The Educated Ape and other Wonders of the World

The year is 1899 and the world is coming to an end. An epic in four movements, this is the third book in Robert Rankin's highly acclaimed meta-Victorian series, after Japanese Devil Fish Girl and The Mechanical Messiah Comparable to Terry Pratchett or Douglas Adams, the father of far-fetched fiction has pulled out all of the stops with this riotous tale of wicked women, a dangerous detective, and Darwin, the educated ape. Lord Brentford has a dream: to create a Grand Exposition that will showcase the wonders of the worlds and encourage peace between the inhabited planets of Venus, Jupiter, and Earth. Ernest Rutherford has a dream: to construct a time ship, powered by the large hadron collider he has built beneath the streets of London. Cameron Bell is England's greatest detective and he, too, has a dream: to solve the crime of the century before it takes place, without blowing up any more of London's landmarks. Darwin is a monkey butler and even he has a dream: to end man's inhumanity to monkey and bring a little joy into the world. Lavinia Dharkstorrm has a dream of her own, although hers is more of a nightmare: to erase man and monkey alike from the face of the Earth and to hasten in the End of Days. Then there is the crime-fighting superlady, all those chickens from the past, and the unwelcome arrival of the Antichrist. Things are looking rather grim on planet Earth.