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How to Rule the World

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The an industry in crisis. Baxter Stone, a filmmaker and television veteran, a lifelong Londoner (who thinks he sees better than others), is having problems in the postbrain, crumbling capital. Swindled by an insurance company, he's in in debt; a Lamborghini is blocking his drive, and MI6 is blocking his mobile reception.

He hopes to turn it round and get the documentary series that will get him the Big Money. But what do you do if history is your sworn enemy and the whole world conspires against you? Is there any way, you could, for a moment, rule the world justly?

Darkly comic, How to Rule The World follows Baxter's battle for truth, justice and classy colour grading as it takes him from the pass of Thermopylae to the peacocking serial killers of Medieval France and the war in Syria. A trip from the Garden of Eden to Armageddon, plus reggae.

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First published April 5, 2018

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About the author

Tibor Fischer

30 books161 followers
Tibor Fischer is a British novelist and short story writer. In 1993 he was selected by the influential literary magazine Granta as one of the 20 best young British writers.

Fischer's parents were Hungarian basketball players, who fled Hungary in 1956. The bloody 1956 revolution, and his father's background, informed Fischer's debut novel Under the Frog, a Rabelaisian yarn about a Hungarian basketball player surviving Communism. The title is derived from a Hungarian saying, that the worst possible place to be is under a frog's arse down a coal mine.

In 2009 Fischer became the Royal Literary Fund writing fellow at City and Guilds of London Art School.

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5 stars
30 (14%)
4 stars
65 (30%)
3 stars
83 (38%)
2 stars
27 (12%)
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9 (4%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 32 reviews
Profile Image for Nigeyb.
1,463 reviews399 followers
January 27, 2021
Back in the 1990s, and pre Good Reads days, I read and enjoyed Under the Frog (1993) and The Thought Gang (1994). I'd all but forgotten about Tibor Fischer when my book group chose How to Rule the World (2018). I was excited to reacquaint myself with his work.

How to Rule the World is an energetic, world weary, angry first person narration by a disaffected TV documentary maker which makes for a surprisingly engrossing novel. This somewhat incoherent satirical novel is full of amusing one liners, interesting insights, colourful characters, and all against a global backdrop.

Tibor Fischer has lost none of his insight, creativity and comedic abilities since his Booker-shortlisted debut Under the Frog (1992) broke through almost three decades ago.

4/5

London. A city robbing and killing people since 50BC.

The Vizz: an industry in crisis. Baxter Stone, a film maker and television veteran, a lifelong Londoner (who thinks he sees better than others) is having problems in the postbrain, crumbling capital. Swindled by an insurance company, he's in in debt; a Lamborghini is blocking his drive and MI6 is blocking his mobile reception.

He hopes to turn it round and get the documentary series that will get him the Big Money. But what do you do if history is your sworn enemy and the whole world conspires against you? Is there any way, you could, for a moment, rule the world justly?

Darkly comic, How to Rule The World follows Baxter's battle for truth, justice and classy colour grading as it takes him from the pass of Thermopylae, to the peacocking serial killers of Medieval France, and the war in Syria. A trip from the Garden of Eden to Armageddon, plus reggae.

Demonstrating Fischer's inimitable talent for eviscerating social satire, How to the Rule the World is a magnificently funny read to stand alongside his best loved works, the Man Booker shortlisted Under the Frog, The Thought Gang and Don't Read This Book If You're Stupid



Profile Image for SueKich.
291 reviews24 followers
February 9, 2019
Just my cup of cynicism.

Disenchanted mid-life male in the meedja. It’s a familiar trope but very well done here by Tibor Fischer. As Baxter heads towards the big 5-O, his moderately successful life as a documentary film-maker is falling apart. The crumbling marriage, the vile commissioner of factual programmes who makes everyone’s life a misery, the tantrum-y presenters, the much-missed mentor whose death Baxter can’t get over, the brilliant-but-barmy cameraman Semtex (!) who has a penchant for messing up restaurant menus…

This is a barbed indictment of contemporary London and the television documentary field in particular, and some of Baxter’s utterances are sure to rile the right-on brigade. But this biting satire does provide some seriously good laughter. The cynic in me devoured this and at under 250 pages, Fischer’s narrator does not outstay his welcome either – something of a rarity these days.
Profile Image for Pino Sabatelli.
585 reviews67 followers
November 10, 2021
Di Fischer avevo a suo tempo apprezzato sia Sotto il culo della rana (molto) che La gang del pensiero (abbastanza). Grande è stata pertanto la delusione per questa storia senza capo né coda, con un protagonista inconsistente al limite dell’irrilevanza. Un libro così brutto che non val la pena perder tempo per spiegare il perché.
57 reviews7 followers
January 31, 2020
Бакстер - прожженный телережиссер-документалист в полной заднице, но бодрится. Честно говоря, начало уже так себе - понятно, что и дальше не случится ничего хорошего. И не случается. В профессии упадок, отстойный босс, безденежье и лишний вес. Править миром не получится, да и книга не про это.

"Как править миром" - абсолютно английская книга с соответствующим отборным циничным юмором. Это её отличительная особенность и главная причина, чтобы читать.

Моя позиция такова: если ты выглядишь как говно и ведёшь себя как говно, то и незачем убеждать себя, будто ты паук; если ты так хорошо изображаешь говно, то ты говно и есть, потому что случайные прохожие всё равно не отличают тебя от говна.
Можно сказать, что тележурналистика сейчас в упадке, да и главный герой подзастрял в прошлом - опять попасть в струю не получается ни у него, ни у многих вокруг него. Отсюда второстепенная причина читать - интересно, много и детально написано про внутреннюю теле-кухню. Это не та область, в которой каждый второй специалист, при этом результаты работы на виду у всех - поэтому погружение в закулисье прошло хорошо. Проблематика на поверхности: из старого конъюнктура, из нового интернет весь хлеб отобрал - озарений не случилось, но пускай.

Хочется передать детям свои пристрастия, вкусы и взгляды, но так не бывает. И это прекрасно.
Сюжет, пожалуй, - самое слабое в книге. Повествование по времени прыгает, и не всегда понятно, что идёт за чем (и зачем) на самом деле. По законам жанра в конце любой книги должна быть кульминация и развязка, поэтому буквально на последних страницах "Как править миром" становится остросюжетным боевиком с террористами и заложниками. Ну вот зачем, а?
Profile Image for Mehmet Özhan.
78 reviews1 follower
September 9, 2020
Bir alana diğeri %50 indirimli kampanyasıyla aldığım kitabın böylesine eğlenceli olması da kara mizah galiba. Fosforlu kalem bulursam bir sürü cümlenin üzerini boyayacağım. Tebrikler...
Profile Image for Marc Nash.
Author 18 books466 followers
January 15, 2019
The weakest of the 4 Fischer novels I've read. Misanthropy without a heart, and by heart I don't mean emotion (because it lacks that), but a hole in the centre where there ought to reside something to hold the novel's diffuseness together, but the lack makes me wonder what the point of the novel is.

A documentary film maker is swimming with the other sharks in that world. And while they carnivorous quirks start off amusing, they never transcend their pathologies. The musings of the protagonist veer from subject or reminiscence very rapidly in the space of a paragraph, but instead of feeling vertiginous, feel all of a pace and the same empty tone. There are one or two amusing bon mots, but there as many if not more examples of bad taste where he's pushed the humour just a mite too far.

The central characters of Fischer's other books have a bit of depth to them, this one only has the surface of glibness. Disappointing.
Profile Image for Bda31175.
5 reviews1 follower
September 2, 2019
Indian Adolescence

No one dies of old age in this book. No one. Sudden, cocktail chatter demises are apparently how we all go if we've won thru to middle age. Should one make it to 70 there's the devil may care bravado to look forward to. Fischer's wit shines thru here and there but the muddling crisis seems very much like a wallow enjoyed with the private knowledge a hot shower is but a few steps away.
Profile Image for Martinocorre.
331 reviews19 followers
August 13, 2023
Divertissement letterario con una trama un po’ esile che spesso mi è sembrata solo un pretesto per inanellare una serie di immagini scritte in uno stile umoristico/provocatorio/d’effetto a volte riuscite e a volte no.
Carino e dimenticabile come certe “One night stand”
Profile Image for Lorena Burciu.
303 reviews11 followers
February 1, 2018
In complete disregard for the title of the book, this is the story of Baxter, a washed out documentary producer, who travels the world with his vegan and bloodthirsty cameraman Semtex, trying to make ends meet, but only to be defeated by fate, that supreme mistress of irony. The duo get thrown in prison, beaten up, kidnapped or simply fired by their Machiavellian boss, Johxn (the 'x' is silent) and never quite manage to film that life changing documentary that will define their careers.

It took me a while to get into this book, partly because it's so weird and the stories are not all that credible, partly because the narrative is completely all over the place.

But once I was about halfway through it started to make sense and I could appreciate the irony in almost every sentence uttered by the protagonist, Baxter, an archetypal loser, as Fisher likes to portray.

Perhaps this was too clever for me (same impression I got when with "Don't read this book if you're stupid") but I feel like the reader could've had a better experience had more details about the protagonist's crazy life would've been revealed from the outset. Instead we're left trying to make sense of it all while he's reminiscing crazy drunken parties in Camden or almost getting blown up in Baghdad. In literally the same sentence!

I received an advanced free copy of this book from Goodreads in exchange for an honest review.
Profile Image for Alex Sarll.
7,020 reviews363 followers
Read
July 4, 2018
Time was I would have called The Thought Gang one of my favourite novels, and I still regard it with a lot of fondness, even as Tibor Fischer himself seems to have determined to do a Morrissey with his dogged support for the odious Viktor Orban. Crucially, though, Tibor is one up on Stephen Patrick in that while his artistic output may not be treading any new ground, it is still quite good. Like many of its predecessors, How to Rule the World is mostly a rant with vague supporting incident; the setting this time is the world of documentary filmmaking, which you'll probably be unsurprised to learn is corrupt, on its uppers, unfair, and generally a bit of an arse - much like the wider world in which it sits. But my word, the sheer pace and range and brio of a Fischer protagonist's rant means that you can forget that the bigger picture is nothing new, you can forget the author's politics, and just enjoy surfing the wave of spleen. In particular, the term 'wrathfood' - for the imbeciles clogging London streets - is one I'll be stealing.

Seriously, though - and in some ways this is more jaw-dropping even than the Orban thing - who, in 2018, still uses a blurb calling them "the Ali G of literature"? Not least because I don't even understand how the comparison was meant to work back in the day, beyond the most rudimentary 'is funny'.
Profile Image for Giulia Papalia.
334 reviews52 followers
October 20, 2021
Che ne so perché ho comprato questo libro a scatola chiusa. Ci avrò intravisto il segreto del trionfo: Come governare il mondo. E già mi vedevo con lo scettro e la corona volare sopra tutto quello che non riuscivo a fare, sopra tutti i miei fallimenti e urlare “Eccomi!!! Guardate che meraviglioso essere vivente! Ho trovato l’elisir della mia rivoluzione!”.
Poi l’ho aperto.
Baxter Stone è un regista che sogna il documentario della vita ma al quale affidano solo servizi impossibili e improbabili; da giovane cercava il suo posto nel mondo immaginandosi volteggiare nei cieli del successo tempestati di autostima e ammirazione, praticamente il contrario della realtà: sovrappeso, discriminato, alla ricerca di un posto dove nessuno gli rompe i coglioni (per questo libro sdogano le parolacce). E quindi Baxter governa il mondo, godendo in maniera disinvolta dell’umanità dei suoi sentimenti, del suo cinismo, dell’invidia, della voglia di vendetta, della paura e della felicità che non è sempre felicità perché tanto qualcosa di sospetto c’è sempre. In questa storia non c’è una morale ricercata, commovente e minestrariscaldata del ridere anche nei momenti difficili; qua si respira un agrodolce realismo in ogni pagina, si ride per le sventure altrui e si tifa per un antieroe che non si vergogna a dar voce alle parti peggiori di ognuno di noi.
58 reviews
January 9, 2024
Grazie al mio amico Fra Cesko ho amato molto La gang del pensiero dello stesso autore, e sempre grazie a lui mi sono tenuto alla larga da Sotto il culo della rana (non nego mi incuriosisca però). Qui ho ritrovato la solita capacità di Fischer di tratteggiare irresistibili antieroi border line, cinici ed autoironici, alcune considerazioni esilaranti sulla vita messe in bocca agli stessi (ho riso spesso), ma in definitiva una storia sghemba, sgangherata, purtroppo. 3 per le risate e per l'affetto verso l'autore e la fauna con cui popola i suoi romanzi.
Profile Image for Green Hedgehog.
436 reviews28 followers
July 7, 2025
На эту историю надо было настроиться. Это такой поток сознания героя. И когда ты через десяток страниц из него вынырнешь, то окажется, что... пока ничего не понятно. То есть нам долгое время представляют героя, его позицию в этом мире, историю, скажем так отношений с другими людьми и... ничего не происходит. И так здесь со всей книгой. Вроде как сюжет здесь есть, но его нет. Не то чтобы прямо непривычно для меня, но как-то неожиданно. Накидали целую кучу ниточек, по которым, кажется, вот-вот сейчас пойдёт сюжет. История бывшего учителя главного героя, его желание снять свой фильм, проблемы на работе, в отношениях, с сыном. Но хоп, и ничего. Все эти ниточки так и остаются лежать там, где их положили. Герои вроде как совершают какие-то скачки во времени, от одного события к другому, участвуют в своей работе, вместе что-то делают, но это никак и ни к чему их не приводит. В общем — это наша жизнь. Просто в книжном варианте. Главный герой — такой же человек, как вы или я. Просто он обращается в сфере, которая кажется чем-то таким высоким и важным. У него есть друзья, которые вхожи на яхты миллиардеров, он знает кучу различных способов добыть информацию, ну или так говорит. При этом — в его жизни нет всех тех событий, которые ждёшь обычно от такого типа сфер. Всё у него происходит как-то обыденно. Даже история в самом конце выглядит как... не знаю, насмешка над читателем. Вот сейчас-то всё закрутится, неожиданно развернётся но... Сюрприз. В общем, эта книга под настроение. И я ожидал от неё чего-то большее, поэтому в моё настроение она не то чтобы попала. Но, возможно, кому-то повезёт с ней больше. 
60 reviews1 follower
April 19, 2019
I'm not entirely sure what I just read, but I liked it! I expected this to be an odd book going into it, and it did not disappoint. The narrative style was interesting, and caught my attention. Best way I can describe it is "spiraling"... all throughout the narrative switches back and forth between flashbacks/memories and current events, somehow the story still progresses, but in a bit of an odd (and enjoyable) way.

There are also a lot of really quirky things in the book. Lots of asides about how much a pain in the *ss it is for a Londoner to deal with tourists. And a very odd series of lost cat-type posters (won't say more to avoid spoilers). While they weren't at all critical to the story, I found these things really funny.
Profile Image for Angie Annetts.
Author 3 books14 followers
February 17, 2020
Disappointing
Having read and LOVED The Thought Gang and The Collector Collector, I thought this would be a shoe-in for some quality bubble bath time. Sadly, I found this novel rather disjointed and a bit like listening to someone on a Friday night in a boozer reeling off a load of anecdotes between slurps. The writing, as ever, is witty and intelligent - but to my mind, the whole thing didn't 'hold together' like the aforementioned books and it had the feel of something churned out. I guess all of this sounds harsh, but when a fantastic writer sets his stall out, he makes himself a tough act to follow.
All that said, I'll be back, and have it on good advice that Under The Frog is the dog's bollocks.
My bubbles stand on red alert.....
Profile Image for Snoakes.
1,018 reviews35 followers
March 4, 2018
How to Rule the World is about Baxter, a documentary maker past his prime. Each chapter moves on a month, as Baxter and his cameraman Semtex try (and frequently fail) to make great television.

The writing is good - it's cynical and satirical, but the narrative is disjointed and Baxter is much given to inner monologues and musings. This means it never really becomes a cohesive story.

I enjoyed it - there are many wry smiles to be had along the way, but ultimately I'm left not quite sure what it was all about.

I had a review copy of this as a Goodreads giveaway.
546 reviews9 followers
August 12, 2023
This is a book about life in the independent media, except it isn't. The approach appears to wilfully disrupt narrative coherency in favour of omniscient tone. Fischer is good at the pretence of cynicism that disguises heart, and he can churn out polished and witty epigrams to that effect. The media world he relates, however, feels dated - kind of eighties. And the faux-cynicism can often seem to veer into the fringes of attention seeking. On balance, the quality of the prose does a lot of the heavy lifting, but more story and relevance would have helped.
Profile Image for Angus McKeogh.
1,363 reviews83 followers
June 19, 2021
A bit disjointed as far as a cohesive narrative goes; however, I found the last 50 pages absolutely phenomenal. Honestly I’m not sure why I haven’t clung to Fischer a little more readily when I’m in a reading slump; I’ve found several of his books extremely entertaining and I’d put this one in that group too.
1 review
April 5, 2018
Only Tibor Fischer can make me laugh out loud about media people behaving very badly ... and then handbrake-turn the action to Gobekli Tepe. A riot, shot through with moments of wry resignation and ultra-stark vignettes of life in our 'postbrain, crumbling capital'.
77 reviews
September 3, 2018
Some of the very best acerbic writing - smiles and a few laugh out loud turns of bitterness. However there’s no story - it’s more a 250page diary entry. Fair enough and I finished it because the writing was good but it didn’t go anywhere so no stimulation. Hence 3*
Profile Image for Somen Pillai.
13 reviews
November 11, 2019
Tibor Fischer's books have just the one problem... you run out of pages way too soon and then you have to wait a few years for the next one.

A marvellous book, funny and pessimistic in a typical Fischer fashion. thank you, Tibi.

Profile Image for Aslan Umarov.
37 reviews
February 29, 2020
Не лучшая книга Фишера из тех что я читал. Интересно и даже местами смешно в начале. К середине ждешь какой то неожиданной кульминации - ничего не происходит. К концу - теряешь надежду и уже больше не хочешь терять время.

Читать можно, если совсем нет выбора
Profile Image for Nick Meyer.
30 reviews
August 2, 2023
I enjoyed ‚Under the Frog’ but found the world-weary cynicism of this just too unrelenting. There arę some good one-liners, but I can’t help feeling that somebody as so completely pissed of with life would have the Will or the Energy to write a novel.
Profile Image for Luisa.
219 reviews
May 22, 2018
i won a copy of this book in the good reads giveaway, i found it started well, but then seem to loose steam,
Profile Image for Olga Mamistova.
75 reviews
January 4, 2021
Ну такое, не шедевр, хотя местами занятно. Такой монолог разочаровавшегося мужика))
Profile Image for Andy Cumming.
166 reviews
May 26, 2021
Its ok, but I didn't really connect to any of the characters and the plot is thin,
5 reviews
October 15, 2021
Not his best

He's a great author with a stream of flawed heros, but he failed in this book for me. None of the characters in this book were likeable enough to keep my attention.
Profile Image for Juri Signorini.
104 reviews
September 7, 2022
Probabilmente perde la sua sagacia nella traduzione, ma io in questo libro non ho trovato nulla di che.
Tre stelline risicate.
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