Homefront: An Expeditionary Force Audio Drama Special

Expeditionary Force, Book 7.5

By: Craig Alanson

Narrated by: Zachary Quinto, R.C. Bray, Kate Mulgrew, Robert Picardo, Peter Berkrot, full cast

A full-cast performance of a thrilling new episode in the New York Times best-selling Expeditionary Force series.

After the latest mission of the starship Flying Dutchman, Earth is safe not just for a year, but for hundreds of years. The ship’s weary crew wonders what they will do with their lives in peacetime, but the enemy has other plans, and there is danger on the Homefront.

Starring Zachary Quinto, R.C. Bray, Kate Mulgrew, Robert Picardo, and everyone's favorite AI, Skippy the Magnificent, alongside a full cast. Includes plenty of pew-pew-pew, original sound composition, and maybe some singing by R.C. Bray.

Produced by Odd Origin Media and Dagaz Media

Executive Producer Greg Lawrence

Story by Craig Alanson

Script by Craig Alanson and Jack Bowman

Talent Director William Dufris

Sound Director Fred Greenhalgh

Associate Producer Casey Turner

Dialogue edited by Jack Bowman

Sound design by Jamie Mahaffey/The Mix Room and O'Shea Creative Media

Music by Jeroen Grommen

Check out exclusive bonus content at homefrontaudio.com.

Full cast includes: Zachary Quinto, R.C. Bray, Kate Mulgrew, Robert Picardo, Peter Berkrot, Kym Dakin, Bill Dufris, Corey Gagne, Nimo Gandhi, Emily Grotz, Dalton S. Kimball, Austin Ku, Daniel Logan, John Dalton Logan, PJ Ochlan, Lisa Renee Pitts, Christopher Price, Michael Rafkin, Lisa Stathoplos, Casey Turner, Jennywren Walker, Marjolaine Whittlesey, Ashanti Williams, Jonathan Woodward, and Collin Young.

©2019 Craig Alanson (P)2019 Podium Audio

Great effort with potential, not the best executed

There are many who are confused by this, so I feel I have to break it down, Barney style. Let's first start with the fact that this isn't an audiobook. It's a drama special. If you go into this with the understanding that this is more like a radio drama and not a book being read to you, then you would be correct. Not sure why some monkeys are having a hard time understanding that this isn't a book, but there you go.

The Good: Well, it's another ExForce story, and R.C. Bray is involved. If you've made it all the way up to this point of the series, you already know generally what to expect. If you thought this would be a great jumping on point for this series, you'd be seriously mistaken. Also, Podium is trying out something new with this audio drama. We have to given them credit for that. I think generally their work show promise, and would consider listening to their future audio dramas if it lines up with my interests.

The Bad: To be fair, some of the audio choices weren't the best. Especially at the beginning, some of the background audio was distracting music where is should (in my opinion) have been more ambiance noise. That seemed to thankfully taper down as the drama moved forward, but then pops up jarringly a few times later. Also, the over-dramatic voice work to emphasize action was ... well, over-dramatic.

The Meh: I guess I have to say this... I don't think they used all the guest actors to their full potential. I think the work that Zachary Quinto did was good. Kate Mulgrew was a daring choice for Nagatha, but with little voice change, it didn't pay off for me. It sounded too much like Captain Janeway, not like an old British woman... er, AI. The voice actor playing Smythe didn't quite do it for me. And Adams, while I think cast well, doesn't giggle as much as portrayed I think.

When I go through the series again, I'll listen to it. It wasn't offensive, but it wasn't the best. Will I go out of my way to specifically listen to this? Not likely. This was decent enough, any my six hours weren't wasted.

Overproduced

I have loved all of the books in this series and RC Bray has been amazing, which allowed me to develop the characters in my head. Unfortunately, I wasn’t really impresses with the format of this selection. It seemed like a lot of the detail was lost for me with all of the production sound effects and extra voices. Hoping that they go back to just Bray for the next one.

Yikes

Really proud that I powered through and finished this one. The cringe-worthy writing and production made me give up a couple of times, but in the end, I'm glad I finished it.
ExForce neophytes should probably skip(py) this lemon in an otherwise enjoyable (if a bit repetitive) series. I look forward to the story returning to its regular format and forgoing all the "special" effects and voice "talent". (Sorry voice actors, I know this wasn't your fault!)

Good lead up

Enjoyed the story a lot. All the narrators did a good job. Was an excellent lead up to the next full length novel.

I mean, buy it - but expect to be frustrated

it's a good story but the inconsistent volume, the tinny sound and SOME unconvincing performances (I'm looking at you, Gunny) will make this just BARELY a buy for me, and I'm pretty tolerant. rc bray will pull you through it, but even the mighty combination of rc and alanson...can only do so much.