Author: Craig Alanson
Series: Expeditionary Force 3
Genres: Sci-Fi, Military Fiction
Publisher: Independently published
Release: 2017 October 29th
Source: Audiobook
Pages: 283
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BLURB:
While the crew of the starship Flying Dutchman have been trying assure hostile aliens do not have access to Earth, the UN Expeditionary Force has been trapped on the planet they nicknamed 'Paradise'. The Flying Dutchman is headed back out on another mission, and the UN wants the ship to find out the status of the humans on Paradise. But Colonel Joe Bishop warns that they might not like what they find, and they can't do anything about it without endangering Earth.
EXPECTATIONS: At this point, having loved two books, I didn't know what to expect. Adventures, I guess. Reasonably so too, since Skippy still needed answers or other artifacts like himself to figure out his purpose or reason for having been left behind.
THE WORLD: The book is split between two views. One being the Flying Dutchman and the Merry Band of Pirates, as the folk on it dubbed themselves. They're training as hard as they can in hopes, that once Skippy finishes his quest, they'll be able to take this ship back to Earth. In other words, they hope to survive. Much like the other half: those who are trapped on the planet they previously called Paradise. Now it's a jail if not an outright death-trap. They do their best to survive, plant crops, raise animals, but soon hardship takes a toll on all of their morals. They split into two groups, those who still believe in the enemy, and those who witnessed their brutality first-hand. The beauty of the alien planet turns bland at the face of intergalactic war that now involves humans too.
CHARACTERS: Joe Bishop, Skippy the Magnificent and Merry Band of Pirates, consisting out of all kinds of figures from all over the Earth, are still our main heroes. But in this book some new folk get introduced, rebels among the aliens, and rebels among humans, secretly united against the common enemy. Honestly, none of them left any serious impression on me, and the only few I could still enjoy were the original two.
ROMANCE: Yep, you got it. There's none.
GOOD: The whole back and forth between those who try to survive, and those who try to help was interesting. Skippy showed some incredible tricks and Joe had his time to shine too. That latter one led to the good old funny banter too! Clever unlikely-to-work plans for the win.
BAD: It got really repetitive real soon into the book. There's plan A, and you can already except it'll fail. Then there's plan B. By the end of the book characters themselves joked that their plan B should just be re-dubbed plan A, and they should just skip the first one. The whole shebang on Paradise wasn't very fun to read either. I mean, it's great author didn't leave a plot hole and gave those who didn't escape - purpose, but that, at best, was mediocre read.
OVERALL: Right, so this one was not so good. Worst part, I already forgot all the names of all the characters, other than the people on Flying Dutchman. It felt bland and left no lasting impression. All the while stuff on board was pretty awesome. To avoid spoilers, let's just say that Skippy is really capable of building actual working physical things out of good wishes and star dust. That was pretty cool.
What do you think about PARADISE?
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