Mavericks

Expeditionary Force, Book 6

By: Craig Alanson

Narrated by: R.C. Bray

The remnants of the Expeditionary Force stranded on the alien-controlled planet "Paradise" get a chance to prove themselves, in a simple off-world training mission with a ship full of teenage alien cadets.

When the mission goes horribly wrong and the survival of everyone on Paradise is at risk, the Merry Band of Pirates may have to come to the rescue. Unless they get killed first....

©2018 Craig Alanson (P)2018 Podium Publishing

Too much of the book dedicated to the Mavericks

I like these books because of Joe and Skippy, I get crazy bored when they switch to the Mavericks story line.

Not the best in the series, but still fun.

This book feels less of an Expeditionary Force book and more of a transition piece for his spin-off series. Still, it is a good read (listen?), it just felt flat to me.

Go to Ch 24 to skip side story

Story takes hard left turn to side plot for far too long in my opinion. I was so uninterested in those characters that I took a 3 month hiatus from the book until Renegades released and I doubled down to find where they get back to the main characters. Ch 24 picks back up with Skippy and Joe.

Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner!

Josh here

What is there that I can say about this series that hasn't been said up until this point? This is easily in my top three favorite space operas and Craig still manages to surprise me with the level of detail he goes into with developing the story. Skippy, Gunny, COL Joe, Chotek, Major Smythe, every one of the Merry Band of Pirates brings me great joy with every tale I get to listen to from this wonderful series.

I am going to keep this review short but just know that if you've made it this far in the series, and hopefully you are enjoying the narrated version performed by R.C. Bray, you are in for a continued treat with this one. Irnt was easily my favorite Jeraptha and we got to experience a lot more Nert goodness with this entry.

An easy 5/5.

A nice return to the group on Paradise

I've rated this book higher than the last couple, mostly because it was good to have a change of pace. The book opens and closes with the adventures of Bishop, Skippy, and the Merry Band of Pirates. However, the of the middle gives us a return to Lt. Col Perkins and her group that were the focus of the half book 3.5 "Trouble on Paradise"

I must admit, I like this group of characters. It was interesting getting to see what's going on in the universe outside of the Flying Dutchman, particularly without Skippy there to Deus Ex the shit out of what ever idea Bishop comes up with to save the day seventy five times a book.

We get some more world building interacting with more Ruhar and their wager on anything patrons, the Juraptha. I find the societies that Alanson has created for these two, especially the Juraptha, to be interesting and entertaining.

Though, while this one ranks higher that previous ones overall, it does come to a weak ending for the setup to the next book. It looks like once again, we're just going to be leveling up the difficulty of the next alien challenge, rather that getting closer to understanding the great mysteries that have been building for the last several million years going back to the ancients.