Robert Asprin dropped out of the University of Michigan to join the Army in 1965. His military career lasted only a year, but the relationship between big money and the military became a recurrent theme in his fiction. His first novel, The Cold Cash War, has mercenaries engaging in laser tag while corporate executives plan assassinations. In Phule’s Company, his protagonist, Willard Phule, is the scion of an arms manufacturer who leads a company in an interstellar version of the foreign legion. He uses his wealth and conman’s ingenuity to build the confidence of a mixed bag of human and alien ne’er-do-wells.
Asprin may have been inspired by 1960s military satires like M.A.S.H. (1968), Catch-22 (1961), and Keith Laumer’s Retief stories. Phule, like his forebears, continues to entertain. ( )

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. ( )