This is book 1 in the Space Police Series. This was a rather strange book. Detective Inspector Capstan awakens to find that he was frozen for over 400 years. In the new world he wakes up to, the President of the US has taken over the world and things have drastically changed. He has been reinstated as a police officer and must adjust to this strange world and the people in it.

Firstly, I have not read the previous books in this series so I've come to the dynamic police duo of Capstan and Dewbush in the midst of their detection work. That said, it works pretty well as a stand alone anyway.
I did not laugh out loud while reading this because the humour is more subtle than that, I appreciated that. I loved the premise of the story - that Earth's cows are superior and so desirable that some people will steal them to make a fortune. Spoiler alert - these cows are not pinched, they're 'liberated' by do-gooders.
I thought all the main characters were well drawn and the story developed well. David Blake seems to take the micky out of some sci-fi books that go into the ins and out of a fart to describe their characters - some of his 'alien' life forms look like 'blancmange' - say what you like, I found it easy to imagine them!
I will now need to go back and read the series from the beginning. I loved Capstan and Dewbush and wished their characters were more developed (but that was my fault for not reading the books in order).

Space Police: Attack of the Mammary Clans
By David Blake

In a common sci-fi trope, poor Detective Inspector Capstan has been cryogenically frozen and woken up 450 years into the future – minus a leg, to boot. Needless to say, things have changed considerably. The United Kingdom of America’s Space Police are based on the moon, the President of the World (reminiscent of a recent, much-vilified POTUS) is a fat orange guy in a dodgy wig, and the United Kingdom – as was – is responsible for global dairy production.
This turns out to be crucial to the plot, as the demand for milk and milk products by other planets makes it the universe’s most in-demand resource. D.I. Capstan is thrown in at the deep end of this new world, retained in the police force, and charged with finding a hugely valuable missing cow.
With the many-times descendant of his old police sergeant in tow, Capstan heads off to Titan, dealing with eco-terrorists, alien torture, Intergalactic warships and, possibly worst of all, a world where sarcasm has been made illegal.
Overall, this is an amusing read. Capstan is the usual cynical, sarcastic hero, albeit a mite subverted both by the nonexistence of humour in the future, and by his new sidekick’s unexpected intelligence. His quest is full of nonsensical interactions, but the plot is fast-paced and logical in layout.
Most of the characters are fairly two-dimensional but President Dick Müller IV, descendant of that president, is quite amusing. He has managed to take control of the whole world by highly dubious means, and has a suspiciously long life-span, even by future standards. However, his depiction is one of the best parodies of the ex-president that I have come across. Blake’s satire is detached and cynical, and allows the possibility that Müller might not be a complete buffoon, but might in fact have some intelligent, if corrupt, intent behind his outrageous antics.
While the writing was awkward in spots, and rather repetitive, overall it was a light and entertaining read. Not quite as good as Barry Hutchison’s Space Team series, but a quick read that raised the odd smirk.
My thanks to Netgalley for the copy.

DNF 50%
Unfortunately this one wasn't for me, the humor didn't really hit for me personally. I liked the quick pace of the book and I also did like Capstan's POV and how different the world had become from the world he knew but, I really struggled to get behind the overall story. It was silly, just not my kind of silly.

3.5 stars

In this first book in the comical 'Space Police' series, a detective wakes up 450 years after he was cryogenically frozen, returns to the police force, and is tasked with finding a missing cow.

*****

After enduring a life-threatening injury that took his leg, Detective Inspector Capstan from Portsmouth, England is cryogenically frozen, put into cold storage, and more or less forgotten. More than four hundred years later, in the 25th century, Capstan is awakened when a cleaning lady accidently leaves his cryogenic capsule unplugged after she vacuums.

It takes a little while for Capstan to adjust to his new situation, but a prosthetic leg and the presence of Sergeant Peter Simon Dewbush - who happens to be the great great great great grandson of D.I. Capstan's 21st century subordinate Sergeant Simon Peter Dewbush - soon get him acclimated.

D.I. Capstan is reinstated in the police force, now called the Space Police, and partnered with Sgt. Dewbush. Luckily P.S Dewbush from the 25th century is much smarter than dimwitted S.P. Dewbush from the 21st century, so Capstan has lucked out in that respect. The two detectives are assigned to find a missing cow, which is a top tier case. Milk is now the most popular beverage in the universe, and a cow is worth millions of dollars.

The search for the cow takes the cops to Saturn's moon Titan, which is inhabited by the Mammary Clans - aliens that look like giant custards. Titan is in competition with Earth for milk production, though Titan's product - which is exclusively skimmed milk - is inferior.

Capstan and Dewbush get into all manner of hilarious situations as they go about their job, and Capstan gets to experience novel things like traveling at light speed; using an oxygen helmet and gravity blanket; owning a gun that uses armor-piercing, self-guiding cartridges with impact-exploding tips; and more.

Meanwhile, back on Earth, U.S. President Dick Müller - a fat orange guy with a dodgy wig - has taken over the world. Müller's strategy is to invite rivals to the White House; set them up with prostitutes; film them; and blackmail them into giving up their countries.

The President plans to obtain Titan by setting up its Supreme High Councillor, the pudding-like Lord Von Splottity. This plan has unexpected ramifications....ones that inadvertently affect Capstan and Dewbush.

The book is written strictly for laughs, which it delivers. My one quibble is the over-abundance of male characters; there are only two females, and one is a sexy wife robot. To me, this harks back to 1950s science fiction films, which usually had one token gal.

Still, the book is a pleasant diversion, and could be adapted into a good graphic novel in my opinion.

Thanks to Netgalley and author David Blake for a copy of the book.

David Blake's "Space Police" was a light, casual, and humorous war of the worlds space opera. Continual use of the famous dry British wit did cause me to smile frequently. The novel includes the prerequisites of space opera including spaceships, light speed, aliens, and missiles. The plot was coherent. Though it felt a bit too much like a reimagining of the 2006 movie "Idiocracy" as a detective Inspector who finds himself 450 years in the future surrounded by idiots as a detective in the future's Space Force.

An interesting read, a bit of a struggle to get through but overall ok - I appreciate the opportunity to review it!

Did not finish as the book was just not interesting or funny. Will not be reading any other books by this author.

A few lighthearted laughs about a "man out of time" trope, this was a quick read without a lot of depth.

*Honest review given for a free copy from Netgalley.*

★★★☆☆

This is my first David Blake novel, so I wasn’t sure what I was getting into. The floating cow on the cover made me think this would be a zany and humorous read. It was definitely zany and a fun read for summer. 

Detective Andrew Capstan wakes up and finds himself a leg short and stuck in the year 2459. He teams up with the great-great-several more greats-grandson of a Sergeant he worked with in 2017 to solve a mystery involving a cow. 

I liked the premise. In Blake’s future, dairy is a rare commodity in high demand and hard to find off of Earth, so a cow going missing is a high-level crime. The college kids on a crusade to free cows was very amusing as well. The escalation of the plot line worked very nicely and the humor of the entire situation was fun. I laughed at some of the zany situations capstan and his friends found themselves drawn into. 

Even early into the story, the tone is light and rich with humor. Like Dewbush arguing with the YouGet to order a simple glass of water. The entire story keeps the humor the focal point. This made Space Police a great read for sitting under the summer sun. 

The length of the sentences are noticeably long, I counted one early on and found it to be 205 words! I wonder how the audio narrator was able to read without pausing to gasp for breath.They grew shorter as the story progressed, but in the beginning, it was almost impressive how long some of these sentences were. 

The characters felt flat and didn’t really develop over the story. After a while, everyone started to sound the same. The reactions to what happens to them is fleeting and there’s not much emotional depth to the characters. Which felt odd when Capstan had a fleeting thought about his dead wife and children. It lasted for a paragraph and vanished with little emotional reaction from Capstan. 

What I didn’t care for:

-While I thought the humor was good, for the most part, some of the jokes relied on repetitive words or actions (I.e. the grieving process Castan goes over about his leg in chapter two is then repeated by the Doctor in chapter three, or the confusion that ensues anytime Dewbush talks to a computer, or the various mix up with names, Catspam or Bewdush. ). It started to get a little annoying after the first several times. 

-It wasn't until I reached Chapter 10 that I realized there weren’t any women characters. And what women there are (the secretary and Wife-bot Susan) were referenced in a sexy way. For example, the perfection of the secretary’s legs and the sexualizaton overall of Wife-bot Susan. In chapter 12 the sexy milkmaid bot appears, followed by Lucy Butterbum. Lucy goes on to become a minor character, with her own POV chapters as she gets kidnapped to Titan. 

See more of my reviews at cestokes.com, http://cestokes.blogspot.com/, goodreads.com.

Someone needed to inherit the mantle from Douglas Adams. Blake may be the one. Then his style of humor may be closer to Monty Python than Adams. This is absurdist comedy at it's best, sorely needed in these uncertain times.

In book 1, our stalwart hero, Captain Capstan, awakes in the 25th century, missing a leg, longing for a glass of water. Dewbrush, his side kick sergeant is there and leaves to find a doctor. Capstan realizes something is different when Dewbrush interacts with a microwave, that produces a glass of water, charging Dewbrush $250 for the water.

In short, the plot is really secondary to the gags, the banter, and the implausibility of the situation.
The style, compared to Scalzi is over the top. Sometimes the world needs slapstick. This is it.

Recommended for those who need a laugh
Full disclosure. I received this ARC from netgalley in exchange for an unbiased review.

This book was fine. Exactly fine. Not super-great, but not a disappointment. It delivered exactly what I expected: a comedic romp through a bit of the future with nothing but one absurdity thrown into the plot after another.

I can tell the characters are being set up to continue a series, and I'm sure I'll read more of them. Sometimes (especially NOW) you need pure escapism, and how better to do that that with a British police office who finds himself defrosted 400+ years in the future (when he didn't even know he was going to be frozen), where milk (yes, dairy milk) is precious, the earth is ruled by the US, aliens abound, as does space travel. But crime still exists, too, so he is set on a mission that is *exactly* what it sounds like it would be.

It was fun, easy to read. Preposterous concept. That's what silly sci-fi is all about!

Not so much funny as absurd, there's a lot to like here. It shares a sense of humour with Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. It's utterly bonkers and well worth a read if your tastes run to the absurd. Inspector Capstan wakes up in the 25th century, four hundred years later than expected, and missing a leg. A cleaner has unplugged his cryo machine by accident and Capstan tries to pick up the pieces of his former life aided by the humourless Lieutenant Dewbush who happens to be descended from Capstan's old sergeant. Sent to Earth (now completely ruled by America) to Port's Mouth to investigate the disappearance of a cow, Capstan and Dewbush end up on Titan, where the Mammary Clans (who look like huge blobs of blancmange, live on milkshakes and worship earth cows) are trying to resist a takeover bid by the American president. Chaos ensues. I gather there are previous adventures of Capstan and the original Dewbush, but this is my first encounter.

IT's British, t's snarky, but it's no Douglas Adams. I wanted something fun to read, but while the basic idea, a police inspector woken from cryo after being wounded in the line of duty and finding himself in a future that looks like his past, but more crowded and with less going for it. Unfortunately, the author just doesn't pull it off.

Space Police is not bad, but it is also definitely not Hitchhikers or even Terry Pratchett's Discworld series. Following his cryogenic freezing and unfreezing, the story of Detective Inspector Capstan and his first case for the Space Police is very basic and simple and could have done with fleshing out more so it does not read like an overlong novella.

The humour in Space Police feels more juvenile than the aforementioned series and jokes are dragged out for far too long.

On the other hand, it is an easy read, to a point where I think this would have been more successful if the target audience had been children. This would require some of the sexual jokes being removed and the idea that the only women who exist are either a farmer's daughter or sex(y) robot was removed altogether. In hindsight, better to remove the latter idea completely no matter who the target audience is.

I will probably pick up the next one based on the improved reviews and similar to his crime novels, hopefully, David Blake creates a successful series in his own right.

There's a lot to be said for a completely undemanding read. No struggling with Shakespeare's English. No deep concentration on Hardy's interminable sentences. No guilt at having one's awareness enhanced by some miserable tale of social injustice. No moments of horror. No racing heart, and no sweaty palms at nail biting moments. This is a book you can put down at night or stick in your pocket when your flight is called.
This is a book of gentle humour for a respite from the hustle and bustle of daily life. I suspect though that there is a sort of catch 22 at work here; the sort of people who would appreciate this books might appreciate it probably don't read books. I suspect this book's market has been eaten by computer games.

Next book on my to be reviewed list is Space Police: Attack of the Mammary Clans. An absurdly humorous take on the buddy cop formula with a science fiction twist, that sees Detective Inspector Capstan waking from a dream about ice cream and dog poo to find himself 400 years in the future. The humour comes at you thick and fast from aliens resembling a certain milky pudding to a police lieutenant riding a cow in mid-air . While much of the humour is hit and miss the story progresses at a brisk pace which rarely falters making for an easy read. Likely aimed at more of a teen reader I don’t see too many adults finding this to be a series of interest unless they have a very, very broad sense of humour.
Overall not the greatest book I have reviewed to date, maybe something to pickup for a teenager on a train when the phone has died?

Space Police is a book that gives you what it promises on the cover. They're in Space (sometimes), they are police.... and there are cows. Not only that, the subtitle is suitably apt... this book certainly is almost funny. There were parts that I thought were quite humourous, but the book relies on far too many misunderstandings of sarcasm, and the repeated idea that being funny has been made illegal in the future.

I didn't know this was a sequel going in (despite it being book 1 of the series) so perhaps some subtleties about the character were lost on me.....As some other reviewers have alluded to, I think I may have needed to read the previous books. There are a lot of mentions of his previous partner, so any of these references were lost on me. There is also no clear indication as to why Capstan was frozen, but again, this may be clear in previous books.

Enough of being negative, once I got past these points I found the story to be entertaining enough, and was excited to see what would pan out. This one is not for you if you are a fan of Trump I don't think, but then again most humourous books aren't.

Overall I thought it was a good book. I'm in no way sorry that I read it, I'm just not sure I would continue the series. While for me it was not on a par with Terry Pratchett or Douglas Adams, I'm sure other fans of these books will find an enjoyable read here.

This is quite a silly tale of Inspector Catspam :) waking up 450 years after unknowingly having been put into suspended animation.
The running jokes are similar to ones in his stories from the 21st century. I like that he has disdain for his subordinate Dewbush.
Yes this series is quite juvenile, but books don't have to be serious all the time.

This book was really enjoyable. Full of weird humor and that was definitely my cup of tea. I really like the cover. I can't wait to read other books in this series. If you like Douglas Adams works you will definitely like this book too.