19th century in which Great Britain is a spacefaring power possessing Martian colonies, every other person of repute has a trained monkey companion, peers of the realm rub shoulders with Venusian ecclesiastics and jovial Jovians, and magic exists. But you get over all that culture shock quickly and take every weird facet of this brave new world in your stride.
Rankin creates out of this mishmash of literary and science-fictional references a surprisingly cohesive world; one that is strangely advanced in many ways but still assuredly Victorian in its manners; a civilisation at the pinnacle of its power and haughtiness, whose use of the English language is rather more florid than is strictly necessary (case in point: Rankin does this thing where he describes actions as 'X did Y-ing of his Z', as opposed to the usual 'X Y'ed his Z'. Like, Bell did steeplings on his fingers rather than Bell steepled his fingers (not a real example)).
There are hijinks galore, all written with heaping doses of (sometimes ribald) humor but with an abiding humanity. All manner of interesting figures abound - the Pipwick-like master detective Cameron Bell, upon whose exploits Sherlock Holmes is (in the story) alleged to be based, his on-and-off monkey partner, Queen Victoria's secret, evil cannibal twin, a gas-mask toting female vigilante known only as Lady Raygun, and a maid both spare and kempt. Historical figures, such as Ernest Rutherford and Nikola Tesla, feature as the scientific pioneers of the new age, as do time travel shenanigans, liberal use of dynamite as plot device, and the coming of the Antichrist, all layered together in one single twisting narrative but somehow still making sense.
Having read it nearly in its entirety during my annual in-camp training, I can say with confidence that The Educated Ape is precisely the sort of weird, humorous, but surprisingly easygoing tome that you'd want to while away the long boring hours of the day with nothing else to do.
I give this: 4 out of 5 bananas
aussiesff's review
3.0
good steampunk elements but doesnt have the same comic writting style from the start in the second half of the book.
lowthor's review
4.0
At times it seemed to be trying to be too hard to be clever with its plotting, but the running jokes and music hall style bawdy humour were well worth it.
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