This is the first novel by Toby Smith and very good it is too.

Set in an alternative future where the sun has never set on the British Empire Captain Isambard Smith is sent on a mission to transport a very special person back to the empire before she can fall into the clutches of the evil insect Ghast Empire. The only problem is that Smith's crew are a psychopathic head collecting alien and a pilot who is really a sex droid on the run from her owner.

Along the way Smith encounters a hippy space station, a planet who's inhabitants seem to have based their lives on the Matrix, the Ghast's fundamentalist Christian allies and aliens who talk perfect English to humans while conversing as surfer dudes to each other, there are thrills, escapes and battles a plenty.

Despite a bit of a slow start it is very funny, packed with amusing parody and sparkling dialogue, it left me wanting to read more.