Mavericks

Expeditionary Force, Book 6

By: Craig Alanson

Narrated by: R.C. Bray

Length: 17 hrs and 21 mins

Publisher's summary

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

Trouble on Paradise pt. II

I think most fans agree that the true magic of this series is the Joe/Skippy dynamic. This book has relatively little of that. It rates a solid, "Meh". Save your credit.

Alanson teases, and then pulls a 3.5

This book is like 3.5 except that he listened to fans and made it a proper length book. The characters are fine and the story is interesting enough, but my issue with this installment (and it's a big one), is that he teases one of the most awesome and game changing elements in the series and then goes off to characters that AREN'T the Merry Band. It's just...painful knowing that we could be listening to THE most action packed and exciting chapter, only to have an adequate story forced on us instead.

A couple chapters of Skippy

I don't know about you, but I'm really only interested in the story revolving around the magnificent beer can. I don't really care about the refugees on Paradise and their attempts to prove to the hamsters how valuable they are. You can bypass this story and be fine.

Tricked by the sample audio into wasting a credit.

Hey! Joe and Skippy are back! As far as you know. Kidding! They're hardly there at all! But the audio sample got your credit! Psyche! It's nearly all about the Paradise team. Again. After dinging customers for a credit for a half book pretending to be a whole one, all with no Skippy or Joe in "Paradise," I'm beginning to think this author is a jerk as he nearly does it again, but at least with a whole book. Here's what I'm saying, though: Remember when you watched the first Matrix movie, and kept waiting for the sequels to do the first movie justice, but in the end you just wasted money on tickets for a long winded, crappy, confused ending that had lost track of its plot and it's characters? See where I'm going with this?

Bait and switch?

This is like going to watch a star wars movie, expecting to see Luke and Han, but end up seeing jar jar. Love the series up to this point..

This one fell wwaaayyy short

I love the Skippy and Joe parts, but they had little to do with this one. Perkins team was 75%. Hate to say but I'm thinking of just returning this.

least favorite of the series

Love this series but this book fell short of expectations! R C killed it as always!!! wish we would have had more Joe, Skippy and the Pirates and less of the others. I understand why he did it and i enjoyed it... can't wait for more

Pointless side story.

I was looking forward for so long for next book, hoping it was a continuation on the main story. Instead all we got was this filler book.

SIDE STORY 5.6

Whyyyyy, I've been waiting so long for this book and it's a bloody side story! truly disappointed.

It’s a side story

It’s a side story. It starts off with the merry band and then veers. It should be a expeditionary force universe book not book 6

A Skippy Shandy?

Six books in and still going strong but this isn't going to make everyone happy. The thing that makes theses stories really pop is of course Colonel Joe and Skippy the inter-galactic beer can. Their banter and zany problem solving are the heartbeat of these books and it starts off with a classic example of just that. However, they then take a back seat for more than half of the book as we turn back to follow the characters back on Paradise as they set up a situation requiring more of that Skippy awesomeness! So, it's not quite full strength Skippy, more of a Skippy Shandy!

I still think it's quality stuff and there's still plenty of humour, action and hi-jinx in that side adventure but if you're expecting another seventeen hours of the Joe & Skippy show then you aren't going to quite get it. They do turn up again in their usual inimitable style for a few hours at the end of the book and are as good as ever. For me personally, it works very well and the Paradise characters are strong enough to hold a story though they may lack a little in star quality in comparison.

RC Bray, I must admit I give up now finding new ways to describe his awesomeness, maybe I can just say he is the Skippy of the narration world. I can't help but imagine a broad grin crossing his face as he gets one of these to read because he really throws himself into them and gives every impression of enjoying his task in bringing them to us.

So, I'm a happy camper and enjoyed this thoroughly but it does come with the warning that Joe and Skippy don't feature quite so prominently as before. I liked the change of style, incredibly this is the sixth of these books, or seventh if you count the novella that was Trouble on Paradise, to appear in under two years and they aren't exactly short books. Perhaps a bit of variety isn't a bad thing especially as the side stories still have plenty of Alanson's trademark style about them but overall satisfaction levels with this one are going to vary.

huge let down

love the whole set of Expeditionary Force books for one main reason..Col Joe and skippy both where for the most part lacking in this story and we hear the story from characters that tho deep and all well written with distinct personalities are not what the series was built on and for that reason really lost its charm on this last one

Not the best

Fantastic series, but this book didn't live up to the series so far, it should have been book 5.5. Also some of the plots are getting more extreme, they don't have to worst then a previous problems solved just different

How come I feel like I have been mis-sold

I have listened to all these books and like any other sci fi fan in the audible world, listened to many others aswell. As a book stands, it is "ok". That's all I can say.. To continue a series this long, there has to be continual plot developments. I completely understand it, however this book is another "paradise" crew book, more or less dumping off the main characters at the start, only to revisit waaaayyyy into the book.

To be a spoilt child, I am interested in the story and characters that have been the main part of the entire series. You don't have to jump away from them. "The Expanse" series manages to maintain it's process without jumping ship, so to speak.

Also - I'm simply not convinced on a lot of the Audible review and their legitimacy . Simple comments made int he one liner posts do not indicate that it has actually been read.

Repetitive and also repeats a lot

If you've been enjoying this series but stared to feel it was becoming repetitive then this entry will greatly disappoint you.

This is easily the least consequential and most padded part of the series and there really is nothing new here. You've already heard everything that happens before, often several times.

Even within itself it's repetitive. Entire conversations are repeated, characters keep wanting to use a nickname for a ship or species and keep remarking on it over and over.

As others have mentioned this is basically book 5.5 since it focuses on the Paradise crew. It's not a particularly good Paradise story though because it's essentially the same story again and little has changed in terms of status quo. Despite the events of the last story the humans still need to prove themselves and only that one small band of humans are capable of doing it.

The only upside I can offer is there is some amount of Jeraptha content in this and they're my favourite alien species in this universe. If the author wants to branch out and tell more stories just go with them because they're far more interesting than the Paradise humans.

50/50

A bit more repetitive than the last few books. A lot of filler content to bulk out only a few story points. This book felt hollow compared to previous books. The pace and delivery are superb though.
but I feel that about 30% of the book could have been edited down or out, without loosing anything vital.

Good if you have read the rest of the series, but not the best of the series.

the best series in the universe!

the best series in the universe. can't wait to listen to the next one. might re listen to the series from the beginning in the meantime

An absolutely brilliant story once again!

I love hearing the adventures of Joe, Skippy and the Merry Band of Pirates! This story sticks with a trend of excellent storytelling, a great performance by RC Bray and intriguing plotlines that I can't wait to see what happens next with!

A breath of fresh air!

Not sure why this book is getting so many mixed reviews, or complaints about the Paradise group, for me they are just as important to the story overall and give a sometimes well needed break from the now tedious back and forth conversations between Joe and Skippy that result in monkey brained ideas

It does repeat in places and has its share of filler but the story was pretty decent compared to other outings and brought the Paradise/Keepers/Ruhar all full circle again. Glad I gave it a listen and will look forward to the next in the series as I had had my doubts about continuing after book 5.Hopefully will get to see more from the Mavericks, their allies and generally see the different characters/stories from the universe expand beyond that of The Flying Dutchman

Series kiler

This was without a doubt the worst in the series. It really brings nothing new and barely advances the main story line of the series. How this is getting rave reviews makes me truly doubt the veracity of the system.

The main issue as I see it is that we are interested in Skippy, Joe, the shenanigans of the Merry Band of Pirates, the Elders and the intergalactic politics of the other species. But we get sidelined with a story no one cares about on Paradise. It was dull and pretty uninspiring.

I found it repetitive, banal and a mere shadow of previous episodes. I struggled to complete it. If you have enjoyed the other books in the series (as I did) brace yourself, this isn't as good as the others, but you might find something in here you like, but be prepared to hate it.