Book Review - The Chickens of Atlantis, by Robert Rankin

The full title of this book is actually "The Chickens of Atlantis, and other Foul and Filthy Fiends".

It's a highly amusing Victorian steampunk style tale, told from the perspective of Darwin the educated ape, a monkey butler with a surprisingly good command of English. Or (as he puts it "written in the first monkey"). Although it's a modern book, the author very authentically creates the feel of the old Victorian science fiction novels through his use of language.

The plot to this story is far too complex to go into in detail - it rushes at a breath-taking pace as Darwin acts as side-kick to the great Victorian detective Mr Cameron Bell in their pursuit of the dastardly Pearly Emperor, a.k.a. Pharaoh Akhenaten, the criminal mastermind.

Their adventure encompasses not just Victorian England, but jaunts through time as well in a salvaged Martian spacecraft converted into a time machine. It seems that every chapter is set in a different time and place, but it's not too hard to follow the action.

This is one of those books where every page has one or more ideas which could quite easily be expanded out into a complete new story.

At times I felt a little frustrated by the potential ideas that were just being scattered out almost as throw-aways. But they are an element that adds a huge amount of depth and richness to the story, so as a literary device it really works. It's very similar to my approach when I write - although I can't claim that my skills are anywhere near as impressive as Robert Rankin's !

Something else I appreciate is the author's quality of research. Much of the action happens around Brentford and Isleworth, a part of West London I know well. A particular detail I liked was that he identified that when they time travel to 1967, the number 65 bus passed through Brentford as part of it's route between Ealing Broadway and Leatherhead. Spot on, I used to ride on that bus regularly as a child. Nowadays the route is just from Ealing Broadway to Kingston, so about half what it was.

A little detail that I liked was that the first letter of each chapter is done in a steampunk variation of a medieval illumination. They're delightful little cartoons, with a different one for each letter. A couple of them are shown below.....

All in all, this is a thoroughly enjoyable read, and I recommend it to anyone who likes Steampunk or Victorian sci-fi. It was only as I was reading it did I realise it's actually one in a series of linked books. I guess now I'll have to go looking for the others.....

Oh, and the mystery of the chickens never really does get a proper solution; despite being in the title, they are really just bit-players in the story.

Published in 2013 by Golancz. Softback, 339 pages. ISBN 978-0-575-08647-0