Columbus Day (Expeditionary Force)

Great book even for a non-scifi fan such as myself. Generally speaking if I have to choose between magic or science in my books I always go for magic. So what made me pick this one up you might ask? That's simple. I wax a road trip with my scifi loving husband and listening to bits a piece of this series on Audible. That's how I fell in love with the character Skippy. I think he really adds the much needed comic relief this book needed to bring home all the elements of a truly entertaining story. When my husband told me about this book series he said I'd love it because Skippy is just like Bob from The Dresden Files but an AI instead of spirit. And that got my attention piqued, cuz, in my opinion, The Dresden Files is the absolute best urban fantasy series out there. And Bob is definitely a favorite among many, many great unique characters. And Expeditionary Force: Columbus Day did not disappoint. When I picked it up, I originally I would be just reading it for Skippy, because that bits I'd heard with Skippy while on road trips liking to the audio book were hilarious. But, much to my surprise, I found myself enjoying the book right from the beginning. And that is factoring that Skipoy doesn't even show up until around the middle of the book. It doesn't bog you with to much nerdy scifi tech talk. The story is a great easy read right from the start with Joe being a really relatable, easy to like character. And right about when the book could srguable have died from the story stagnating from repeating themes the author expertly and suddenly takes the story on a dramatic 90° turn with the entrance of Skippy. At this point, Skippy could have easily taken over the story if it weren't for Joe's ability to ground Skippy's ego more the realms of us hairless monkey's idea of reality. The two play off of each other so well it's almost like a expertly choreographed dance. Bottom line, it's a very entertaining book to read and I highly reccomend it. And if you're more of a magic or Dersden Files fan then I think you will enjoy this book too.

I enjoyed this book very much. Skippy is my absolute favorite character, and he really added an excellent humor element to this story! The book had a good plot and well written characters. It was interesting throughout! Excited to read what happens next.

This is a simply outstanding series. I am very glad that I discovered it AFTER he wrote four books so that I wouldn't go into serious withdrawal issues upon completing Columbus Day. It's original, clever, funny, and a real delight. You have an ordinary Joe who just wants to serve his country and go home, but he finds himself in the middle of an interplanetary invasion by...hamsters. Yes, the aliens are similar to bipedal hamsters. Alanson had me right there. Hamsters? He gets a scratch team together and manages to capture two aliens. He treats them well and turns them over to the authorities, figures that's the end of it. The war goes on, and another alien army shows up. They conquer the hamsters and seem to enlist Earth as an ally. They're lizards, and you know you just can't trust lizards. Earth sends military forces out with the lizard ships, ostensibly to be trained and used in the war against the hamsters, but they end up on the hamster planet as occupation forces. Joe is semi-famous for capturing hamsters on Earth, but here he's considered trouble, and the plan is to station him at a remote area where he can't make more trouble. He befriends a hamster official who turns out to be in charge of the hamster government, and learns a lot more about their supposed allies, the lizards. They aren't allies...just slave labor in training for the lizard overlords. Yet another alien nation is participating in this messy war, but they're mainly support and transport. They don't get into the messy stuff, just deliver lizard ships and supplies. You can't tell the players without a score card in this interstellar war zone, and Joe realizes humanity has been duped into helping the equivalent of space Nazis in their regime. He tries to get the information to the decision-makers, only to discover that he's in more trouble...and then in jail, awaiting execution. He's locked in a makeshift cell with some stuff stored in it, and there he finds an ancient alien Artificial Intelligence unit who is millions of years old, knows everything, and is bored out of his little metal gourd. He actually occupies a huge volume of space in another dimension, but in this one, he's manifested as something like a silver beer can with an attitude. With the help of Skippy, the AI, Joe and a few other prisoners escape and try to save themselves...and planet Earth, a wormhole away from their present location. I love this series, and in fact, went ahead and bought all four of the main books so that I could find out how this all went. There are some minor editing issues (you and your, omitted words, phrases that were "test-driven" and not used, which should have been removed. The story is good enough that I'll put up with that stuff just to find out what happens to our merry band of space pirates next. After all, that's what they are. Pirates operating under the guidance of an ancient intelligence who can manipulate computer systems, wormholes, and so much more, particularly with the help of the "monkeys," his term for humans.

Simpatica la premessa (non originale, ma simpatica) ... però rapidamente la storia si trasforma in una space opera degna AL PIU' degli anni '50, compelta di mito superomistico (più per caso che per capacità) ... e sinceramente ci vuole uno stile di parecchio migliore per reggere una storia così nel 2016 ... forse carino per un quindicenne, però.

This book had me captivated after the first 5 chapters. If you're a fan of sci-fi and black ops you'll love this. Sit back and enjoy the adventures. In my opinion the book is well written; the author does a great job with pacing and story telling. You'll find yourself wanting to find out more about the next chapter as the story develops. The characters all have different personalities and you'll quickly become invested in their individual stories and fight for survival. If you're not a big reader, give the audiobook a try. Its an excellent listen. I'll definitely be buying the full collection

I'll only comment the first book of the series, but this is valid for the whole series (eight books, some spin offs and at least one more in the oven): It's plainly addictive basic adventures-in-space scifi, full of action, cliffhangers (pretty well resolved ones, by the way) and well-placed flashes of humour. It's true that you should not expect here any hard science facts , but the universe depicted has that coherence of functioning that you don't find so easily. The tapestry of alien races, each one with their own motives and each one with some individual characters is extremely well done. Mr. Alanson has the knack of describing characters that *are interesting*, that is: after some pages you really care for what is going to happen to a lot of them. And the action of the plot is a freight train on the loose. It's true as well that some lines of the plot are repetitive, with the same characters making similar things, but it is son neatly done that you not only don't care, but you do expect it to be resolved thus. I am really expecting book number 9 and I thank Mr. alanson for the very good moments he has given me with all of them. That said, I too think Joe should get laid more.

This gets even better when the AI appears. I have listened to 14 of these books and decided to buy this one.

Interesting universe but a bit simplistic in some ways.