The royal family of a powerful empire are visiting Belvaille for an upcoming diplomatic summit. But their plans are somewhat interrupted when the galaxy’s premier assassin shows up and eliminates every single aristocrat. All except for one child who had been hidden.
Hank is happy minding his own business. Of course, his business entails robbing, extorting, eating lots of food, and fighting. But compared with the rest of the criminals of his city, he’s practically a saint. However, Hank’s easy existence is interrupted by the chief of security who entrusts him with safeguarding the royal survivor.
Along with his unsavory friends, Hank struggles to keep the last child alive while avoiding the Navy, bounty hunters, organized crime, and the most successful assassin in history. If Hank fails, it will result in catastrophic economic collapse brought about by a vengeful empire.
I was worried. Campbell made some ballsy choices in the last book, but they don't seem to have had any effect on Hank's adventures. Not the best Hank book (that's book 2), but I was never bored.
My very favorite humor is humor that sneaks up on you and this series is always rife with it. As with every Hank book there were a couple times I had to pause it until I finished laughing.
Overall a good read. I was a little surprised at the foul language. It's mild in comparison to many other books, but it's so out of character for Hard Luck Hank that it was distracting & mildly disappointing. One of the things I've always liked about HLH is that it could make me laugh & keep me interested without resorting to gratuitous foul language. And several of the characters belittled each other so much, in excess of what was necessary to the story, that it became frustrating. Since Hank was sent to planet Belvaille, the love of a dysfunctional family that was present on space station Belvaille is missing. Delovoa is but isn't Delovoa (throughout this story i kep thinking how psychopathicDelovoa really is & how someone needs to kill him for the benefit of the universe), Garm is but isn't Garm, MTB is but isn't Delovoa, and Hank is but isn't Hank. We hardly see Zzzzzo (probably mispelled, the Kelvin Kamigan). And the oft repeated switching between 3rd person and 1st person POV was confusing & took away from the story. For the last few books It seems as if Campbell has been lost and trying to find the HLH zone, or maybe experimenting with new formulas. Like when Coke became New Coke. That didn't taste nearly as good as the original. And neither does this new HLH. It's still good, just not as good as the original. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. That being said, it's still a good read (maybe a better listen, as long as Liam Owen is narrating), & worth buying. I enjoyed Fourth Quadrant, but I miss Hank the mutant Antankian thug and his dysfunctional family of Spacestation Belvaille. Anyone know if the whole HLHseries is available in hardcover? I'd love to have a hardcover HLH series in my personal library but can't find them anywhere.
This, even though set in a very different world, went back to the old HLH routine. I don't think I laughed as much from any of the recent book and was very pleased with the change up that occurred from the last book. I am a little worried that the story line from the last book will at some point catch up with these new characters and Belvaille... but the same characters and Belvaille... and the traditional HLH line will again suffer.
In this Garm intrusts Hank to care for the last royal, a baby, of the Fourth Quadrant and financial sector, after its whole family was slaughtered. Garm is trying to find and stop the assassin and Hank is trying to just care for the baby. The assassin misses Hank but knows he has the baby and where he lives so he goes to MTB, there a new character, also send by Garm, joins the crew, a former sex bot, hence the bot on the cover of the book, and then they are on the run. At DeLova's secret hide out, the reporter Ren finds them, so of course the assassin might also. It is suggested that they go to the wood (yep there are woods now). Out in the woods, they meet up with exiled criminals that have developed a community of sorts, this leads to lies and distrust by both our 3 guards and the criminal. This whole set up is very fun and I'm sure will lead to more havoc in Belvaille in future episodes.
All in all this was one of my favorite of HLH books.
This was another fun read. I definitely found a number of sections to highlight that made me laugh/chuckle. Campbell and I have similar senses of humor.
This is ranked a bit lower for me than the other HLH books though, and I'm not quite sure why. I don't mind this alternate universe, but something still seems off. These versions of Garm, MTB and Delovoa seem really similar to those from the original series, even though they had come across as different (enough) when we met them at the end of Frankly (HLH #9).
I can't see a scenario where I won't be reading the next books shortly after they come out....I love this series. I think that this one just didn't quite resonate with me as well as the rest of the series did (including the Garm book).
I have read all the Hank books and loved them all. We need to have one written every year! This one had me laughing as I pictured this tiny jellyfish like baby being cared for by Hank. I missed Cristin. Please bring him back in the next book.
A decent continuation of the Hank series, but with a foray into exposition in the middle of the book that seemed unnecessary. Also had switches in perspective that broke up that special "Hank" view of the world I'd grown to love.