Enhance Your Exports! Doing Business on Other Planets - William Peskett

Author: William Peskett

Website: http://www.williampeskett.com/

Description: ‘This is a serious business book. If it’s cheap laughs you want, stick with “In Search of Excellence”.’ So begins this satire of 21st century life disguised as a science-fiction guide to doing business on other planets.

Follow Dave Smart, business studies lecturer, as he leads three business colleagues on a tour of discovery to the Smiling Disc star system, 19 light years from home. Their main purpose is to investigate business practice on Kalista-mm, the larger of the system’s two planets, and gather material for Dave’s new book, ‘Doing Business on Other Planets.’

Review: "This is a serious business book." If you think that opening line was a joke, think again. While this story is rife with humor and zaniness, there are so many parallels to our own world, perceptions, ideals, and business practices that sometimes you stop laughing and cry. And then laugh again.

See, it's like this: I'd have to give you 33 cents back from a dollar, when the item cost 45 cents. This, because of the ancient practice of shaving the dollar bills with beaver whiskers and muskrat milk; not to mention that such practice is difficult, destructive, and causes waste. Thus, this tariff has been hefted upon you for that service. You're welcome.

Get it?

Great! You'll be perfect for the job.

This is a fast read, very well-written, smooth, and the characters are enjoyable. The dialogue is very witty, and there is a lot of it, which really keeps things moving well. We are treated to a Candide-esque traipse around a strange planet and its moon. M-o-o-o-n, that spells moon. (Three o's are intentional.) Great read, and I really enjoyed it. The ending is a good setup for future tales in this saga, and I eagerly await more, though it did feel a little flat to me.

It's not really bizarro, though it is bizarre. But don't let that stop you. Let the definers of genres bicker and argue. Read this book.

Oh, and I have actually seen the sun in Snowdonia. But it rained like hell in Llanerchymedd.

3.77 stars