Product Description

Danny is not sad and lonely any more, because Danny has "the voice", the voice of an imaginary dog called Demolition. The dog tells him what to do, like how to adjust the bar code reader in the shop, so he can read what people are thinking. Soon, Danny can bend others to his will and fears no man.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #113410 in Books
• Published on: 1996-10-03
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 317 pages

From the Back Cover
DANNY: PORTRAIT OF A SURREAL KILLER

Danny's not sad and lonely any more because Danny's got 'the voices'. Well, one voice. It's the voice of his dog, Demolition. And the dog's told him things. Like how to adjust the bar-code reader in the shop where Danny works so that he can read the lines on people's palms and see what they're thinking. And which small ads in the comic books to send off to so Danny can become irresistible to women, bend others to his will, gain vital inches and fear no man living.

NO. DANNY'S NOT SAD AND LONELY ANY MORE. DANNY'S BARKING MAD.

About the Author
Robert Rankin
Robert Rankin is the author of Web Site Story, Waiting for Godalming, Sex and Drugs and Sausage Rolls, Snuff Fiction, Apocalypso, The Dance of the Voodoo Handbag, Sprout Mask Replica, Nostradamus Ate My Hamster, A Dog Called Demolition, The Garden of Unearthly Delights, The Most Amazing Man Who Ever Lived, The Greatest Show Off Earth, Raiders of the Lost Car Park, The Book of Ultimate Truths, the Armageddon quartet (three books), and the Brentford trilogy (five books) which are all published by Corgi Books. Robert Rankin's latest novel, The Fandom of the Operator, is now available as a Doubleday hardback.

Customer Reviews

Rambling shaggy-dog story
Robert Rankin’s books are always fairly unhinged affairs, but due to it’s construction A Dog Called Demolition reads even more like the drunken ramblings of a madman than ever before. The main plot is typical Rankin lunacy – inspired by a real life incident in America Rankin gives us a world where serial killers really do commit their crimes under the influence of malevolent voices that command them to kill. Set in Rankin’s usual haunt of Brentford, (though with only cameo appearances from Pooley, Omally and co this standalone novel is accessible for series newcomers), the story concerns unemployed waster Danny’s discovery that a race of parasitic invisible Mekon-like aliens secretly sit on the shoulders of the population, and when a rogue alien called Demolition takes over Danny to construct a synthetic dog out of human body-parts things really start to go haywire…

As if this wasn’t enough Rankin then skews the books structure by including numerous (mostly unrelated) poems and short stories. The poetry is pretty variable to be honest, and Rankin’s trick of deliberately bathetic punchlines becomes a bit predictable after a while, but some of the diverting tall-tales are gems (such as the tenant who constructs an African big game safari in his lodgings, and Hugo Rune’s ‘proof’ that the Earth is the centre of the universe and that full-time employment is a logical impossibility).

As expected, this book as a whole is quite bitty, but despite the odd dud poem for the most part this is a great rambling collection of tall-tales. A little too uneven to be a wholly satisfying novel, but still another solid dose of insanity from the author.

SLOW START, BRILLIANT ENDING
It was only until I got about 3/4 through this book that I started getting into it. I've only read 1 Robert Rankin book before, I wouldn't recommend this book for a Robert Rankin beginner.

A review on "A Dog Called Demolition".
When I read this book I was struck by the singular writting style of Robert Ranking. His books are always full of colourful characters and familiar landscapes, and this is no exception. If you are unfamiliar with Rankin, then this would be an excellent place to start. To regular readers it is another hit. A truly briliant book!!!