Planet of the Japes (Space Team Universe, 7)
Space Team • Book 7
by Barry J. Hutchison
Why You'll Love This
A planet-sized clown theme park with murderous AI bots is somehow not the most unsettling thing the Space Team encounters here.
- Great if you want: absurdist sci-fi comedy with genuine emotional stakes underneath
- The experience: fast, chaotic, and laugh-out-loud — rarely pauses to breathe
- The writing: Hutchison layers sharp jokes over real character moments without breaking pace
- Skip if: you haven't started the series — payoff depends on knowing Mech
About This Book
When a cyber-attack drains Space Team's accounts, the investigation leads straight to Funworld — a planet-sized theme park staffed by unsettling clownbots and operating with a cavalier attitude toward basic safety. The real trouble starts when Mech discovers a hidden partition in his own hard drive containing coordinates he has no memory of storing. What begins as a financial headache escalates into something far stranger and more personal, pulling the crew toward secrets buried in Funworld's core that none of them were prepared to face. It's the kind of story that keeps raising the stakes while somehow getting funnier.
Hutchison has refined his particular brand of chaos into something genuinely impressive by book seven — the jokes land harder because the characters have real weight behind them, and the plot mechanics are tight enough that the absurdity never feels lazy. The prose moves fast without feeling rushed, and the balance between outright silliness and genuine tension is handled with the confidence of a writer who knows exactly where the line is and enjoys standing right on it.