Author: Craig Alanson
Series: Expeditionary Force 5
Genres: Sci-Fi, Military Fiction
Publisher: Independently published
Release: 2017 November 17th
Source: Audiobook
Pages: 494
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BLURB:
United Nations Special Operations Command sent an elite Expeditionary Force of soldiers and pilots out on a simple recon mission, and somehow along the way they sparked an alien civil war. Now the not-at-all-Merry Band of Pirates is in desperate trouble, again. Their stolen alien starship is falling apart, thousands of lightyears from home. The ancient alien AI they nicknamed ‘Skippy’ is apparently dead, and even if they can by some miracle revive him, he might never be the same.
EXPECTATIONS: I was expecting a survival story, and some wicked return of the Skippy the Magnificent. But there was no time to think more on it. I started reading right away.
THE WORLD: In the few days that Skippy was gone, humans realized full well that there's no chance they'll ever survive in the space on their own, let alone do such an incredible feat as return to Earth. And even after Skippy returned, their hopes didn't go above mere elongation of survival time. All of their efforts were taken up in exploration of deeper space and far more dangerous places than any they visited before. It's time they visit one of the Elder planets, with hopes they left anything usable for Skippy there. And... Well, as little of dangerous things as possible. Which, of course, knowing their luck, wasn't the case. If I'm honest, I kept thinking of depths in Aurora, Subnautica video game all the time.
CHARACTERS: Joe broke my heart. At one point, just before Skippy returning, he started crying his heart out, and I just felt devastated. Any character that makes you feel for them is a well written character, I think. Other than that, no one's dead. Yet. Merry Band of Pirates is trying to keep the morals up, Joe Bishop is doing all he can to keep Skippy in his sight and help him, coming up with the most wicked plans of all time. And Skippy? Skippy is literally on the verge of dying, to a point where sometimes he overloads so hard, his behavior seems... Off. Sort of as if you got an AI high. It's funny until you remember why it happened and just in how much danger this poor little a-hole of an AI really is.
ROMANCE: Nada.
GOOD: This was the most intense book of them all so far. They're racing time, because Zero Hour literally means that, Zero Hour, when Skippy expires, using up the remainders of his energy fighting off the worm and trying to keep his human friends alive. To whom he now sees no problems in admitting: they really are his friends, the only ones. On top of that, of course, there were hilarious scenes, and Joe went on these random rants now and again that made me cry laughing, because it was so out of the blue, and almost out of the character, it's brilliant.
BAD: Nope.
OVERALL: I LOVED this book. Gosh it was good. It kept me on the edge of the chair, had me laughing, and had me scared. I never rooted for people the way I rooted for them now, well... Maybe with exception of Watney from Martian. But, really, this is the best sci-fi I read in ages. I never knew it can be this intense and this funny at the same time.
What do you think about ZERO HOUR?
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