The Fandom of the Operator

by Robert Rankin

Gary Cheese is twenty-two years of age and works for British Telecom as an operator. Gary's hobbies include watching TV, walking his dog Princey, going down the pub with his mates, and attempting to re-animate the dead. He hasn't been having too much success with the latter so far. But Gary's heard a rumour. According to this bloke he met down the pub, there exists certain telecommunications technology that can actually let you speak to the dead. Apparently it's been in operation for years. FLATLINE, it's called, a chatline to the dead. They ran all these ads on the TV a few years ago to prepare the public for it. Those ones about having a one-to-one with famous dead people. But it seems something went very wrong: the dead had certain things to say to the living that the powers that be couldn't allow to be heard. Or something. Apparently. Gary's determined to find out the truth. Gary's a bit of a fan boy and Gary really wants to speak to all of his dead heroes. And Gary will have the time of his life when he talks to the dead.

Genres: Fantasy, Humor, Fiction, Science Fiction, Comedy, Audiobook, Comic Fantasy

389 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

"When Robert Rankin embarked upon his writing career in the late 1970s, his ambition was to create an entirely new literary genre, which he named Far-Fetched Fiction. He reasoned that by doing this he could avoid competing with any other living author in any known genre and would be given his own special section in WH Smith."
(from Web Site Story)

Robert Rankin describes himself as a teller of tall tales, a fitting description, assuming that he isn't lying about it. From his early beginnings as a baby in 1949, Robert Rankin has grown into a tall man of some stature. Somewhere along the way he experimented in the writing of books, and found that he could do it rather well. Not being one to light his hide under a bushel, Mister Rankin continues to write fine novels of a humorous science-fictional nature.

Reviews

[Heather]

Not as good as the Witches of Chiswick. But, still a good read. Dark humor, which I love!!!

[Danger Kallisti]

Robert Rankin's books are kind of like a really good BBC television show. Superficially, they don't take a lot of brainpower to comprehend, they're hysterically funny, and there are really only like, six characters in the whole series. Conversely, the real reason they're so funny is because there's a core of intelligence and education to them that one rarely sees in American media. I've actually learned quite a few interesting things in researching offhand jokes about obscure historical characters, for instance. All in all, I'd never call any of his novels life-changing gems of intellectualism, but I'm always pretty glad that I've read them.

[Jay]

I have read all of Mr Rankins works and this is by far my favourite. There are no promises of a sequel, no confusing sections in which he jumps ahead to an improbable conclusion and it is very dark. All of the usual suspects are present- Traditions, old charters and somethings, Mornington Crescent, Otto Black, The Flying Swan and the Transperambulation of Pseudo-Cosmic Anti-Matter via an Inter-Rossiter.
There is no need to have read any of his other works so it is a good starting point if you cannot find 'Hollow Chocolate Bunnies' or 'Witches of Chiswick'.

[Jon Clynch]

Typical Robert Rankin! Stuffed full of silliness, painful puns, brain-bending plot twists and unbelievable characters. A refreshing change from anything else out there. In amongst the daftness lie some grains of seriously deep ideas with references to actual conspiracies, scientific mysteries or occult theories, all of which hold great fascination for me.

[Jamie]

This is my first book for this author. Rankin reminds me of a Christopher Moore meshed with Douglas Adams and voila! Hilarious! This story took me for a loop. When I think it's going in one direction it suddenly goes in another. Great read, Gary Cheese tells his story. He begins with his childhood, his fascination with death (and life) and what it's all about. When his most favorite author dies, P.P Penrose, he attempts to bring him back by nicking a book on voo doo from the restricted section of his memorial library. ( A place he visits regularly during closing hours since the restricted section is just that.. restricted) Then we fast forward to his teenage years briefly and then land on his late twenties when the story goes in another direction. He's a bulb monkey for a telecommunications outfit. He gets suckered into this job, for life. All he has to do is sit in the bulb room and when the light comes on, switch it off. It's here that he finds out what is really going on in the building and why he has to flip that switch. Total LOL. I enjoyed it very much!

[Duffy]

First Rankin I've read, not sure how representative it is compared to his other work. Pretty unlikeable narrator didn't help. Kind of ironic how there were all the Jeff Beck mentions throughout and he passes away as I'm reading it, seeing as how there's all the 23 and 17 references, I'm sure the author is familiar with RAW's work so I'll just chalk it up to synchronicity. I'll probably check out at least one more before deciding on whether he's to my taste or not.

[Andrew Lawston]

This was a fun book that I'd never been particularly aware of up to now. A distinctly unreliable narrator takes us through his life which, as you can imagine for a Robert Rankin novel, is largely based in Brentford and involves quite lengthy scenes talking toot in bars. I really enjoyed this one, it deserves to be better known within Rankin's work - or maybe it is and I'm just hopelessly out of touch. It's distinctly possible.

[John Appleton]

A fairly typical, but certainly ejoyable, outing from Robert Rankin, with the usual surreal chaos, in-jokes and catchphrases.

In certain respects it has similarities to A Dog Called Demolition - my favourite by this author. The ending feels a little bit weak, though, but there's enough in here to keep you turning the pages.

[Sarah Thornton]

I'm not really sure what I read but even in satire normalising domestic abuse is pretty gross.

Interesting plot and the protagonist was interesting enough but the rampant violence was a bit much.

Where it was funny, it was very well done and I'd try a different one of his books but this one just hit wrong.

[Andrew]

I have never read any other author who writes quite like Robert Rankin. How he manages to string together a vaguely coherent storyline amidst all the bad puns, running gags and ridiculous sidetracks is beyond me. Yet there it consistently is, a story with a vague semblance of a plot and everything. An entertaining diversion, but not one of his best.

[David Robert Bloomer]

Toot and plenty of it

Robert Rankin books are a pleasure to read. It's like reading a stream of consciousness but a very strange and bizarre stream. I would recommend this book to anyone who is looking for something a of stranger than the norm.

[Jane]

Incredible imagination, writing style slightly irritates me as if he is trying too hard to be zany sometimes, but the characters and mad plots make up for it! This is the third Robert Rankin I've read and am still trying to make up my mind about his books....

[Chris]

Well, this is the quickest I've ever read one of Robert's books, you just want to know what happens next although it does goes just completely bonkers towards the end...... OK, more bonkers. A very entertaining book.

[Jason]

Funny, disturbing and cringe worthy all in one completely bonkers yet engrossing tale.

[Scott]

Rounded up from 2.5 stars. There were two or three genuinely deep-down funny sentences, but the rest was just slightly amusing.

[Paul Read]

Another Rankin good read

It was not the best but still a good read with several twists and red herrings, not to mention a n unexpected ending.

[Dave Holwill]

Classic Rankin, a smattering of familiar characters and in-jokes with a wondrously far-fetched plot that still obeys its own internal logic.

[Roberta]

This is my first touch to this author's work and I really enjoyed it. The plot was twisting all the time, making me stay till the late hours to see what would happen next.

[Sean Keefe]

An ok Rankin is still head and shoulders above most other stuff.

[romy]

A prose to rival Douglas Adams that’s all you need to know

[TravelsReads]

What a strange novel! But quite original. I might reread it, one of these days.

[Phil Leader]

I like Rankin's work a lot. Some of his works are just amazingly inventive, incredibly humorous and reliably off-the-wall.

Unfortunately this really isn't quite up to his normal standards, although the plot has all his usual hallmarks - essentially someone discovers it is possible to phone the dead, which ends up with potentially terrible consequences for the living.

This sounds like quite a slight premise to hang a whole book of of, and I think that is the heart of the problem here. Some of the writing and twists are amongst the very best. We follow the main character through his life and although we know he's pretty unpleasant, the shock when he is asked how many people he has murdered, and is response, is pure Rankin cleverness.

Unfortunately such moments are too few and the plot too slow moving for this to be counted as a good Rankin novel. One for the completists but certainly not one that demonstrates his true ability.

[Lauren Smith]

This is completely nuts and totally unpredictable. To give you the pleasure of enjoying the whiplash of plot twists for yourself, I’m not describe the storyline, but I will say that you’ll find zombies, postmodern jokes, literary and pop culture references, a bizarre mix of sci fi and fantasy, and crazy conspiracy theories.

The downside is that it’s not nearly as funny as I’d hoped. It’s amusing most of the time, but it never got an actual laugh out of me. However, I’ve heard that it’s not one of Rankin’s best. Nevertheless, the general weirdness of his writing is very enjoyable and more than enough reason to try another of his books.

Read more reviews on my blog Violin in a Void

[Linda]

I liked it a lot.

With some of the other Rankin books I have read, I felt the ending was a cop out, he wrote himself into a corner that he could not get out of with the rules he had already set up. So he changed them and the whole book was suddenly up in the air to get an ending. It bugged me slightly.

The ending to the fandom met with my approval, no rule breaking, still unexpected, witty and amusing.

I also like the tone the book was written in, it reminded me of Ivor Cutler.

Note to self when raising the dead, dig them up first.

[Brendan]

I did not finish this book. I was excited to try Rankin because I love fiction with a sense of humor. However, Rankin's sense of humor never really clicked with me and his storytelling just left me feeling bored. I don't know if there are better examples of his work out there, but this book never really captured me. I didn't hate it, I just couldn't get interested in picking it up. It kept getting pushed aside for other reads. I think that's probably one of the most damning pieces of evidence against a book.

[Sarah]

This is a very silly book. At first I thought it was a bit too silly, but then it turned out there was a plot in there too!

A very silly plot, mind you. But it was a lot of fun, involving zombies, mad dead authors and telephones where you could speak to the dead. (So long as you knew when they died.)

This book also answers what the meaning of death is. (In case you like philosophy.)

All in all, tremendous fun.

[Stephanie]

Zombies, bureaucracy, and government conspiracy? What's not to love, "if you know what I mean, and I think you do."
Seriously, Robert Rankin isn't for everyone, but if you like really twisted British humor (or Christopher Moore), you'll enjoy this book, which I found to be the best paced of the Rankin books I've read. Also, despite the zombies, talking to dead people on telephones, and so forth, this is actually the least twisted of his books.

[Trish]

This book wasn't half bad, but compared to other Robert Rankin books I've known and loved it was lacking. It wasn't the fact that there wasn't really anyone to sympathize with (that's not uncommon, and yet I find myself sympathizing usually, anyway) or that it lacked a wacky premise. What I finally settled on was that it was just a touch flat... and needed more Lazlo Woodbine, as the protagonist would probably have agreed.

[Stig2k]

Excellent introduction to Robert Rankin as it is a complete stand-alone book. The thing I love about Rankin is that he writes as though he were talking to you. You can read his books (or better yet, listen to them read by the man himself) and his style is such that you could believe he's telling you a story, with all the associated meanderings and off topic anecdotes that you'd get if he were actualy there sitting on the bar stool next to you.

[Danielle]

This was my second Robert Rankin book. I tend to love books with random humor but I think this one was actually too random and weird for me "if you know what I mean, and I think you do." There was a plot but it seemed to wander a lot. I also expected to laugh a lot more than I did. Overall, I'd say that this book was OK and it isn't going to stop me from reading more of his books.