Spacehawk, Inc.

The Barnum System #4

by Ron Goulart

From the back cover: "In the Barnum system, Malagra was considered to be the most uninviting planet of them all. In fact, among the engineers and androids of Kip Bundy's set, it was known as the pesthole of the universe. Which made things quite sticky when Kip's rich uncle assigned him to Malagra to make certain top secret reforms. Because Kip was no Hercules, and this task would have balked even that nythical fixer. But then there were compensations - if you could call them that - a sex-mad photopgrapher, a couple of lovely maidens in distress, and the ardent guerrillas on the Boy Scout Liberation Army."

Genres: Science Fiction, Humor, Fiction

160 pages, Paperback

First published December 17, 1974

About the author

Pseudonyms: Howard Lee; Frank S Shawn; Kenneth Robeson; Con Steffanson; Josephine Kains; Joseph Silva; William Shatner.
Ron Goulart is a cultural historian and novelist. Besides writing extensively about pulp fiction—including the seminal Cheap Thrills: An Informal History of Pulp Magazines (1972)—Goulart has written for the pulps since 1952, when the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction published his first story, a sci-fi parody of letters to the editor. Since then he has written dozens of novels and countless short stories, spanning genres and using a variety of pennames, including Kenneth Robeson, Joseph Silva, and Con Steffanson. In the 1990s, he became the ghostwriter for William Shatner’s popular TekWar novels. Goulart’s After Things Fell Apart (1970) is the only science-fiction novel to ever win an Edgar Award.

In the 1970s Goulart wrote novels starring series characters like Flash Gordon and the Phantom, and in 1980 he published Hail Hibbler, a comic sci-fi novel that began the Odd Jobs, Inc. series. Goulart has also written several comic mystery series, including six books starring Groucho Marx. Having written for comic books, Goulart produced several histories of the art form, including the Comic Book Encyclopedia (2004).

Reviews

[Karl · Rating 5 out of 5]

DAW Collectors #132

Cover Artist: Hans Arnold.

Name: Goulart, Ronald Joseph, Birthplace: Berkeley, California, USA, 13 January 1933.

Alternate Names: Carston Bingham, Lee Falk, Kenneth Robeson, Frank S. Shawn, Joseph Silva, Con Steffanson.

Goulart has been nominated twice for the Edgar Award, once for his 1970 science fiction novel "After Things Fell AparT",

Kip Bundy is a fun-loving young man who likes nothing more than to party and spend time with pretty girls. However, his Uncle Wenzel, an executive in the BKE Corporation, has a task for him. It seems that a cohort of BKE androids, marketed as butlers on the planet Malagra,have a flaw that may cause them to behave in potentially embarrassing, even dangerous, ways.

Accordingly, Kip needs to visit Malagra and fit each butler with a repair module. Accompanying Kip on his journey to Malagra are a lubricious photographer named Palma, and a toothsome young woman named April Arthur.

Once on Malagra, Kip and his friends quickly realize that this is the most chaotic, recklessly governed planet in the system, and seemingly simple tasks will require the utmost in skill and daring.

An excellent book.

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one is a good example of typical Goulart madness, set in his Barnum system of planets. It features a young protagonist who has little drive or ambition other than to enjoy himself being sent to investigate faulty androids manufactured by his family's business. He's accompanied by Palma the photographer, a familiar sex-obsessed Goulart character, and they have zany encounters with several damsels in distress, an assortment of Barnum's animal-men, the malfunctioning androids, not to mention members of the Boy Scout Liberation Army. It's a fun romp, and so fast-paced that you can't question some of the less logical plot points too closely. This one lacks a Jack Gaughan cover that had become expected on his DAW books, though he did provide the frontispiece sketch.

[John Defrog: global citizen, local gadfly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another Goulart book I hadn’t read yet. This one is part of his Barnum System series, a sort of brokedown, fouled up universe providing a background full of pestholes, lizardmen, catmen, faulty androids and government shenanigans. This one features Kip Bundy, scion of tech company Bundy Komglom Enterprises (BKE), who is tasked by his rich uncle to travel to the planet Malagra to clandestinely repair some android butlers. Because the androids were diplomatic gifts, Bundy must go undercover as a detective for Spacehawk Inc (a BKE subsidiary), which is how he also ends up looking for the missing brother of the lovely April Arthur with the help of boob-obsessed pro photographer Palma (a recurring character in some of the Barnum novels). The template is typical Goulart, but this one has more of the madcap humor, running gags and general silliness that got me into his writing in the first place. Good fun.

[Jack · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pure Goulart satire

[John Loyd · Rating 3 out of 5]

Spacehawk, Inc. (1974) 160 pages by Ron Goulart

Another farcical romp by Goulart. Kip's family runs one of the big conglomerates in the Barnum system. He likes his comfortable spot on Barnum, but there is a problem with some of the androids his family has sold on Malagra. So Kip is thrust into the position of having to go there and fix them, on the sly, without the customers realizing that he is doing it. His cover story to go traipsing around the planet is that he is an investigator with Spacehawk, Inc., one of the family's businesses. The cover gets better when he is assigned is a missing persons case that goes to many of the people that have the defective androids. It doesn't hurt that the client is the beautiful sister of the missing person.

The scenes jump frenetically from one to the next. The formula being that the protaganists get into some sort of scrape, and that through wits, or some device they wriggle out of it, or outside help comes to the rescue. There's just enough story to carry the witty banter, coincidences, and odd characters. i.e. the emphasis is to make the reader laugh or smile.

Typical of all the Goulart novels that I've read.

[Tentatively, Convenience · Rating 3 out of 5]

See my review of "Wildsmith".