Nostradamus Ate My Hamster - Robert Rankin

   1996; 317 pages.  New Author? : No.  Genres : Humorous Science Fiction; British Humour; Absurdism; Time Travel.  Overall Rating : 8*/10.

 

    Something terrible has happened to Brentford!  Adolf Hitler has shown up there.

 

    Naturally, there is some doubt whether it’s really him.  It’s likely an impostor, since this is the 1990s and this Hitler looks like the real one did way back in the 1940s.  And the real Adolf Hitler has been dead for a half century.  So if it is someone impersonating him, it’s in very poor taste.

 

    Anyway, that’s not the terrible thing.  The real calamity is that everyone’s favorite pub in Brentford, The Flying Swan, has disappeared.  Atomized in the twinkling of an eye.  Along with everyone who was in there at the time.  That includes the famous patrons, Jim Pooley and John Omally, as well as the part-time barman, Neville.

 

    And as any loyal reader of Robert Rankin’s “far-fetched fantasy novels” (the author’s self-description) can tell you, the disappearance of those three characters is a huge loss.

 

What’s To Like...

    Nostradamus Ate My Hamster centers around the workers at a Brentford “prop house” (suppliers of the props for any movies being made in the vicinity) called Fudgepacker’s Emporium.  The main characters are Ernest Fudgepacker (the owner), Frank (the manager), Bobby Boy (the gofer), and Russell (the salesman), the latter being our protagonist.

 

    There are three main plotlines to follow: a.) what the heck happened to The Flying Swan?, b.) is that really Adolf Hitler?, and c.) which of the various 'other worlds’ that Russell gets dropped into is the real one?  Mayhem and confusion abound as Russell (and the reader) try to make sense of it all.

 

    The book is written in English, not American, and that’s always a delight for me.  It was fun to suss out things like groaning trays, gasometers, Arthur Negus, Dixon of Dock Green, and get reacquainted with that esoteric bit of slang “having a shifty”.

 

    The “Terry Pratchett-esque” footnotes were a treat, so was the bit of poetry by the author on pages 220-21.  The “Magic Stone” tale was enlightening (be sure to ponder its metaphor), and the concept making “Hologram Movies” felt like a glimpse of cinematic technology that will be routine in another 50 years or so.  The clever way that Robert Rankin inserted himself into the storyline as a minor character made me chuckle.

 

    The ending was decent and wraps up the main plotlines nicely.  It’s not particularly exciting, but it is a happy one, and as the author points out, that counts for something.  Although the setting is a familiar one, Nostradamus Ate My Hamster is a standalone novel and not part of any of the various series that Robert Rankin has penned.

 

Kewlest New Word ...

Skip (n., slang) : a dumpster (British).

 

Ratings…
    Amazon: 4.5*/5, based on 44 ratings and 18 reviews.

    Goodreads: 3.73*/5, based on 1,168 ratings and 59 reviews.

 

Excerpts...

    “You’ve a memo on your desk, though.”

    “A memo?”  Russell perused his empty desk top.  “Where is it?” he asked.

    “I threw it away,” said Frank.

    “Why?”

    “Because it was exactly the same as the one I got.”

    “But it was addressed to me?”

    “Yes, but it was the same memo.”

    “So what did it say?”

    “Yours or mine?”  (pg. 88)

 

    “So what you’re saying, is that by going into the future and stealing the equipment that would change the future, the future Bobby Boy went into what was a future that had already been changed, by him having stolen the equipment and used it in the then-past, which is our present?”

    “Exactly.  It’s all so simple when you put it like that.”  (pg. 248)

 

“Our good woman the fairy has made her yearly phoenix rise from the biscuit tin, I see.”  (pg. 13)

    I’m a longtime fan of anything Robert Rankin pens, so it is not surprising that the quibbles are minor.

 

    The cussing is minimal; I noted only a half-dozen instances in the first third of the book, and those were five references to the excretory system, plus one f-bomb.

 

    The book’s enigmatic title was a major draw for me, but it was a bit of a letdown that neither Nostradamus nor a hamster showed up in the story.  In fairness, the title does get tied into the plotline twice, but it would be a spoiler to go into details.

 

    Lastly and leastly, although I can grudgingly accept Pooley, O’Mally, and Neville being relegated to supporting characters for a change, the poor spaniel Spot getting run over by a bus was just too much for my sensitive psyche.

 

    8 Stars.  Several reviewers noted that they had trouble following the storyline.  They have a point, but letting the plot threads run amok before deftly resolving them is a trademark of a Robert Rankin tale.  Nostradamus Ate My Hamster was an enjoyable read for me, but if you’ve never read anything by this author, I wouldn’t recommend starting with this one.