4 stars - author Toby Frost
This is the second of the chronicles of space captain Isambard Smith.
Where the first book is a tribute to just about every sci fi sci fi book and film ever made, this one is mainly a tribute to Dune.
The evil Ghast empire has taken the tea producing planet of Didcot and the British Empire is likely to fall without the moral fibre generated by its much needed tea. The tea must flow!
With his crew, Captain Smith must muster an army to take on the Ghasts and the fanatical Edenites. Their only hope is the warlike people of the M'lak who unfortunately, since he last visited have now turned to golf and accounting.
It's a fast paced and very funny adventure with murder and mayhem, the inevitable loss of trousers, designed to break the will of the stiffest upper lip and lots more sci-fi references to enjoy.
However, this book also sees Captain Smith lose a lot of the innocence he had in the first book and he becomes more of an out and out hero and less of the bumbling twit which I previously found so endearing.
Oh and here's the public information film that starts the book.