The Book of Ultimate Truths

Last updated

The Book of Ultimate Truths
The Book of Ultimate Truths.jpg
First edition
Author Robert Rankin
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Series Cornelius Murphy Trilogy
Genre Fantasy
Publisher Doubleday
Publication date
1993
Media typePrint (Hardcover)
Pages271 pp
ISBN 0-385-40413-1
OCLC 29518744
Followed by Raiders of the Lost Car Park  

The Book of Ultimate Truths is a novel by British author Robert Rankin. The plot revolves around the adventures of Cornelius Murphy and his companion Tuppe. The novel was first published by Doubleday in 1993. It ranked number 5 in the Science Fiction & Fantasy category on The Independent on Sunday bestseller list. [1]

Plot summary

The book begins with Cornelius hired by the mysterious Arthur Kobold, who claims to represent a publishing firm wishing to print a complete copy of The Book of Ultimate Truths, a set of great secrets discovered by Hugo Rune, but suppressed by unknown forces. Cornelius and his schoolfriend Tuppe set out to find the book. They encounter the evil Campbell, who is also seeking to retrieve the lost book, to allow him to return to the Forbidden Zones, areas of the world hidden from humanity (excepting London taxi drivers). The two heroes retrieve the book and return to the Murphy home in Brentford, only to find the Campbell is waiting there for them. It is revealed the Campbell is Cornelius' half-brother, and that their father is Hugo Rune. The Campbell escapes with the key to the Forbidden Zones, a re-invented ocarina. Cornelius and Tuppe pursue him to the nearest entrance to the Zones, but the Campbell's plans are foiled by the arrival of a large gathering of a cult devoted to Hugo Rune. The ocarina is destroyed, as is the Campbell.

Arthur Kobold presents Cornelius with a large cheque as an advance against royalties from the publication of the book. The cheque is revealed to be a trick - Arthur Kobold was in fact working for the denizens of the Forbidden Zones all along. Seemingly foiled, Cornelius then realizes that the map of their journey forms a schematic for the creation of another re-invented ocarina, and along with a London A-Z map showing the locations of the entrances to the Forbidden Zones the heroes are left plotting their next adventure into the unknown.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Glorantha</span> Fantasy world created by Greg Stafford

Glorantha is a fantasy world created by Greg Stafford.

<i>The Legend of Zelda</i> Video game series

The Legend of Zelda is an action-adventure game franchise created by the Japanese game designers Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka. It is primarily developed and published by Nintendo, although some portable installments and re-releases have been outsourced to Flagship, Vanpool, and Grezzo. Its gameplay incorporates action-adventure and elements of action RPG games.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Philip José Farmer</span> American science fiction and fantasy writer (1918–2009)

Philip José Farmer was an American author known for his science fiction and fantasy novels and short stories.

The Brentford Trilogy is a series of twelve novels by writer Robert Rankin. They humorously chronicle the lives of a couple of drunken middle-aged layabouts, Jim Pooley and John Omally, who confront the forces of darkness in the environs of West London, usually with the assistance of large quantities of beer from their favourite public house, The Flying Swan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Rankin</span> British fantasy author

Robert Fleming Rankin is a prolific British author of comedic fantasy novels. Born in Parsons Green, London, he started writing in the late 1970s, and first entered the bestsellers lists with Snuff Fiction in 1999, by which time his previous eighteen books had sold around one million copies. His books are a mix of science fiction, fantasy, the occult, urban legends, running gags, metafiction, steampunk and outrageous characters. According to the biography printed in some Corgi editions of his books, Rankin refers to his style as 'Far Fetched Fiction' in the hope that bookshops will let him have a section to himself. Many of Rankin's books are bestsellers.

Link (<i>The Legend of Zelda</i>) Protagonist in The Legend of Zelda

Link is a character and the protagonist of Nintendo's video game franchise The Legend of Zelda. He was created by Japanese video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. Link was introduced as the hero of the original The Legend of Zelda video game in 1986 and has appeared in a total of 20 entries in the series, as well as a number of spin-offs. Common elements in the series include Link travelling through Hyrule whilst exploring dungeons, battling creatures, and solving puzzles until he eventually defeats the series' primary antagonist, Ganon, and saves Princess Zelda.

<i>The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket</i> 1838 novel by Edgar Allan Poe

The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, written in 1838, is the only complete novel by American writer Edgar Allan Poe. The work relates the tale of the young Arthur Gordon Pym, who stows away aboard a whaler called the Grampus. Various adventures and misadventures befall Pym, including shipwreck, mutiny, and cannibalism, before he is saved by the crew of the Jane Guy. Aboard this vessel, Pym and a sailor named Dirk Peters continue their adventures farther south. Docking on land, they encounter hostile, black-skinned natives before escaping back to the ocean. The novel ends abruptly as Pym and Peters continue toward the South Pole.

<i>Peace on Earth</i> (novel) 1985 novel by Stanisław Lem

Peace on Earth is a 1985 science fiction novel by Polish writer Stanisław Lem. The novel describes, in a satirical tone, the ultimate implications of the arms race. It is a continuation of the adventures of Ijon Tichy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hero's journey</span> Pattern in storytelling

In narratology and comparative mythology, the hero's journey, also known as the monomyth, is the common template of stories that involve a hero who goes on an adventure, is victorious in a decisive crisis, and comes home changed or transformed.

<i>Return to the Planet of the Apes</i> 1975–1976 animated series

Return to the Planet of the Apes is a 1975 American animated television series based on the 1968 film Planet of the Apes and its sequels, which were, in turn, based on the 1963 novel of the same name by Pierre Boulle. Unlike the film, its sequels, and the 1974 live-action television series, which involved a primitive ape civilization, Return to the Planet of the Apes depicted a technologically advanced society, complete with automobiles, film, and television; as such it more closely resembled both Boulle's original novel and early concepts for the first Apes film which were changed due to budgetary limitations in the late 1960s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adventure fiction</span> Fiction in which an adventure forms the main storyline

Adventure fiction is a type of fiction that usually presents danger, or gives the reader a sense of excitement. Some adventure fiction also satisfies the literary definition of romance fiction.

<i>Raiders of the Lost Car Park</i> 1994 novel by Robert Rankin

Raiders of the Lost Car Park is a novel by British author Robert Rankin. It is the second book in the Cornelius Murphy trilogy, sequel to The Book of Ultimate Truths and prequel to The Most Amazing Man Who Ever Lived. It documents the continuing adventures of Cornelius Murphy and his companion Tuppe. The novel was first published by Doubleday in 1994. The book's name is a play on Raiders of the Lost Ark, an Indiana Jones movie.

<i>The Unknown Ajax</i> 1959 novel by Georgette Heyer

The Unknown Ajax is a Regency romance by Georgette Heyer, published in 1959 by Heinemann in the UK and in 1960 by Putnam in the US. It was her forty-seventh novel and the eighteenth set in Regency times.

<i>The Goblin Tower</i> 1968 novel by L. Sprague de Camp

The Goblin Tower is a fantasy novel by American writer L. Sprague de Camp, the first book of both his Novarian series and the "Reluctant King" trilogy featuring King Jorian of Xylar. It is not to be confused with the collection of poetry by the same title by Frank Belknap Long. De Camp's novel was first published as a paperback by Pyramid Books in 1968. It was reprinted by Del Rey Books in December 1983, July 1987, and July 1989. It was later gathered together with its sequels The Clocks of Iraz (1971) and The Unbeheaded King (1983) into the omnibus collection The Reluctant King. The first independent hardbound edition was issued by HarperCollins in 1987. An E-book edition was published by Gollancz's SF Gateway imprint on September 29, 2011, as part of a general release of de Camp's works in electronic form. The novel has been translated into French, Italian and German.

Hugo Artemis Solon Saturnicus Reginald Arthur Rune is a fictional character appearing in several of Robert Rankin's novels, generally being portrayed as a kind of anti-hero, possessing a fundamentally good character with assorted eccentricities.

<i>Planet of the Apes</i> (1968 film) 1968 film directed by Franklin J. Schaffner

Planet of the Apes is a 1968 American science fiction film directed by Franklin J. Schaffner from a screenplay by Michael Wilson and Rod Serling, loosely based on the 1963 novel by Pierre Boulle. The film stars Charlton Heston, Roddy McDowall, Kim Hunter, Maurice Evans, James Whitmore, James Daly, and Linda Harrison. In the film, an astronaut crew crash-lands on a strange planet in the distant future. Although the planet appears desolate at first, the surviving crew members stumble upon a society in which apes have evolved into creatures with human-like intelligence and speech. The apes have assumed the role of the dominant species and humans are mute creatures wearing animal skins.

<i>Only Time Will Tell</i> (novel) Novel by Jeffrey Archer

Only Time Will Tell is a first part of the seven in the Clifton Chronicles by Jeffrey Archer. The book was published worldwide in 2011. It was launched by Jeffrey Archer himself in Bangalore, India in March 2011, as the beginning of a global book tour.

<i>Marvel Animated Features</i> Direct to DVD series of animated films by MLG Productions

Marvel Animated Features (MAF) is a series of eight direct-to-video animated superhero films made by MLG Productions, a joint venture between Marvel Studios and Lions Gate Entertainment.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Damien Lewis (filmmaker)</span> British journalist and writer

Damien Gavin Lewis is a British author and filmmaker who has spent over twenty years reporting from and writing about conflict zones in many countries. He has produced about twenty films.

<i>The City in the Middle of the Night</i> 2019 novel by Charlie Jane Anders

The City In the Middle of the Night is a 2019 climate-fiction novel by Charlie Jane Anders. It is set on a tidally locked planet, where human life, surrounded by hostile alien life, is mostly divided between two archetypically different urban sites. The main story focuses on two characters whose actions take them outside of the cities.

References

  1. "The Independent on Sunday Bestseller List". The Independent. 19 June 1994. p. 93.