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The Happy Bureaucracy #2
Fear and Loathing in the Wasteland
It’s f#@!ng tax day in post-apocalyptic America!
Armed with red ink, and a suitcase full of only the most high powered drugs, Arthur and Rabia return to the savage United Wastes. Their mission? Nothing less than taking down The Colonel’s slave operation.
But when they find themselves separated, Rabia uncovers an IRS plot to assassinate Arthur. She could reach him in time if she weren't bogged down with protecting a wasteland child on top of everything else. Arthur, of course, is just bogged down with himself. Like always.
M.P. Fitzgerald ups the ante on dark humor and page-turning adventure in this hilarious return to The Happy Bureaucracy series. Love, action, revenge, and irradiated SPAM. The duo has a full plate of fear and loathing in the wasteland to deal with.
Armed with red ink, and a suitcase full of only the most high powered drugs, Arthur and Rabia return to the savage United Wastes. Their mission? Nothing less than taking down The Colonel’s slave operation.
But when they find themselves separated, Rabia uncovers an IRS plot to assassinate Arthur. She could reach him in time if she weren't bogged down with protecting a wasteland child on top of everything else. Arthur, of course, is just bogged down with himself. Like always.
M.P. Fitzgerald ups the ante on dark humor and page-turning adventure in this hilarious return to The Happy Bureaucracy series. Love, action, revenge, and irradiated SPAM. The duo has a full plate of fear and loathing in the wasteland to deal with.
160 pages, Kindle Edition
Published June 14, 2019
14 people are currently reading
17 people want to read
About the author
M.P. Fitzgerald
13 books33 followersM.P. Fitzgerald is an author and amateur mad scientist. He writes stories across genres for misfits, weirdos, philosophers and pirates alike.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
June 12, 2019
Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the United Wastes, Arthur and Rabia are back! This time they brought Dinner, and a super-sized IRS army, so they can kick butt and - of course - collect taxes!
After a brief respite from their adventures in A Happy Bureaucracy, our favorite pair of Wasteland survivors get right down to dirty business. Arthur ends up riding shotgun with a literal army of Enforcers and Auditors aiming to back-tax the Colonel and his Slaver City operation. Rabia, on the other hand, is paired with newly-promoted Auditor Dinner and both are sent off into the suburbs to perform tax audits.
Wait - what's *that* all about?
But before Arthur and the Tax Army can liberate the Colonel's slaves and his coffers, and before Rabia can keep Dinner's audits safe, the unlikely pair has to face a much larger danger than the looming Slaver army - someone on the inside of the IRS really doesn't like Arthur, and the only promotion they want to see him get into is a nice shallow grave. Split up and beset on all sides by very real foes, this jaunt is shaping up to be the pair's most threateningly difficult run thus far!
Will Arthur survive the administrative assassination attempts? Can he weather the blunderingly incompetent field leadership of his immediate supervisor, Ralph? Will Rabia keep Dinner in one piece? Can she suppress her motherly instincts and successfully rescue her boyfriend? And will the audits be completed and the taxes get collected?
If you like your narratives littered with corpses, fuelled by drug binges, and constructed with lots and lots of “gratuitous mentions of bureaucracy,” then M.P. Fitzgerald's The Happy Bureaucracy series is a must-read two-thumbs-up addition to any book collection or ebook-reader-thingie-app-doohickey.
Disclaimer: I received a pre-release copy of this ebook to review, and this is my honest and freely-given impression. (Thanks, Ami!)
After a brief respite from their adventures in A Happy Bureaucracy, our favorite pair of Wasteland survivors get right down to dirty business. Arthur ends up riding shotgun with a literal army of Enforcers and Auditors aiming to back-tax the Colonel and his Slaver City operation. Rabia, on the other hand, is paired with newly-promoted Auditor Dinner and both are sent off into the suburbs to perform tax audits.
Wait - what's *that* all about?
But before Arthur and the Tax Army can liberate the Colonel's slaves and his coffers, and before Rabia can keep Dinner's audits safe, the unlikely pair has to face a much larger danger than the looming Slaver army - someone on the inside of the IRS really doesn't like Arthur, and the only promotion they want to see him get into is a nice shallow grave. Split up and beset on all sides by very real foes, this jaunt is shaping up to be the pair's most threateningly difficult run thus far!
Will Arthur survive the administrative assassination attempts? Can he weather the blunderingly incompetent field leadership of his immediate supervisor, Ralph? Will Rabia keep Dinner in one piece? Can she suppress her motherly instincts and successfully rescue her boyfriend? And will the audits be completed and the taxes get collected?
If you like your narratives littered with corpses, fuelled by drug binges, and constructed with lots and lots of “gratuitous mentions of bureaucracy,” then M.P. Fitzgerald's The Happy Bureaucracy series is a must-read two-thumbs-up addition to any book collection or ebook-reader-thingie-app-doohickey.
Disclaimer: I received a pre-release copy of this ebook to review, and this is my honest and freely-given impression. (Thanks, Ami!)
June 7, 2019
Arthur McDowell is back and he is determined to free the slaves. Through a bureaucratic maneuver by his boss, Arthur and Rabia are separated, and both marked for death. Rabia finds herself teamed with a new auditor, Dinner. Arthur finds himself teamed with a new partner...his immediate supervisor Ralph. Both uncover plots that threaten the slaves Arthur still intends to save, and the mystery of the Colonel's "main client" is revealed! Through his adventure with Ralph who is still trying to take the glory for work he didn't do, Arthur goes through paper filing hell to complete his mission. Though Arthur makes decisions that screw up the bureaucratic system that governed his life, he becomes a rebel by making ethical choices.
This book is continued fun and any fan of Michael's work recognizes the humor right away. His use of color in the technicolor rainbow of IRS paperwork would make Stephanie Garber proud as Arthur and Ralph argue about what color form is needed to request backup.
This book is continued fun and any fan of Michael's work recognizes the humor right away. His use of color in the technicolor rainbow of IRS paperwork would make Stephanie Garber proud as Arthur and Ralph argue about what color form is needed to request backup.
June 11, 2019
Who said Spam was useless? The mystery meat has some use after all. Also, be careful of what you wish for it just may come true. No one knows these things more than our hero Author in the story. Just another bureaucrat in the IRS, Author is not a leader but is thrust into the role of one.
With being separated from his partner, and his friend Dinner in danger and being danger, Author's adventure is this book is just as thrilling and exciting as his last!
The author did an excellent job in creating post-apocalyptic America and truely out did himself as a storyteller in this book. Make sure to read this one!
With being separated from his partner, and his friend Dinner in danger and being danger, Author's adventure is this book is just as thrilling and exciting as his last!
The author did an excellent job in creating post-apocalyptic America and truely out did himself as a storyteller in this book. Make sure to read this one!
September 16, 2019
Dystopia rules after the apocalypse. IRS auditor Arthur is part of an armada to collect overdue taxes from Slaver City; payment will be made in freed slaves. Unfortunately, Rabia, Arthur's IRS enforcer, and Dinner, the slave he rescued, are on a mission to somewhere else. Needless to say, Boyle, the head of the IRS, wants Arthur dead. This all leads to an impending conflagration where all gloves are off, except, of course, the policies and procedures of the IRS that dictate hours of work and steps to be taken. This results in a dusty encounter in the wasteland. The writing brings humor to the situation through IRS jokes and weird situations including who-is-who in the impending encounters. This is a decent, quick read.
February 22, 2023
Very short, then it just stops
This novel could have been a chapter. It's one scene drawn out for almost two hundred pages that doesn't even finish. The scene is cut off after a big reveal like we're about to go to commercial break, not end a story. Seems like the author really wanted to write a trilogy when one 400 page novel would have sufficed.
The purple prose( Sixty-seven fancy words when one will do) is far greater in this book than the first. It gets in the way of a great story and makes it almost unreadable.
This novel could have been a chapter. It's one scene drawn out for almost two hundred pages that doesn't even finish. The scene is cut off after a big reveal like we're about to go to commercial break, not end a story. Seems like the author really wanted to write a trilogy when one 400 page novel would have sufficed.
The purple prose( Sixty-seven fancy words when one will do) is far greater in this book than the first. It gets in the way of a great story and makes it almost unreadable.
June 25, 2019
This is the second book in the serie, and if I really liked the first, I totally love the second.
The ambiance is the same, most of the characters we already know, but now we get to know new layers to them. Foes become friends and friends foes (or not), nothing is truly black and white and I just love all the suspense and twists of the story.
The ending is amazing and I can already tell: the next book will be epic.
The ambiance is the same, most of the characters we already know, but now we get to know new layers to them. Foes become friends and friends foes (or not), nothing is truly black and white and I just love all the suspense and twists of the story.
The ending is amazing and I can already tell: the next book will be epic.
June 15, 2019
What's the old saying...the only things that are certain in life are Death and Taxes. Well, Arthur is finding out the hard way that both are being planned for him and Rabia. In the second book of the series, our two heroes are split up with both being sent out on new assignments. The problem is, both are now being targeted for assassination.
This is another great story from Mr. Fitzgerald. I love the snide humor mixed with the post apocalyptic world where nothing is in abundance except dust, and IRS paper.
I received an ARC of the ebook but love this series enough to post a review.
This is another great story from Mr. Fitzgerald. I love the snide humor mixed with the post apocalyptic world where nothing is in abundance except dust, and IRS paper.
I received an ARC of the ebook but love this series enough to post a review.
June 16, 2019
Can you imagine living in a dystopian world so horrible that children are born and raised for food? I suppose it's possible for you to imagine but then you have to add the nightmare of the IRS wanting their "fair share" of said food and any others assets. Then you must be able to top all of that horror with a huge dollop of humor, yes, humor to get this horrific, yet occasionally hilarious tale from M. P. Fitzgerald's sick and twisted imagination. And I state that in a very complimentary way! I highly recommend it but please do yourself a favor and read book 1 in the series first. You will never read another dystopian tale like it. Be prepared to gasp in horror and laugh with tears running from your eyes.
Disclaimer: I received a copy of this ebook from the author and this is my honest and freely given opinion.
Disclaimer: I received a copy of this ebook from the author and this is my honest and freely given opinion.
June 13, 2019
I'm obsessed with this series! After reading a ton of apocalypse books coming across this series is like being stuck in the wasteland for weeks with nothing to drink and then coming across a pool of clear, cold, unirradiated water. Seriously.... READ THIS BOOK!
June 3, 2019
A off the wall Si-Fi! The world has ended but the IRS is still collecting our taxes, payable in any form of worth. This one has twists you would never think of, so that makes it a really fun read!
August 28, 2019
Entertaining book with quite a twist. Nothing is definite except death and taxes.
August 25, 2020
Dinner should have eaten the crayons
January 10, 2022
After reading this book, I should go back and change my original review slightly. I think I described it as "fun". Well... I think "entertaining" is a better fit. There is humor, and what I would call a smattering of satire, but it just doesn't feel right to call a well-thought-out and eminently readable (so far) series about living in a world nearly destroyed in a nuclear holocaust as "fun.
The characters are, in my opinion, as far from cookie-cutter as you can get. Yet, they are as stereotypical as you can think of. Contradiction much? It is one of the reasons, I think, that it works so well. What better way than having your characters be standard non-conformists in a world of organized chaos?
The story picks up not too long after our two friends and newly minted lovers, have been separated. Arthur is on his way to the front to collect back taxes from the slavers and Rabia has been pair with Dinner, the child Arthur collected on an audit in the previous story.
If you're wondering why a young girl would be named Dinner, then you really should go read book #1: A Happy Bureaucracy first. You'll laugh. You'll cry. You might pick up a few tips for when you do your next tax return, but more likely you'll just laugh and cry. But I digress...
Without giving anything away, something happens that sets Rabia off on a cross-country, whirlwind journey to reach Artur before he can come to harm. Meanwhile, Arthur is learning some things about himself that he didn't know he had it in him to do.
We learn more back story about our new beloved characters and by the end of this installment, we learn that as bad as the situation seems to be, it just might be far worse than is generally known. Enemies just might be friends. Friends might be enemies. And what's over the horizon might lead to either one.
As before I highly recommend The Happy Bureaucracy Series to anyone who enjoys a thoughtful read, with tons of dumb luck, a touch of silliness here and there, cannibalism on the menu, and pretty necklaces made from the fingers of one's enemies. Or you could just read it because it is a good story and entertaining to read.
The characters are, in my opinion, as far from cookie-cutter as you can get. Yet, they are as stereotypical as you can think of. Contradiction much? It is one of the reasons, I think, that it works so well. What better way than having your characters be standard non-conformists in a world of organized chaos?
The story picks up not too long after our two friends and newly minted lovers, have been separated. Arthur is on his way to the front to collect back taxes from the slavers and Rabia has been pair with Dinner, the child Arthur collected on an audit in the previous story.
If you're wondering why a young girl would be named Dinner, then you really should go read book #1: A Happy Bureaucracy first. You'll laugh. You'll cry. You might pick up a few tips for when you do your next tax return, but more likely you'll just laugh and cry. But I digress...
Without giving anything away, something happens that sets Rabia off on a cross-country, whirlwind journey to reach Artur before he can come to harm. Meanwhile, Arthur is learning some things about himself that he didn't know he had it in him to do.
We learn more back story about our new beloved characters and by the end of this installment, we learn that as bad as the situation seems to be, it just might be far worse than is generally known. Enemies just might be friends. Friends might be enemies. And what's over the horizon might lead to either one.
As before I highly recommend The Happy Bureaucracy Series to anyone who enjoys a thoughtful read, with tons of dumb luck, a touch of silliness here and there, cannibalism on the menu, and pretty necklaces made from the fingers of one's enemies. Or you could just read it because it is a good story and entertaining to read.
December 26, 2023
Love hearing this via the podcast!
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews