Phule's Errand

Robert Asprin & Peter J. Heck

Book 6 of Phule's Company

Language: English

Publisher: Ace

Published: Jul 25, 2006

Description:

Phule is without a doubt the only captain in the Space Legion with his own butler, but Beeker has stuck with him through thick and thin. Which is why it’s incomprehensible to Phule why Beeker has run off-planet without a word—and with Omega Company’s lovely new medic.

Without his right-hand man, Phule has no idea what his left hand is doing. So he takes off after his errant butler, just as General Blitzkrieg decides to make a surprise visit to Zenobia. And the only thing Blitz would like better than catching Phule off guard is to catch Phule AWOL...

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Ingram Meet the soldiers of Captain Willard Phule's Company--a handful of military rejects able to do more damage before 9 A.M. than most people do all day. Threatened by an alien enemy, Earth's military sends Phule and his soldiers to a distant planet. But now, the aliens have chosen a new target of war . . . Phule's Company.

Behind the puerile punning names and extraterrestrial setting stands a modest, winning story about a commander who builds a company of misfits, rejects and even a few aliens into a disciplined military outfit. Tricked into taking on the worst detachment in a far outpost of the Space Legion, Captain Willard Phule uses every resource in his control, particularly his immense wealth and his knowledge of how to motivate and lead people, to whip his skeptical crew of strays into shape and make them feel that they have, at last, found a home. This lighthearted tale is part science fiction, part spoof, part heart-warmer, its farcical elements pitted against the proper, stuffy voice of Phule's butler, Beeker, whose wry commentary precedes each section of narrative. Phule rings true as an astute entrepreneur of the human (and nonhuman) spirit. The psychological acumen that colors Asprin's characterizations, Phule in particular, gives the book the verisimilitude that is the essence of successful science fiction. Asprin wrote the Myth series. ( Publishers Weekly )

Phule is without a doubt the only captain in the Space Legion with his own butler, but Beeker has stuck with him through thick and thin. Which is why it’s incomprehensible to Phule why Beeker has run off-planet without a word—and with Omega Company’s lovely new medic.

Without his right-hand man, Phule has no idea what his left hand is doing. So he takes off after his errant butler, just as General Blitzkrieg decides to make a surprise visit to Zenobia. And the only thing Blitz would like better than catching Phule off guard is to catch Phule AWOL...

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