Hard Luck Hank: Basketful of Crap

By: Steven Campbell

Narrated by: Liam Owen

Length: 9 hrs and 16 mins

Publisher's Summary

Hank was a dying breed on the space station Belvaille. The criminal gangs that had once made their homes there were forced out by the corporations that had taken over since the facility became an Independent Protectorate. Instead of the gentlemanly gang wars that had once dominated the scene, and made Hank's services prized as a negotiator, the city was now plagued by the clash of corporate armies using heavy weapons. Even tanks roamed the streets regularly. Most everyone from the olden days had either fled the station or was killed due to the organizational changes. Changes that Hank personally brought about when he had negotiated Belvaille's status with the Navy. 

As Hank contemplates whether he can survive in this increasingly hostile environment, he realizes that things aren't as bad as they seem - they are quite a bit worse. The constant power plays among corporations might have further reach than just the alleys of a backwater space station at the edge of the galaxy.

©2014 Steven Campbell (P)2014 Steven Campbell

Dry noir scifi comedy done right

Hard Luck Hank: Basketful of Crap is a short but very entertaining listen. If you liked the first book, you'll love the second.

This book had me grinning from ear to ear, and I highly recommend it if you are looking for a fun read.

Enjoyable sequel

HARD LUCK HANK: BASKETFUL OF CRAP is the sequel to SCREW THE GALAXY and returns us to Belvaille Station, the worst place in the galaxy to live. In fact, the station is completely different from the way it was before and there's a significant time-jump from the previous book. Gone are the gangs of Belvaille, who dominated the setting before, and replacing them are soulless corporations that took advantage of Hank's deal with the Confederation in order to produce goods illegal elsewhere but legal on the station.

I found this to be a clever bit of satire even it's not something that's the central focus of the plot. One of the things which a "pot-advocate" friend of mine fears is that, as soon as the legalities are worked out, corporations are going to destroy any of the local growers who are presently benefiting from its legalization in states like Colorado and Seattle. In the case of Hank, a former professional leg-breaker extraordinaire is now reduced to being a doorman for one of the station's upscale casinos.

The plot, if you can call it that (Hank's life is more like a horrible series of events he chooses to survive), is a pair of beautiful female assassins hire him to find their missing sister. This is after he trips over a corpse on his front door that he didn't make and can't find someone to pick up. Everything you need to know about Hank can be summarized by the fact he refuses to pay $500 to get a corpse removed from his doorstep and is too lazy to dump it somewhere else himself. Later, Hank is hired by a mysterious black-eyed man called "The Naked Guy" to do a number of bloody deeds across the station. This all climaxes to reveal what is as close to the archvillain of the series and an event which shapes the course of the next five or six books.

This novel solidifies the "Hank formula" for the most part as it has less plot than the previous book and that's the point. Hank refuses to be proactive unless he's paid to do something and thus events pile up around him that eventually end up being revealed to be all interconnected. Very often, Hank will be hired to do some investigating but, lacking any leads, he ends up taking a second or third job that pays directly. These jobs inevitably involve violence against someone who may or may not be deserving but always end up causing massive chaos.

I'm a bit saddened Hank's mutant neighbors depart the series at this point since I enjoyed their idealistic/naive perspective on events. I also wasn't sure how I felt about the retcon that Garm is actually from a planet of sexy female assassins. On one hand, it's so outrageous that it fits perfectly with the universe, on the other it's a retcon which disrupts an already-strong character's history. The absence of the mutants opens up more room for Hank's insane inventor friend, Delovoa, who becomes a staple of the series.

Part of what I love about the books is the covers are actually extremely faithful to what's going on in the book. Hank really does acquire a helicopter chain gun (except there's no helicopter since it's a space station) which fires grenades. That's in addition to dealing with two beautiful Drow-esque assassins who dress completely unlike you'd expect stealthy ninjas to dress. Even Hank's pair of shorts are entirely how he dresses in the book. Garm is also a bit of fanservice on the front which we see on several other covers.

Is the book any good? Oh yes, it's a wonderful parody of science fiction, detective fiction, and space opera all at once. Hank is probably the worst person in the world you could call for anything resembling "subtle" work but that's why he gets results. It's equivalent to hiring The Dude from The Big Lebowski only putting him in the Hulk's body and making him really violent. Okay, that's actually a terrible description but I'd watch the hell out of that movie just like I enjoy the hell out of these books. Really, my only complaint is I don't think the villain is appropriate for Hank as his revealed backstory is way too over-the-top for this relatively grounded series.

As before the voice acting here is tremendous and reminds me a bit of Patrick Warburton's dry understated delivery. Liam Owen should be proud of himself for the work he did here.

8/10

Irreverent fun

Hank has saved Belvaille only to see it overrun by Corporations, and a new war is brewing. Hank is out of his element in this new environment, but still managing to find work. This time it's a search mission for a pair of pale twin assassins looking for their sister. If Hank only knew.

This book isn't much different from the first one. Hank isn't a thinker. He's a survivor, mostly from his own mistakes. The constant idiot routine is wearing a bit thin.

ok,enjoyable. looking forward to the next book

It wasn't as good as the first but it was worth getting! It's fun following Hank around on his adventure. Please continue this series!

Second Hank is a winner!

This second book in the Hard Luck Hank series is funnier than ever and has a great story. I know there's a third book but I hope there's more to come!

hilarious!!

I'm not into highbrow books, that being said this book was awesome. Fast paced funny and the narrator was perfect. Can't wait for the next one.

Let the good times roll!

An enjoyable listen, absolutely loved the new characters, the good and bad guys.
Thought it had a but more excitement and action than the first, with the great twists throughout!.
Familiar Hank feel but still felt very fresh! Really great job on this one!

Great in every respect - KaCHOOM!

If you could sum up Hard Luck Hank in three words, what would they be?

Most enjoyable listen.

What other book might you compare Hard Luck Hank to and why?

Off to be the Wizard. Both of these books are lighthearted with male characters who have issues on top of being comical heroes.

What about Liam Owen’s performance did you like?

Liam is absolutely perfect for the voice of Hank. In fact, Liam could turn a basketful of crap into, well, a basket.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

There is no I in team, but there is a "Ha" in Hank!

Any additional comments?

More Hank, less Kardashians!

Great Sci-Fi humor and action - lots of fun

I love writing that can make me laugh. There's one scene written in this book that had me laughing really hard (Hank in the space shuttle going to meet the general.) The rest of the book is pretty even throughout with wry humor, wisecracks, and Hank's continuous self-deprecating viewpoints. It's awesome that Steven Campbell can keep up a high rate of humor throughout the book.

The narration is good, and most characters are identifiable by voice, although the narrator is a bit limited in variety in comparison to Fisher Stevens or Bronson Pinchot. Liam Owen is perfect as the voice of Hank, with dry wit, snarky, sarcastic and long-suffering tones modulating Hank's speech and inner voice.

It's a book that manages to be funny and still have an interesting and inventive plot and pretty good action scenes.

What happened Hank?

I didn't like this book as much as I did the first. After skimming over the reviews on audible it seems that, once again, I'm in the minority. So, let me defend my position.

What went wrong here? I almost think that Steven Campbell quit trying. There was nothing in this book that made me laugh like there was in the first one. The jokes seemed either too silly and forced or the narrator's delivery and timing was way off.

While I thought the first Hank book had a great plot, I got confused a lot of times with this one. Some of the major plot points were delivered through character dialogue and it wasn't very cohesive. I kept thinking, "what the bleep are they talking about?" In my review of the first book I said that character dialogue was on par, but it is really lacking something in this sequel.

Then there were the sound effects. I've never been a fan of sound effects in my audio books, however, in the first Hank book they added flavor to the story and some of them (I'm thinking of the shotgun blasts) were kind of cool. In this book, though, they were a nuisance. There were some voice effects that made it nearly impossible to understand the words.

Finally, Liam Owen's performance was worse. I took a lot of time criticising him in my last review, so I won't do it here. I wouldn't know where to start.

If the first book had been as disappointing as this one I would have stopped there. Yet, its on the merits of that book that I will probably give Hank another chance, but if it doesn't improve I might end my relationship with the big dumb brute there and say, "Eat suck, Suckface!"

Decent book but narration was iffy

This was a perfectly enjoyable story. The plot makes sense and is actually a bit more linear than in the first book. Hank is still a fun character although the loss of the gang war olden timey feel of book 1 was a shame. If you liked book 1 then you'll probably like this though.

I will say that the narration was sub-optimal. Hank's voice is very loud and shouty which is good for the character but then all the other characters are comparatively quiet and I spent a lot of time adjusting the volume and replaying so I could both hear the other characters and not get tinnitus from Hank. I didn't like the eccentric pronounciation of the chapter names either.

Chaaaappptter 1

I love the narration of these books. It really adds to the overall simpleness of Hanks character. I preferred the first book but will definitely be continuing listening to the series.