science fiction

The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse is pretty much a crazy book--track it down and read it. From the reviews on these pages, it is harder to find this book than it was for Jack and Eddie, the young boy and stuffed bear heroes of the book to solve the mysterious murders in Toy City. Humpty Dumpty has been boiled to death--and other nursery rhyme protagonists soon follow. Toy City is a bizarre place where toys are real, as are people and nursery rhymes and other oddities. Jack is new to the town, and, like the reader, is perpetually amazed at the weirdness of Toy City. This book is very, very funny--a bit (well, more than a bit) off center--but just a delight to read. It's a blend of science fiction, fantasy, humor and mystery--somewhat like the Thursday Next series in its odd blending of multiple genres. Fun, weird fun, but still fun.

Well, of course any book set in Toy City has got to have its fair share of the fantastic, but once you accept (as our hero Jack is forced to) the existence of walking, talking toys, the novel settles into the (intentionally) formulaic mystery-detection beats.

The situations are interesting and different (Miss Muffet's talk show comes to mind--in toy city all those nursery rhyme characters have perforce become rich and famous), the characters well-characterized, the humour unforced, and the relationship between Jack and the bear who somewhat adopts him is quite touching.

The best part of the book is its charming dialogue--the toys share the same literality that Carroll's creatures have in the Wonderland/Looking Glass books; although no one quite comes out with "then you should say what you mean," it's clear the characters expect it. There are several very cute passages.

An excellent book (my first read of this author's oeuvre) and I'm looking forward to reading more from him (he's written a lot!)

Note: a 3 star ranking from me is actually pretty good; I reserve 4 stars for tremendously good works, and 5 only for the rare few that are or ought to be classic; unfortunately most books published are 2 or less.

After comparisons to Terry Pratchett and Douglas Adams, I was expecting great things. I was vastly disappointed. The humor was crude and probably only funny to pre-adolescent males. The plot is full of holes and the writing is wooden. I can't imagine how this book ever got published.