An increasingly crippled Hank struggles to keep the various factions of Belvaille in check after the collapse of the Colmarian Confederation.
Hank, as Supreme Kommilaire and Secretary of City, has several hundred police to try and maintain order among the millions of inhabitants on the space station while simultaneously preparing for Belvaille's first ever election.
He thinks it is an impossible task. Every year the city, and even the galaxy, falls further into chaos as he himself succumbs to the debilitating effects of his mutation.
With economic turmoil everywhere, a dirty election in the works, and the galaxy's foremost assassin hunting him, Hank has to decide if he can save Belvaille. Or if it's even worth saving.
NOTE: Sequel to Hard Luck Hank - Screw the Galaxy and Hard Luck Hank - Basketful of Crap
The HARD LUCK HANK series is a very entertaining ride. It's basically a combination of a parody noir detective novel with a science fiction series. Hank is a professional thug and no matter how many times he saves the galaxy or gets promoted, he remains a guy who breaks legs for a living. It's who he is and that is a universal constant whether he's working for gang bosses, corporates, the government, or the city. His simplistic world-view and general laziness are the source for much of the book's entertainment as he doesn't so much solve problems as smash things until the problem becomes something which can be smashed.
PRINCE OF SUCK is surprising in that it actually shows the consequences for Hank's less-than-stellar problem-solving skills. The galaxy has been devastated by the recent galactic civil war with Belvaille station being one of the few places still semi-functioning. This despite the fact it has feral children running wild and has a bigger difference between the classes than some of the worst places in Brazil crossed with the worst places in America. Hank's own life is coming to an end as his mutation, which keeps him alive against almost all attacks, has gotten to the point where it's killing him. Even Garm isn't a source of relief for him as she's become the shut-in owner of the station not seen by anyone.
I'm going to be honest and say this is my least favorite of the Hard Luck Hank novels. That's not to say I didn't find it enjoyable but it's lacking in the super-memorable moments of the other stories. Aside from the introduction of the Ak and Hank's struggle to survive his new condition, I didn't really think too much of this story. I think part of this has to do with the fact the subject matter is a lot more serious and Hank's "solutions" to problems aren't as funny when they basically boil down to fascism. Hank finding out tossing people into prison for life and letting them make their own rules, including keeping women as slaves, being BAD isn't exactly something that inspires me to root for our hero.
The above refers to the Royal Wing where Hank has created Belvaille's only prison. It's a spaceship where the only punishment is life in prison and the only guards are space as well as your fellow prisoners. Hank is the sole determinant on who goes in and there's no appeal or parole. Eventually, Hank realizes this is awful for the aforementioned reasons it's not gender-segregated but by that point you're thinking, "What the hell, Hank?" I know he's not supposed to be a good guy but it doesn't quite cross as many lines as it needs to in comedy.
Despite this, I actually felt for Hank as he's dying and his only friend in the world has betrayed him. My father was a very large man who suffered numerous heart attacks that just progressively got worse so, of course I sympathized with Hank. I also note he's trapped in a situation which is steadily getting worse despite his attempts to make it better. Watching this sad interpretation of Hank does provide a surprising amount of drama for a story about a really fat thug made of what amounts to concrete.
In conclusion, I enjoyed this book but not as much as the others and am glad the subsequent novels pick up steam significantly. I was torn between giving this book a 3 out of 5 and a 4 but I'm settling on a three because I'm going to give much higher for later works.
Really - seriously funny. Poor Ole Hank weighs TONS because of a mutation. He's gone from being a Mob Guy to THE Police Head, but of course, it's Sci-Fi, they don't call it the Police where he's at. He's a bit slow, and not just from weighing so much. One of the Judges where he's at decided since bullets can't penetrate him it's NOT against the law to shoot at him! Yes, the laws are made up as they go, no laws or rules are written in stone, or anywhere for that matter. As a general rule it seems Hank makes up the laws as he goes along, too. He has to get money from somewhere, being head of the unit that brings some sort of order doesn't pay a cent (or, thumb) so he uses his mob connections for 'side-jobs'.
There were parts that I laughed so dag-gum hard I lost my breath. My dogs were worried I was dying, even the cats came to check on me - and if you have been around cats you KNOW that is highly unusual. I couldn't take much at once, I had to close this and open other books between laughter so I could catch my breath.
I really like these Hank books. Funny sci-fi/fantasy set in a bizarre world with bizarre situations, and yet deals with day-to-day living of poor put-upon Hank. To really enjoy the books, you really should read them in order; but you can get by reading as a stand alone; just you're going to miss a lot of callbacks.
I really really liked this one as it had me laughing a lot. I want to give it a 5 almost for that alone but it just isn't that good of a story or characters, (okay some characters are great like Delovo) and cannot bring myself to do it. All the same it was really fun. Has the same humor and type of characters as the last books but something about all the politics and not even understanding what a governor was supposed to do; or why not to just vote for the dead person because they were well endorsed... well, it was really fun for me. I needed a little light fun and this was it.
This was drastically different then the first two books in that it sorta stepped away from the humor and took itself too seriously.
I didnt laugh once, didn't even chuckle or Crack a smile, it was all so bland and disappointing that it didn't step into the outrageous as much as the first two books did.
For the first 70% of this book I also feel like, legit, nothing happened. It was just Hank fumbling around and sorta checking off plot devices that really didn't go anywhere too interesting or sometimes it'd go nowhere at all. It was incredibly boring.
None of the characters stood out either and it was incredibly difficult to even remember who was who because they sorta popped in and put so spontaneously in ways that just wasn't fun.
I honestly hated my time with this book.
The twist at the end was also so anticlimactic and comes and goes so fast that it barely matters.
Only thing I liked is what this added to the world building to hopefully make the following books more endurable.
It's a good, solid story, if you're a fan of the series. I feel like the story is limited in scope, however, due to the fact that the story is told in first person perspective (Hank's), and because the story is limited to the huge city/space station (Bellvaile), which is isolated and thus gets stale pretty quickly. Plus, some of the returning characters from the previous stories feels pretty contrived. And the final epilogue is a hum-dinger of a deus ex machina trope. Still, it was a fast, fun read.
This series is so freaking funny. I bought this one the second it became available. It's like I'm paying Campbell to make me look stupid for my fellow commuters, it never fails that a funny part is going to happen while I'm sitting beside someone at a red light.
Liam Owen completely nails the narration.
I don't understand why Campbell decided to up Delovo's flamboyance in this one.
I found this one much better than the second book. It was a bit chaotic in the middle with lots of crazy things happening. It's a cute series, but it's still nothing Earth shattering.
Hank is now so big it isn't funny. He can't get off the floor or use toilets anymore. He's basically handicapped and just blunders through everything. There's a 78 year time skip from the last book so everyone from then is either old or dead. We don't even see Garm in person until about the last hour. If you like Delovoa then you're in luck because he's about the only character Hank banters with.
Belvaille isn't as interesting as it was before either. It isn't a squalid criminal underworld. It just seems to be a floating dump with Hank charging about trying to keep things together.
There are funny bits, and I did laugh out loud occasionally but this is no book 1. It's fairly slow paced throughout. Until the last hour this was going to be the last one I listened to in the series but then everything picked up dramatically and it got good again so... I don't know. Maybe book 4 can be at the back of my wish list.
The narrator is variable. Hank and the Hank-voiced narrative are great but every other character is significantly quieter and on anything but an in-ear headphones they were inaudible without additional volume. But when you increase the volume to hear them, Hank becomes deafening.
Overall, it's not the worst book I've listened to this year but it's far from the best.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
I listened to the audio book so this review is for the audio book.
This was the first audiobook I thought about writing a review for before I completed the book.
The story contained a lot of political commentary/ideologies which got tiresome to listen to a quarter of the way through the book.
I give the performance only 2 stars because of the narrator's voice he used for an "Asian" character. It was the stereotypical emasculating voice you'd expect to hear people imitating from any year before 1990.
I almost didn't finish the book because of that voice.
Another complaint was that some voices were so low, you could barely hear them. If I turned the volume up for them then it would be blasting my speakers when it switched to a different voice.
This series is too funny. The plot is kinda sad though, Hank is dying and Garm does not talk to him anymore for some reason and the station is still nothing but trouble. Someone is trying to assassinate him and an chaotic election is underway, not to mention a war between religious and political orders. Hank has a lot on his plate. Hank nearly unavailable means he can handle many situations by talking and if he need to killing. That what makes it different from the other murder fests that other book have become. He is trying to figure out and then solve problems not look badass by gaining superpowers and killing everything then brooding about it. I though this might be my last hank book, quit while its good, but I was chucking throughout the story; I haven done that in years.
The hard luck hank books, this one in particular follows a pretty simple pattern; hank spends most of the novel not knowing what’s going on, then manages to kick ass and save the day. It’s mostly endearing but not sure if the charm will last me the entire series. The political, social and who dunnit aspects are very enjoyable and the Campbell imagination is fantastic, so many enjoyable and hilarious characters. For fans of the series so far, this newest book goes in a pretty different direction and I think it worked very well. Enjoy hank fans and eat suck suckface.
Another in a sci-fi comedy series featuring Hard Luck Hank, a bullet-proof mutant. Hank's mutation is both his biggest blessing and biggest curse. Being essentially indestructible, he tends to plod along as he tries to get himself out of the latest jam. Unfortunately, each solution seems to cause bigger problems until it threatens the Bellvaille space station he lives on, and even the galaxy-spanning civilization it's part of. Hank has the dubious help of Delovoa, a demented but gifted genius, and Garm, the assassin who also owns Bellvaille.
Campbell's sci-fi saga is getting better and better with each episode: in Prince of Suck a more old, massive and forcibly wise Hank struggle against the last moments of his life to do some good to his beloved city. Great characters development, funny story and a lot of action; this novel reminded me a book of the City Watch saga (from the late most illustrious Sir Pratchett) set in space. And this is a BIG compliment!
I enjoyed this 3rd book in the series. Funny and ridiculous as usual. However, in contrast to the two previous action packed tales, this story was a bit tame. It does a decent job illustrating Hank's ever increasing sucky life and disposition, but not much adventure. I guess I just found some spots were I was getting bored and had to push through. Still worth read, if only to get to the next in the series.
I've said many times before, in other reviews, that the problem authors have when writing series is in finding a balance between expanding the universe, telling a new story, and still have enough familiar carry-overs from previous stories to keep things interesting. In this third book of the Hard Luck Hank series, author Campbell adds a new quadrant to this mix - Hank is dying.
We, as readers, and especially as science-fiction readers, know that there are several more books in the series and therefore, logically, Hank is not going to die in this volume. Or he's going to, but then he'll come back somehow. Or he's going to enter some not-here, not-there phase of existence. Or something. Finding out just what is going to happen to Hank is a question that burns bright throughout the novel.
So, based on these four angles - expansion of the universe, new story, familiarity, and Hank's fate - how does this book fare? For myself, the story was the weakest part (not weak, just in comparison to the other three angles). The universe is exapanded in an interesting new direction by the time-honored time-jump, a lot of the familiar characters and settings are back, updated and changed by said time-jump, and, as mentioned above, Hank's eventual fate provides an interesting throughline to the entire book. But the story? It was more of the same. Well told, well written, but still Hank just muddling through problems with more brawn than brain and seemingly uncaring as to what really happens to himself in the process.
But, all that said, it was fun and I'm looking forward to book 4.
I wasn't really happy with the 100 year time jump in this book, and lack of recurring characters from previous books... but I have high hopes for the next book, given the ending...
Hard Luck Hank: Prince of Suck, by Steven Campbell: Read: 2/23/16-4/8/2016
This book easily earned 3 stars and since I probably missed the better parts with my own shortcomings, it has to be 4 stars easy. I have to recommend it to everyone. If everyone doesn't buy it Steven might not keep writing them and that would just make me sad.
This is my third outing with Hard Luck Hank. That would not happen unless I really liked the series. I can’t say enough about Steven Campbell, so I won’t.
Hank, I do know about and have a little to say. I gave a moment's thought to what you may encounter if you pick up this series. Hank is something like the melding of Forrest Gump, Al Capone, and Superman. On second thought, maybe not Superman but David Banner in his big green pissed off body. But Hank is more inclined to have the disposition of the Al Capone and Forrest Gump melding.
I mentioned the author Steven Campbell. The guy who dreamed up Hard Luck Hank has a pretty amazing and creative imagination. And if you have Liam Owen reading it to you, you shouldn't be eating. You could choke or have stuff spurt out of your nose at unexpected times.
Could you imagine standing trial and have the judge rule it is ok to shoot you? You might think that’s stupid, but Hank doesn’t seem to hold grudges and just moves on to the next thing. Like always, the next thing is usually trying to fix something, and odds are, it isn't going to be easy. I mean, really, he's Hard Luck Hank, not Good Luck Hank.
I think you could read any of the Hard Luck Hank books and get by without reading any of the others, but there is definitely an overall arc you would rather enjoy by starting with the first book and the 'side stories' book(s) after your introduction to the main players and the rest in order of writing.
If you like good writing and like to laugh, even in the face of impossible struggles, you're in luck. Good luck. Not Hank's luck. Steven Campbell is writing.
I'm in luck too. I just saw that Stank Delicious is out and I've not yet read Suck My Cosmos!!!! Maybe by the time Hank comes up in my reading cycle again it will be available in whispersync.