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The Greatest Show off Earth
- Narrated by: Robert Rankin
- Length: 10 hrs and 52 mins
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The Greatest Show off Earth
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Summary
Roll up! Roll Up! You have never seen anything like it in your life. The last thing Raymond expected when he went down to his allotment was to be abducted by a flying starfish from Uranus. But these things happen and when he learns that he is being sold as a delicacy in a Venusian auction, he is grateful to be rescued by the travelling circus.
But this is not your everyday circus, this is Professor Merlin’s Greatest Show off Earth, with ancient exotic performers who travel between the inhabited worlds in a Victorian steamship. The professor has a job for Raymond: release the 200 people held prisoner on Saturn and save the population of planet Earth from extinction.
Simon, Raymond’s best friend, is in trouble, too. The Men in Grey are after him and a cult of Satanic chicken worshippers are keen to use him as a human sacrifice. Simon does have a book from the future that might help him out, and there are all those villagers with the flaming torches.
The Greatest Show off Earth is partly set in Bramfield, based upon the actual Sussex village of Henfield, where author Robert Rankin lived for a number of years. Rankin inhabited Raymond’s cottage, which can easily be found by following the directions in the first chapter. The characters are mostly real people the author met and drank with in The Jolly Gardeners, and some, like Simon, Andy, Paul, and Military Dave appear in the book under their own names. With touching naivety, Rankin thought that the locals would appreciate being in his novel. Not all did, and a certain someone, who will remain nameless, shot the windscreen out of Rankin’s car one night, and regularly left dead rats upon the doorstep to signal his disapproval.
Country life never really agreed with Robert Rankin and he now lives happily in Brighton, where he no longer puts his neighbours in his books.
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What listeners say about The Greatest Show off Earth
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Macstiv
- 24-10-21
excellent tale absurdly told
The hero wears Black leathers and rides a Harley Davidson. What more could you want.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Mrs S. A. Tynan
- 31-10-21
Good idea
liked the idea but too slow. finished it as narrator knew how to read it as he is author.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Kindle Customer
- 20-10-21
Solid book, enjoyable and well written.
Solid book, enjoyable and well written. Just not amazing. The author narrates and that works very well
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Bill Atkinson
- 10-03-23
Barmy but brilliant
Robert Rankin’s storylines are literally out of this world. The bonus for me are the little nuggets of plays on wards and his sense of humour. His brain will be well worth studying
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Mr P Carty
- 01-03-15
Excelent
Weird and wonderful just as I like it lots of crazy characters with a story to match well worth a listen
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5 people found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Wendy A-R
- 13-11-21
Slow forming and unnecessarily repetitive
I haven't finished this. The narrator (also author) isn't really the best person to narrate this I feel.
The storyline is slow and unnecessarily pedantic and repetitive.
There are many references that anyone who hasn't grown up in the UK wouldn't understand.
I am sorry to say I won't find out how this ends.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Glenribbeen
- 10-04-22
Slightly amusing fantasy-folktale.
Not really my cup of tea but I grew to enjoy the reading. I doubt I would have read the book but the author's reading kept me going.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Jane_Sav
- 27-10-21
What a hoot
Brilliant nonsense from start to finish. A great listen for anyone who has the humour of a 12 year old schoolboy! I love Robert Rankin.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- szbz
- 09-11-21
Glad it was an included book. Passed the time but not great
Lighthearted nonsense and Silly humour similar to that of Terry Pratchett and Adrian Mole books. It was OK to pass the time while working but I wouldn’t really recommend
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- Lord S
- 13-06-23
Just Utter Rubbish. Tries and fails to be funny
I really really wanted to like this book. I enjoy sci fi, humour and humorous sci fi. So I thought I'd be the target audience but boy was I disappointed!
It's just not funny.
It thinks that by trying to be as weird as possible and repeating things over again, that it will make something funny but it doesn't.
Not only did I not laugh, I didn't even smile. It was tedious, boring drivel and I gave up about a third into it.
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