Phule's Company

Phule's Company, Book 1

By: Robert Asprin

Narrated by: Noah Michael Levine

After being court-martialed by the Space Legion for ordering the strafing of a treaty-signing ceremony, multimillionaire Willard Phule receives his punishment: He must command the misfit Omega Company on Haskin's Planet, a mining settlement on the edge of settled space. At his duty station, he leverages his personal money and a knack for managing people to get the company to come together as a unit. Phule convinces the governor to leave the contract for an honorary duty up for competition between the Space Legionnaires and the Regular Army. The Army sends some of their most elite troops to take part in the competition, but Phule's company operates with their own unique tactics....

©1990 Robert Asprin (P)2017 Tantor

Worth a listen

I bought this series a few years ago in paperback but when I found it on audible I just had to get it again it’s still so very lol funny.

Phule's Company

I never write reviews because I have been so disappointed in the past after purchasing books based on reviews...BUT !! I haven't even gotten half way through this book ; but It has made me laugh!! Hard to find good titles and I certainly hope Robert Asprin follows up on this new series!!

Phule's Company has arrived! You're welcome!

A very enjoyable story that's quick to get through. Odd characters and military high jinx ensue. Essentially, if you were to combine a space military story with an old 80's college film, this is what you'd get. The narrator did a great job portraying various characters through voice variation. When speaking in his normal voice, Mr. Levine sounds rather like Steven Blum. The only problem some people may have with the story is that there's so much setup during most of the book it feels like one giant prologue. Personally, I had no problem with that. If you enjoy misfits in a sci-fi environment, be sure to give this one a look.

Great Fun

It’s not some ground breaking story but it’s fun and kept me chuckling throughout. I loved it! Very grateful I got to listen to this great narrator read this excellent and satisfying story.

I had forgotten how good this is

I liked the performance. a really fun book.

the space marines are looking for a few good men and phules company aren't it.

Light, Fun and Predictable Military Sci-Fi

I enjoyed this. Extremely light military sci-fi fare. Ragtag crew of misfits led by a charismatic leader causing them to get their act together. Sound familiar? Predictable but in a comforting sort of way. If that is what you are going for then it is worth a credit. later books in the series were harder for me. This first one was fun though.

Screwball Comedy

Think M*A*S*H meets science fiction with a bit of Jeeves and Wooster thrown in for flavour and you get the idea.

Happy surprise

I haven’t read science fiction for awhile and I wasn’t much interested in comic science fiction but much like Terry Pratchett’s Discworld novels these surprised me by how well written and funny they were, will read book 2 soon!

Very entertaining

Good story and well narrated but the SF is weak. It could be easily modified to totally eliminate all SF content but I bought it to have the SF. However the writing is worth another try and I will look for the next volume.

A Forerunner of Comic Military Sci-fi

As a fan of both Robert Asprin's other series and of military science fiction, I love Phule and his motley crew's excapades. While it's not nearly as irreverent and fantastic, the feel this particular Phule adventure invokes in me is somewhat that if a prototypical Red Vs. Blue, particularly the first season of said show; a slice-of-life vignette about a bunch of misfits.
I find this story is somewhat thin in plot, being mostly an introduction to Phule's character and how he handles his dealings, but it more than makes up for it in the snappy dialog of the noted members of the ubiquitous omega company.
Coming back to this series after many years and having only read the later book Phule's Errand in my teens, I was pleasantly surprised, as I erroneously remembered it as a "Richie Rich" style comedy of errors about a spoiled dandy who buys his way through everything.
Phule, as he does with so many he encounters, shattered my expectations.