Don’t judge a book by its cover. This applies to Phule’s Company. Despite various book covers that are meant to “hmmm” look funny yet merely manage to look infantile / simplistic, Phule’s Company isn’t the slapstick / action SF Novel it appears at first. It more witty than just mindlessly hilarious and there is much less action than there is interaction between the protagonist named Phule, a captain of the space legion, and his butler (you heard me right - a butler). Nicknamed Scaramouch, that space caption and his butler do their best to whip a forlorn and spurned company of space legionnaires into shape. Against expectations , Phule does this rather well by implementing leadership lessons he had learned in his father’s mega company PhuleProof Ammunitions and from various business ventures that became successful corporation under his guidance. Yes, Phule is also incredibly rich - perhaps I forgot to mention that. The said leadership lessons are as practical as they are effective and it is a pleasure to witness how he applies them to the depressed, and often stubborn soldiers of the company. All in all, despite its “phoolish” visual appearance, this is way better than the cover(s) suggests. ( )

A fun, light read. ( )

3.5 stars

You cannot go into this expecting anything serious.
Yes, REALLY.
Also - if you don't like people throwing around money to solve problems, you have no business getting into this at all. Just do yourself a favour and turn around right now.

One of the things to keep in mind when starting in : this is a product of its time. Parts of it are somewhat dated, but it holds up surprisingly well. It's definitely not up to modern standards in some ways. But then again, modern standards seem to include "everyone must suffer, suffer a lot and at a great length, and preferably die in the end", so maybe it's for the best.

No use pretending this is a high literature. This is a fun romp with no particular pretensions, IMO.

In case you've missed it, here, spelled out : throwing around money is one of the points. It was specifically written this way.

Sure, you can resent Phule for using money as a means to solve problems. There are plenty of people who do if reviews are to be believed.
But think about it!
You have the money (and connections) to outfit your unit with the best you can buy.
Why wouldn't you?
It's an investment that will pay back several times over in the long run - in reputation, if not money.

Also - the only flashy thing of note mentioned is Phule's ownership of 2 portable computers that few people can afford. Except the reasoning behind it is so very valid, like yes, makes sense, and why not? if you can actually afford it.

(I too would throw money at problems if I had the means to do so. Such a convenient way to make them go away. Well, some of them at least.) ( )

I was expecting nonsense. I wasn't expecting to care as much as I did about the nonsense. I am a sucker for a rag-tag, found-family team and somehow this just works. ( )

Phule's Company is a book that I've had for (literally) decades and have read several times in the past, although it's been a few years. That being said, you'd think it would be one of my favorite books of all time, wouldn't you?

If you had asked me before I started reading it this time with a more critical eye, I would have agreed with you. But I remember liking it more in the past than I did this time, and I definitely didn't think it would wind up with barely an "It's OK" rating.

My main complaint with Phule's Company is the lack of a plot. The first 207 pages are basically meeting all the characters, seeing them interact, and how the unit becomes stronger. It's basically the DM of your weekly D&D group running a "You all meet at the tavern in town" scene that lasts three months. The characters themselves are very enjoyable and well-done, though; each of them is distinct, both in appearance and in personality, and developed enough that when some of them do something...odd (like three of the women doing basically a Playboy photo shoot), it definitely feels forced and out of character for them...or at least two of them. And the whole Space Legion (as campy as the name sounds) feels like the author put a lot of thought and work into it.

The main plot (at least, I think it was the main plot), when it finally arrived, was well written and had its fair share of Asprin's typical humor. But it wasn't significant enough to pull the rest of the book out of the muck. ( )