Another good Phule book, but I stand by my initial thought—Mr. Heck is doing all the writing. This book seemed to take a long time to resolve the problems introduced at the very beginning, with a lot of semi-related stuff in between. Overall, it’s a good book, but nothing stellar. They just don't seem to have the flare that the first couple of Phule books had, probably due to the change in authors. The more I read these last few Phule books, the more it felt like glorified fan fiction. I won't be re-reading these books. ( )

Definitely not as good as the previous ones in this series. The AEIOU is after the Legion now, some environmental group with a down on the military. A group of big game hunters are convinced that Zenobia is the next big hunting ground. A strange new recruit shows up for Omega Company. And worst of all, Captain Jesters (aka the Phule of the title) has an unexpected visit from his father.

Too many new characters, too much going on, not enough of a real story or any tension to build on. The big game hunters story line was the funniest, but really, I'm not sure I'll bother with the next one in this series. Instead, I'll reread the first two. They were much better.

CMB ( )