No Phule like an Old Phule Book

Genre: humorous science fiction

This has none of the charm (or even the plot!) of _Phule's Company_ and _Phule's Paradise_. In fact, while it features characters with the same names, they don't seem to behave in the same way. In fact, the series protagonist (Williard Phule, a.k.a. Captain Jester) barely does _anything_ throughout the course of the book; his problems are trivial, and the solutions rather mysteriously accomplished. The book is split among 4 stories that barely seem to intersect either in theme or by action. The first is the story of a starry-eyed newly recruited Legionnaire named Thumper, and how he comes to be assigned to Omega Company (e.g. Phule's Company). The second follows the series' protagonist's multibillionaire father as he tries to bankrupt his son by disbelieving in statistics. The third story follows a pair of ne'er-do-wells who have bungled an assignment to kidnap the protagonist, and the fourth follows Williard Phule juggling an environmental impact inspection and hosting some politically influential hunters out to bag big game on the "backwards" planet Phule's been assigned too. If all those threads seem random to you - they still seem random to me even after finishing the book! None of the resolutions were satisfactory imo, and they all miss the charm of "believe in people and they'll live up to your expectations" mantra and the "together we can accomplish the impossible!" that infused the earlier books.