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Attack Of The Unsinkable Rubber Ducks (2007)

Attack Of The Unsinkable Rubber Ducks (2007)

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Rating
4 of 5 Votes: 5
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ISBN
0316730122 (ISBN13: 9780316730129)
Language
English
Publisher
little, brown & company

About book Attack Of The Unsinkable Rubber Ducks (2007)

I was very annoyed to find out that this would be the last of the Parlabane books. That he would die and that he would be killed off by a psychic was just too much. I was going to register my protest by not reading the damn thing – I mean, who do these damn authors think they are? They create a character and then, just when you start to like them, you find out that the author has had a death wish for them all along. I blame AC Doyle – topping Holmes like that so early on in the piece was bound to give other writers ideas.This ought to be one of my favourite Brookmyre’s. It has a serious go at the spoon bending fraternity and even gives a backhand slap to the creationists – and if anyone needs a serious slapping, it is these two groups of nongs. But there is something about overtly ideological fiction that doesn’t quite cut it. It is something that Woolf talks about in A Room of One’s Own - that fiction needs to be fiction and based on a certain logic one might call ‘fictional logic’ – and the other sort of logic, the sort that is behind Brookmyre’s writing of this book or his other Not the End of the World isn’t quite what is meant by this fictional logic.I find all this very hard to say, because ideologically I’m completely, totally and utterly on Brookmyre’s side. In fact, I think the man is a bloody genius and at times one of the funniest men alive – so that makes saying this isn’t him at his best stick in my throat. It is also not the funniest of his books - some of which are very, very funny. All the same, I still think this is a book well worth reading. There comes a point, about half way through, where I think it would be very hard to put this book down. There are also some very clever bits to the story. I don’t want to say too much as I don’t want to spoil it, but this really is a clever idea – even if I’m not sure it is handled as well as I would have expected from Brookmyre, who is a consummate master and someone who normally crafts his stories in ways I could never fault.I like how he brings back characters from other books and I’m really glad that Spammy gets another run. The plot is based around those bastards who prey on the emotions of those who have lost someone. The bastards who do ‘cold readings’ designed to open wounds in the emotional flesh of these who have lost someone close to them. And as Brookmyre does at the end of his book I will do much the same here. James ‘The Amazing’ Randi is a truly great man and this book is dedicated to him. If you are in any doubt about how truly great this man is then all I can say is:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxvPJF...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBEbfi...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jp6Q-3...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jF05m_...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMcg_6...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9Fjjr...Thank you Randi – the world is a better place because of you.There are bits of this book that really do zip along – the message of this book is also very important – and I really did enjoy it – But I still believe either Country of the Blind or The Sacred Art of Stealing are his best works. All the same, this is a very good read.

A book to win a skeptic's heart. This is not the funniest of the Parlabane books, but it's an absorbing thriller. It begins slowly, and if you were unfamiliar with the author - or if you hadn't taken the hint from the book's dedication to Randi and Dawkins - then you might think the author was going to come down on the side of woo. Brookmyre allows the "ducks" to present the most cogent and insidious of the arguments in favor of "keeping an open mind" when it comes to paranormal research.An "unsinkable rubber duck" is James Randi's phrase to describe those who are determined to believe in woo no matter how much evidence to the contrary they are presented with. The book is suspenseful, full of devious twists and turns, and the villains are as evil a bunch as Brookmyre has ever invented. The plot does have a big flaw, but it's a minor spoiler to even discuss it: (view spoiler)[The scientists are testing the psychic under what they're pleased to call strictly controlled laboratory conditions, but it was obvious to me how the guy was cheating. The key to troubleshooting is to methodically eliminate variables, and Parlabane and the scientists were right to be embarrassed over the flaws they missed. (hide spoiler)]

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Brilliant. Funny. Irreverant. Straight down the line hilarious. Really enjoyed this book. The "hero" Jack Parlebayne is a classic, no nonsense, doesnt take crap for anyone sort of guy. This book is similar to most of Christopher Brookmyre's books - lots of back story, lots of "takin'the pish", lots of the reader thinking "WTF"....The story always starts slowly, the author filling the pages flicking from one character, one sub-plot to another, giving you subtle glimpses of what is coming...and then about half way through the book you are sent helter skelter on towards the finish line...and left at the end thinking "wow- how did he get me here?"PS: I listened to this as an audiobook (hearing the voices in the right accents just make it better (I think anyway)...Full points for Mr Brookmyre - another classic.
—Melinda

A lot more toned down than recent efforts that strecth credulity with high body counts in siege scenarios with useless terrorists.Parlabane is revealed as dead.... as he tells his story about the investigations into the afterlife and psychics. This is an unusual tactic.Through a journalists serialisation we learn about the psychic layratette and his honcho Mather, as they bring a business men in touch with his dead wife in a realistic seance.But all is not as it seems. Through the journalist, parlabane and a student we learn that Layrafette is a fraud, trying to bring christian teachings into schools... through a rather convuluted scenario.The main reason for reading brookmyre is the political rants, and there is a great one at the start of the book about the NHS, religion and bigotted people. The other reason is the unique scottish humour - again in evidence.Although the changing of the characters gave confusion, the restraint was a welcome return and a good book. An improvement on recent ones.
—Ian Mapp

A carefully spoiler-free review.I'd been in the mood to read a fast, fun thriller for awhile, and as I had several unread Brookmyre novels on my shelf I was definitely gravitating in that direction. When I found the audiobook of Attack of the Unsinkable Rubber Ducks I was sold – even though it's the fifth of the Jack Parlabane adventures and I haven't read all the previous ones yet, I didn't expect it to be a big obstacle as they are, like most crime series', not direct follow ons in anything other than events in the main characters' lives.I must confess that as the story opened I felt slightly disappointed. The extract from a book by fictional Mail journalist Jillian Noble about an encounter with the supernatural seemed to be somewhat heavy-handed in signposting the direction the novel might take. Noble is smug, snotty, overly credulous and sneeringly dismissive of sceptical rationalism – so strongly antithetical to both Brookmyre and Parlabane that the set up for a fall seemed sadly obvious. Ironically, I should have had more faith in the author, because while it is indeed a set up, it is the reader who is being set up for a sudden, unexpected curve ball coming out of left field that whips any assumptions out from under you like a deftly pulled tablecloth. This is a trick Brookmyre pulls again and again throughout this superbly constructed, extremely well written book. He leads your expectations from one point of view before bringing in another angle to make you realise that you are balancing precariously on a crumbling ledge of unfounded assumption rather than the firm, flat bedrock of facts. There are also dawning moments of realisation that made me laugh out loud, to add to the many trademark chuckles you'd expect from a writer who has been called 'the Scottish Carl Hiaasen'. The twists and changes of perspective kept me guessing right up to the joyous payoff (although I had worked out a couple of the facts I wasn't certain of them, and doubt it was my own Holmsian deductive abilities that allowed me to work them out so much as cunning winks from the author to make me feel better about being duped!)I realise I've said nothing about the plot – deliberately, as this would be an easy book to give spoilers on. Suffice to say it is a book about belief, deception and assumptions. If you like your thrillers clever, thoughtful and laugh-out-loud funny (not to mention quite sweary and not infrequently violent, although in this case less violent than usual), I highly recommend you acquaint yourself with Christopher Brookmyre
—Paul 'Pezski' Perry

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