Terminal Alliance

Janitors of the Post-Apocalypse Series, Book 1

By: Jim C. Hines

Narrated by: Rebecca Mitchell

Length: 12 hrs and 8 mins

Publisher's summary

The Krakau came to Earth to invite humanity into a growing alliance of sentient species. However, they happened to arrive after a mutated plague wiped out half the planet, turned the rest into shambling, near-unstoppable animals, and basically destroyed human civilization. You know - your standard apocalypse.

The Krakau's first impulse was to turn around and go home. Their second impulse was to try to fix us. Now, a century later, human beings might not be what they once were, but at least they're no longer trying to eat everyone. Mostly.

Marion "Mops" Adamopoulos is surprisingly bright (for a human). As a Lieutenant on the Earth Mercenary Corps Ship Pufferfish, she's in charge of the Shipboard Hygiene and Sanitation team. When a bioweapon attack wipes out the Krakau command crew and reverts the rest of the humans to their feral state, only Mops and her team are left with their minds intact.

Escaping the attacking aliens - not to mention her shambling crewmates - is only the beginning. Sure, Mops and her team of space janitors and plumbers can clean the ship as well as anyone, but flying the damn thing is another matter. As they struggle to keep the Pufferfish functioning and find a cure for their crew, they stumble onto a conspiracy that could threaten the entire alliance....

©2017 Jim C. Hines (P)2017 Tantor

Terrible Performance!

This is a good book. It is entertaining and funny without being silly. But the stilted monotone of the reader makes it a genuine slog.

A Splendid Start!

I was leery of this book. You see, I like funny scifi books, so this one sounded right up my alley. However, I dropped Hines’s Magic ex Libris series after the second book because it had a great concept but a mediocre execution. I am happy to say that this book had both a nice concept and good execution.

Earth has been turned into a planet of (effectively) zombies and was on its way to extinction when some friendly aliens came along and figured out how to make these “ferals” sentient again and introduce them to the stars. The effect of this is that humans are now subservient employees to their saviors and also the most feared soldiers in the galaxy thanks to how hard they are to kill. See? As I said, it’s a great concept. I love that for once humans aren’t the weakest, plucky race in space. Soooo what happens when all the humans except the janitors on a warship revert to their flesh-eating state and murder the aliens onboard? Well, you get a crew of janitors trying to fly a starship and not get killed by literally everything else.

It’s pretty great. Similar to the Bobiverse series, if you are familiar with it, this author took a relatively realistic approach. No one knows how to do the highly technical things and they often make things worse - much to hilarious results. The story flows well and nothing feels like it came out of nowhere. Additionally, while this is a series, this book is isolated on its own with a satisfying ending.

So yeah, I recommend this book to anyone who likes humorous or light-hearted scifi.

One note reading makes this fall a little flat

I feel like if I had read this I would have enjoyed it more. The narrator reads like she's going through the dictionary. The author was trying to tell jokes and keep the tone light but Rebecca Mitchell just kept plodding along like she'd never heard a joke in her life. Voice differences between characters were very subtle too. I made it all the way through though and the book was decent. Not sure I want to go to the next when the narrator is still Rebecca.

Good plot and characters

This was a bit predictable but had some fun twists. Well written characters. An overall good listen.

Narrator drags this book down!

While the story plot is not bad, the character development is diminished by the Audio Reader. She has a droning inflection and lack of energizing differentiated character emotives in her voice. Thus, my mind drifted off and I missed a lot of meat of book in my daze. I am going to have to pay more attention to book audio samples to get a prior feel of the Narrator before spending money on a purchase again.

Get dramatized

I'm might be unfair but it's hard to pay attention to this reader. She's new? Distracts from story.

Don’t bother

The story line in minimal & boring.

Most of the time, the reeder sounds like a robot.

Fun and Funny Scifi Adventure!

I have thoroughly enjoyed the first installment of the "Janitors of the Post Apocalypse" series! The entire concept is absolutely hilarious and the wordlbuilding is 'Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets' level of weird and fantastic. The performance is really good during the dramatic moments and the actor does great with a variety of different voices, but I did feel some of the humor fell a little flat. Definitely not a dealbreaker for me, but I may read the book as well to get the full, humorous effect.

Overall, looking forward to the next book!

Hines' best yet!

love it, the stories, characters and setting are all three dimensional and feel lived in. The narrator is a bit flat, but not enough to negatively impact the book.

Humorous and entertaining.

The plot is clever and unexpected. The absurd idea of janitorial staff running a spaceship becomes believable in an odd mix of knowledge and function. I am hooked.
The reader is very good, in spite of comments to the contrary. Clear pronunciation made it easy to follow. I often struggle with soft voices and thick accents. There was none of that here. I had no trouble identifying the speaker.
Overall, a delightful space opera with a light touch. I can"t wait to see what happens next.