Soddit (A.R.R.R. Roberts) - Gollancz - 2003 (328+ pages)

Adam Roberts (aka A.R.R.R.R.) subtitled this parody of The Hobbit, "Let's Cash in Again."  And, apparently it worked as the book was on the New York Times Best Seller List for two weeks in 2003.  Bur my question is: "Where is the funny?"  This book is long (328 pages plus extras) but not so funny.  How many of those books sold in 2003 were read past page 20?  Roberts changes some names and situations but basically follows the same story line as Tolkien's Hobbit with lots of footnotes to remind the reader that this is supposed to be funny.  But it's not.  Consider the following passage:

"They spent that day and the next searching amongst the dead.  It was terrible work, or at least Bingo thought so at the beginning.  But after a few hours he became used to it, immune to the shock of hauling dead Gobblins.  There was a place where the lava had settled into a basin, forty yards across and twenty deep, and the Gobblin dead were placed there.  The occasional elfen or human body was carried respectfully to the river's edge.  On the evening of the third day elven runners brought back wood and also pigeons from the nearest copse.  The victorious four armies ate the pigeons and drank water from the clear stream.  As the sun set, the bodies of elvish and mannish warriors were burnt on a funeral pyre."

Is that funny?  Is this something one would expect to read in a parody?  This is filler and there is plenty of the same in these 300+ pages.  At the end of the story, Roberts promises more parodies such as The Garble-de-Hwaet, Wind in the Pillows, and The Spuddit.  Please Mr. Roberts, don't bother. [JAM 4/13/2009]