Wrath of the Lemming Men

Chronicles of Isambard Smith #3

by Toby Frost

From the depths of Space a new foe rises to do battle with mankind: the British Space Empire is threatened by the lemming-people of Yull, ruthless enemies who attack without mercy, fear, or any concept of self preservation. At the call of their war god, the Yull have turned on the Empire, hell-bent on conquest and destruction in their rush towards the cliffs of destiny. When the Yullian army is forced to retreat at the battle of the River Tam, the disgraced Colonel Vock swears revenge on the clan of Suruk the Slayer, Isambard Smith's homicidal alien friend. Now Smith and his crew must defend the Empire and civilize the stuffing out of a horde of bloodthirsty lemming-men—which would be easy were it not for a sinister robotics company, a Ghast general with a fondness for genetic engineering, and an ancient brotherhood of Morris Dancers—who may yet hold the key to victory.

Genres: Science Fiction, Steampunk, Humor, Fiction, Comedy, Aliens, Space Opera

320 pages, Paperback

First published June 15, 2009

About the author

Toby Frost studied law and currently works as a legal journalist. Unable to become Great Britain's foremost space explorer, he wrote the Space Captain Smith series, a set of six comedies about intrepid galactic explorer Isambard Smith and his barely-competent crew.

Toby has also written short stories and the novel Straken for Black Library, set in the Warhammer 40,000 universe.

He has recently started a series of fantasy novels, the first two of which - Up To The Throne and Blood Under Water - are now available. He is currently working on the third in the series.

Reviews

[Stephen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bollocks and blimey, folks…it’s the Lemming-men...yes, Lemming-men and their all filled up with wrath. Thankfully, they’re also decidedly empty on brains as they team up with the alien Ghast to battle Captain Isambard Smith and the British Space Empire in its continuing effort to bring civilization and tea to the galaxy. Fun, smart and cheeky SF with Adamsy/Pratchetty humor and a heavy dose of pop culture references reminiscent of MST3K. Everything from Star Wars, Blade Runner, Casablanca and Jane Austen gets homaged, slapsticked and skewered.

This is cozy, “slipper-wearing” comfort food for the mood and is one of those rare stories that can aptly be referred to as a campy, good-natured romp. Nothing wrong with that, especially as it is also well-written.

Full stop…

Now, before my excessive naming-dropping above has you thinking that this will challenge sliced bread as “the greatest thing since,” permit me to let a bit of air out of the praise balloon. While enjoyable and certainly recommended for fans of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and the Discworld novels, it's not quite a peer of those series. More like a charming, likeable cousin.

The story is engaging, well-paced and lightly toned and there are moments of perfect, spot-on, belly-laughing humor. However, the writing/story is mostly just amusing and nibbles around the crust of hilarious without ever sinking its teeth into the funny pie. A pleasant, nicely diversionary piece of fun that satisfies but won’t overly whelm you.

I thought I’d provide a couple of quotes so you can get a sampling of the tone and the humor to better discern if this is your cup of Lipton. These are some passages that really tickled me, starting with this report by a Lemming-man field commander from the beginning of the story.

In an unprovoked act of self-defense, the off-worlder scum turned on our friendly and entirely non-genocidal army. The dirty foe fought unreasonably for their lives, and urgently the splendid General Wikwot ordered our reserves under noble-born Colonel Vock to attack from the north and mercilessly butcher the enemy—for their own good, of course.

This next one had a very Monty Pythonesque feel to it that is never a bad thing in my eyes.

You’re a disgrace! Our noble house has lost respect. Peasants laugh at our army. Even your concubines have sodded off. You’re not setting foot in this house until you’ve gone down to the temple, said sorry and committed ritual suicide. Not a foot!

Finally, there is a lot of casual, misdirection phrasing that I am a fan of and that Toby Frost uses to great effect. For example: “‘But ask yourself this: can we leave a woman to die at the hands of Ghastist thugs?’
‘Maybe?’ Carvath said. ‘Just a thought.’”
...
“‘Look!’ she gasped. ‘There’s a woman tied to the train tracks! That’s terrible- oppressive gender stereotyping at its worst!’”

Cute, attractive, but ultimately not tear-inducing in its humor.

Overall, I enjoyed this though the first in the series is still my favorite. If you are looking for something light and cheerful and smart, you could do a lot worse. If you do decide to give this series a try (which you should), I would definitely recommend reading the first two books in the series (Space Captain Smithand God Emperor of Didcot) before this one as events from those two play an important part in the plot.

3.0 stars. Recommended!!

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Lemming men of Yull have joined forces with the Ghasts against the British Space Empire. Can Space Captain Smith, Carveth, Suruk, Rhianna, and Gerald, the ship's hamster, stop the Yull and keep the Ghasts from their goal of adding the Vorl's power to their own?

The third entry in the Space Captain Smith series is much like the previous two; a nice mix of action and wit, both dry and otherwise. The jabs at sf classics continue, mostly Star Wars, Alien, and Blade Runner this time around.

Suruk's vendetta against Vock is one of the driving forces of the plot and by far the most enjoyable one. The Smith/Rhianna subplot is getting on my nerves. While Rhianna is a good contrast to Smith's uptightness, I just don't like her. Carveth and Suruk provide 75% of the humor and overshadow Smith and Rhianna as characters.

Wrath of the Lemming Men is a good, funny, read for fans of British comedy and sf. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who hasn't read the previous two, however.

[ᴥ Irena ᴥ · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5

Captain Isambard Smith and his crew are in the thick of it. Again.

Wrath of the Lemming Men is a bit low key compared to the previous two. This is why I'd like to have more stars to rate books. You see, this one is different than the previous ones, but still more entertaining than some other books I could think of. While writing all this I realised that so many things happen to these characters here, it wouldn't be fair to think it is weaker.

They are searching for the elusive Vorl and they are followed by the Ghast. 462 is on his personal quest to kill Smith. The lemming men are introduced in God Emperor of Didcot and they are insane. Imagine Monty Python white rabbit (if you don't know which one, I have nothing to say to you) as a much bigger lemming and you'll be close enough.

There are so many references and nods to different genres, characters and other books, it would have to be a whole review dedicated only to that. You get a bit of Lord of the Rings, Lord of the Flies, Babylon 5, Star Wars (these are the most prominent throughout the book), any noir investigator and so on.

This book (the series really) is so over-the-top than it might not work for everyone. Me? I loved them. The way author pokes fun at a number of things, sometimes subtly and sometimes in your face, can be really entertaining. Plus, no preachiness and that's always a good thing in my book.
I'll leave a couple of quotes here (mostly Suruk, who is as hilarious as always).

Suruk a fan of music

‘I have several of Miss Tuppence’s records. If possible, I should like to get a souvenir from her.’ ‘Oh?’ Smith said, remembering the sort of souvenirs that grinned from Suruk’s mantelpiece.

***

‘That was interesting,’ he said. ‘I got Lily Tuppence’s autograph, and she got to keep her skull.’

***
Rhianna in a fantasy costume

'This is me, cold, in a metal bikini. If I’d have wanted a piece of chain up my ass I’d have sat on a bathplug.

***

‘Suruk,’ he said, ‘would you mind accompanying Rhianna and Carveth? This place is full of disreputable men.’ ‘I shall protect them from her,’ Suruk promised. ‘Perhaps I shall pick up some fishnets in the process.’

***

‘Give me only a needle and thread,’ Suruk said. ‘I have acquired holes.’

[Alan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I will give you four words by which to judge this book: "Thomas the Difference Engine."

If that made you laugh while wincing, then this novel, the third in Toby Frost's ongoing series about space captain Isambard Smith and the jolly old new British Space Empire, is for you.

Wrath continues the zany mix of violence, stereotyping and anachronistic pop-culture references that served Frost so well in the two previous volumes, Space Captain Smith and God Emperor of Didcot. The rest of the crew are back again as well—the rattletrap starship John Pym and its ace android pilot Polly Carveth, the willowy space-witch Rhianna Mitchell, and even Gerald the hamster. In this installment, the insectile Ghast have teamed up with the rodential Yull, who get to serve as shock troops for the Ghasts' latest plot to achieve Galactic domination: to locate, capture and steal genetic material from the ghostly Vorl.

This installment contains a bit more action, and a bit less verbal byplay, than in previous volumes. As Suruk says on p.288, "Less prattle, more battle." The details, of course, almost don't matter... you know that every time Smith perforates a Ghast with his Webley Civiliser, every time Suruk collects another Yull's skull for his belt, the clanking, jingoistic British empire get closer to winning in the end. But getting there is the fun.

This series shows signs of turning into, well, a series... but its formula hasn't worn out its welcome for me just yet.

[Tom Loock · Rating 4 out of 5]

I do not think it's fair to always compare Toby Frost with Pratchett and Adams just because he writes funny books. Of course he's not (as good as) Pratchett - he's Frost. And those novels by that Frost guy - they're really funny and clever and good and I recommend them.

Talking about Terry Pratchett: After the first two Discworld-novels, I was not completely sold on him. Who knows what we will say about Toby Frost when he's published twenty novels? Which poor sod will be (unfavourably) compared to him?

I probably would have given Wrath of the Lemming Men 3.5 stars, but the name/existence of 'New Luton' alone is worth a star. I pity those poor sods outside the British Empire who miss all these wonderful references.

[Edmond Barrett · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this book on the Kindle and while the story was what I had come to expect from the earlier books the Kindle version was virtually hamstrung by poor formatting. There were dashes appearing in the middle of words, scene shifts without line break or any other indication, which just all made it difficult read. Now if this book was a self publish job I might be more inclined to be charitable*, but this was supposed to be 'professionally' published. So four stars for the story, one for the formatting.










*Although since I a read this book I've read several self pubs that had flawless formatting, so it isn't hard.

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

The third of Toby Frost's comic steampunk space-operas isn't the strongest in the series. Although the novel does have plenty of genuinely funny moments, there are fewer than in the previous two outings. Also, this book is very much the third part of a trilogy and you do need to have read the first two novels in the series to be appreciate it.

Frost has created an absurdly funny universe with these novels but now might be a good time for him to expand or change the central cast a little.

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

The weakest of the three books in the Chronicles . But still has some genuinely comical parts. Had me chuckling several times

[Tina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wrath of the Lemming Men is my favourite of the series so far! This is without a doubt because of the focus on Suruk and his revenge quest/internal struggle for validation from his father. A dream job of mine would be to be a xeno-anthropologist/sociologist, so I was very pleased to receive more information about Suruk’s culture, as the last book had failed to provide enough to satisfy me (such as how they reproduce and why they are considered male. Suruk said it best when he explained that his people have no gender, but Earth assigned his people pronouns. This cleared up so much that had confused me about him, but also dashed any hopes that he'd be my space boyfriend. Oh well). Perhaps it had been explained in the last book, as Suruk’s culture was also a big focus, but I read it on vacation. I’m quite like Rihanna regarding my preferred mode of relaxation, so I have trouble recalling what I read. First and last time reading under the influence. I may have to revisit God Emperor of Didcot.

Regarding the story at hand, it follows the same pattern/tone/gist of the previous two – it’s a zany homage to all things fantasy and sci-fi (as well as other bits of pop culture). Given his photo, it appears Toby Frost is probably 10-15 years old than me, so there are references that I definitely missed, but if you read or watch heavily in the genre, you’ll get most of the jokes/allusions. There a ton of, I’m assuming, British references which go over my head (as I am a lowly Canadian, haha), but I just ignore those.

It was great to see some character arcs. Smith and his infernal inability to discuss his emotions was interesting but not belaboured, I loved the bonding between Suruk and Polly (so cute!), and I wish the section where Polly trains the other robots was way longer! Polly’s relationships with Dreckett is fun, but I wish Rihanna had a bit more backstory. Regarding women in the novel, men outnumber women in the cast, but I do like that Frost includes women in military or science positions dotted throughout, such as Susan, the beam gun operator. I laughed quite a bit when Polly calls Isambard out on saying “men” all the time when referring to his crew (as none of them are men). Isambard is so hyperbolic in his masculinity – it’s clear his focus on sticking to his Victorian ideals of manliness hold him back at times. In fact, I would argue that his relationships with his crew (who don't accept or actively combat his perception of what it means to be manly or heroic), have made him a more well-rounded person. I don't believe this is unintentional. Well-played, Frost!

Vock and Number Eight were amusing villains who weren’t overdone, and 462 is still kicking around but had less screen time, which was nice. I was worried that his repeated appearance as the villain would grow stale.

There was less humour in this one than the last two books, as it focused more on the action, but the bits here and there kept the tone similar. I did laugh out loud a couple of times, and I thought the Jane Austen character was amazing and an interesting reference (I didn't expect that in this series though perhaps I should have). Frost seems to have a great balance of making fun of something but not tearing it apart.

Overall, I want to read the next one right away, but I have to hold back as there are only three left and I want to savour them.

[Malcolm Cox · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another adventure for the intrepid Captain Smith and his crew of weirdos. This time the Lemming Men are sacrificing themselves wave after wave in victorious conquest and an old enemy of Isambard's is not very far away.
Continuing to poke fun at what it means to be British and stuffed full of pop culture jokes and references, this is such a fun series to read. Likeable characters, awkward romance, derring-do and an alien that collects skulls. What more could one ask for?

[Riju Ganguly · Rating 5 out of 5]

There were chuckles, there was laugh,
But the story was full of deadly stuff.
Ghast and the Yull and all the bad lot!
Empire is now in a terrible spot.
In this world of the weak and the dead,
Suruk the Slayer paints every room read.
Rhianna meditates, Carveth goes forth,
Isambard Smith takes a real mighty oath.
This story ends, but the saga continues,
Until the next book, let's call it a truce?

[Kevin Burke · Rating 4 out of 5]

This will be an unapologetically brief review... suffice it to say I'm a sucker for comedy SFF, and this ticks all the boxes! Clever, witty, doesn't take itself seriously AT ALL... a great romp and littered with references to popular culture (especially SF). Goes without saying that I'll be reading the rest in the series!

[Ruth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another fun book from Toby Frost. Not as good as Space Captain Smith and God Emperor of Dune. Seemed to run out of ideas in parts, but still worth a read. I hear book 4 in the series is better. On, and upwards, for the Empire (and tea)!

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

Continues the silliness. More puns and double entendres than you can count.

[Derya Erisdottir · Rating 3 out of 5]

Exactly the level of victoripulp I expect from Isambard Smith. Not disappointed.

[Damian Knight · Rating 4 out of 5]

Entertaing as always

[Heretic · Rating 4 out of 5]

An amusing story from a series which treats snowflakes like they deserve: with a blowtorch. This is a space inhabited by Kipling's imperialists, and their direct and vigorous fun for people who don't want to deal with angst or safe spaces.

[Cindy Matthews · Rating 3 out of 5]

They're furry and they belong in a cage to deal with their rage. Space Captain Smith is destined to battle the Yull, homicidal/suicidal rodent-like aliens, and prevent them from taking over British Space in Wrath of the Lemming Men. The same crazy crew of the John Pym is back, and the camaraderie is the high point of this third action tale. Polly the Simulant is sent on an undercover mission to teach other androids the basics of self-defense and learns a bit more about Jane Austen than necessary. Surak the Slayer seeks revenge against Colonel Vock of Yull, and Rhianna the Space Hippy gets a chance to learn more about her Vorl father. Major Wainscot and the members of DOG come out fighting with panache and occasionally no pants. All the while, Smith handles the violence with typical British reserve along with, of course, tea. Hopefully we'll see more adventures with these characters to come.

[Ginger · Rating 4 out of 5]

OK, I finally got to the book that began, for me, the need to read this series...."The Wrath of the Lemming Men" fist response? How bad could that be? Isambard Smith, Suruk the Slayer, Polly Carveth and Rhianna once again join forces with Wainscott and his merry band to overcome great odds, the Yull (the lemming men) have joined forces with the Ghast (giant ant guys) to find the Vorl (bad tempered ghost guys). Along the way there is tea, fighting, tea, explosions, tea, uncomfortable emotional baggage, tea, decapitation, tea, victory and of course Tea. This series is something like a very strange trip, I would probably read more of the series simply because I would feel compelled to, and probably not in a good way. This is a bizzare series, but kind of fun in it's own strange way.

[Ben · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another fun installment in the Space Captain Smith series. While the plot fails to make a great deal of sense in some places, this is not a major flaw, considering the type of book it is - namely a silly pastiche, in the best tradition of Carry On. I was particularly amused when shortly after thinking this, I encountered the character of C'neth, directly out of Doyley Wood.

There are a host of fabulous double entendres and in-jokes, a number of which may pass the more international reader by, and I guffawed out loud at least twice while reading. Very British-centric, it is a good read for those who enjoy the absurdities of Empire and know that a nice cup of tea will put everything back on track.

[Steph Bennion · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this! It was hilarious, fast-paced and my favourite Space Captain Smith book of the three (to date; I hear there's another on the way). The pop culture references are very British - an earlier review mentions 'Thomas the Difference Engine'(!), but the one that cracked me up most was portraying the alien ghost-like Vorl as Willo the Wisp, the cartoon character voiced by the late Kenneth Williams. Unfortunately, the Kobo ebook formatting is not good, with broken lines, odd hyphens and no gaps where there should be section breaks, which did spoil the reading experience. Why can't 'proper' publishers get this right when indie authors can?

[Ellen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love this series! I don't get all the British bits though. When Suruk insults General Vock by calling him a "soccer Mascot". Is there a soccer team with a certain furry mammal as a Mascot? I find this latest book the most laugh out loud funny of the 3! I noticed the book was published in 2009. Are there more books coming or is this just a trilogy? Had a great time reading this series.

[Darren Humphries · Rating 2 out of 5]

This series has become increasingly threadbare in the laughs department with each book. By this point there just aren't a lot to be going on with. The plot meanders around with no apparent focus or purpose until a big finale ... well ... finishes it off.

[Emilie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm supposed to give five stars, says T, because it was a present from him. Now let's keep things into perspective. It has lemmings and insects in it and a place called New Luton. I rarely give a fiver to 'harmless fun'.

[Karen Desmond · Rating 4 out of 5]

4

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another hilarious instalment. Looking forward to the next one!

[Paul Tisserant · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another superb offering from Toby Frost. Lots of laughs and lots of rollicking space action. The Lemming men is a must read!

[Eloise · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rip-roaring, cheeky, knowing fun. I loved it.
Off to order the rest of the series from the library.

[Mike Franklin · Rating 4 out of 5]

loads of fun, jokes and action