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Robert Asprin has written a few standalone novels, but he is best known for his series, most notably the Myth books, which mix elements of fantasy and magic with liberal doses of light comedy. This series is still going strong, with more than a dozen books delivered into eager reader's hands so far. More recently, Asprin has taken the series plunge again with the Time Scout novels, written in collaboration with Linda Evans.
Asprin's third bunch of genre novels are the Phule series, of which No Phule Like An Old Phule is the fifth and latest installment. In matters of tone and style, the Phule series treads ground covered by the likes of Piers Anthony, Terry Pratchett and the author's own Myth books, but in tackling the sub-genre of military science fiction, Asprin ventures into territory yet to be mined very extensively for comic nuggets.
I have yet to read the previous books in the Phule series, but have deduced that they center on the exploits of Captain Willard Phule, aka Captain Jester, an officer in an army fielded by the Galactic Alliance. Phule heads Omega Company, a motley assortment of human and assorted non-human fighters stationed on the planet Zenobia.
The Zenobians, a race of dinosaur-like creatures, have formed an...alliance with the Alliance. In this latest installment, Omega Company must contend with a team of overzealous environmental inspectors who seem bent on making their life on Zenobia a living hell.
Along with the environmentalists comes Barky, the Environmental Dog, a genetically modified canine trained to sniff out pollution. Barky is a Smoky Bear-type celebrity figure who is wildly popular with children galaxy-wide. What Phule and Company don't know is that Barky and his human comrades have indeed been sent to make their lives a living hell, specifically by their cranky nemesis, General Blitzkrieg.
Omega Company must also deal with an entourage of wealthy and powerful big game hunters who visit Zenobia in hopes of bagging a few exotic species. The hunters, to whom Phule and his troops must kowtow, due to their exalted status, ultimately turn out to be more than they first seemed. Their search for a suitably impressive trophy allows Asprin (or ghostwriter Heck) to loose yet another of the awful puns he favors - and a particularly groan-inducing one at that.
Meanwhile, somewhere else in the galaxy - on a space station, no less - the other prong of the plot plays out in the Fat Chance Casino, in which double dipper Willard Phule holds a controlling interest. Petty grifters Lola and Ernie are sent to the casino - under considerable duress from a group of not so good fellas - to kidnap Willard Phule, who is, of course, on Zenobia.
But another Phule is present at the casino - Willard's father, the fabulously wealthy arms manufacturer, Victor Phule. The elder Phule's campaign to prove that the Fat Chance casino's slots pay out too generously and a chance meeting with Ernie will turn out to be very fortuitous for the latter and not so much so for the Phules and the rest of the casino management.
And so the plot goes, ultimately winding it's way to a not terribly satisfying and rather flimsy conclusion. Asprin's novels, whether the Myth books or the Phule series, are apparently something of an acquired taste and admittedly - for me - one that I have yet to acquire. I have no objection to science fiction and fantasy leavened with lighthearted and wacky antics, but this book felt rather insubstantial, even by the relaxed standards of Discworld, Xanth, Dr. Who and the like. And for books that are alleged to be humorous, I found precious little that elicited anything more a faint snicker, if that.
Since I haven't read any other Phule books, I thought perhaps Asprin was having an off novel, though cursory research suggests Asprin had little to do with this book and all praise and/or blame should heaped upon his "collaborator." In hopes of supporting or disproving the "off novel" theory, I engaged in more cursory and unscientific research, and voila, but what should I find? A sampling of comments by readers - most of whom profess to be fairly avid Asprin fans - posted at one of those book retailing web sites, which agree almost unanimously that this volume packs little of the punch of it's predecessors.
There's a moral here, I guess, but I'm not sure if I know what it is. I guess one pretty good truism is that if you're going to farm out your novels to ghost writers - if indeed that's what Asprin does - then you need a better system of quality control. After all, you can Phule some of the people some of the time, but you can't Phule all of the people all of the time.
William I. Lengeman III is currently at work on a comedy screenplay and the first book in a trilogy of young adult horror novels. Check out his web site at http://wileng.home.mindspring.com/.
© William I. Lengeman III
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