The first half was in the realm of 'so bad it's good'. The second half was drivel. The character of Skippy could be the worst character ever created in any form of media. The interactions with the protagonist were excruciating. I skipped through large portions of the second half of the book. Ascendant is a trilogy, and there are three books, so, no. However, my wife loves Ascendant and when she read the last line of the third book, she looked at me and said ‘You son of a bitch’.

The first half of the novel was just a fairly ordinary tale of military conflict, except transferred to space and other planets. Little differentiated it as science fiction. Craig Alanson’s best-selling book series finds perfect audio expression thanks to award-winning narrator R.C. Bray. The audiobook version of Columbus Day – the first book in Alanson’s Expeditionary Force series – was nominated for Audiobook of the Year 2018.

TITLES FROM the SERIES

Now that the rant is over - on a micro-level, the book is cool. It has many funny moments, almost all of our favorite characters are here and at their best, and some jokes and quotes are absolute comedic gold. There is definitive progress of the storyline, the ante is upped again significantly, and there is a definitive feeling of looming ultimate galactic showdown. Skippy has definitely grown as a person, Joe has many new faces, and Captain Skorandum/Lieutenant Kinsta combo is an absolute full-time show material. Although truthfully, my dogs could write a better book than the one I read. That book set a pretty low bar. Like, a snake could not limbo under that bar. Ooh! Ooh! Will you tell us what that awful book was? Any by and large it was a fun read. The author has a witty, humorous writing style that moves the story along briskly. There were a number of moments that made me smile while reading it. There was also a particular character (Skippy!) that deserves special mention for his sheer entertainment factor. While the writing itself is nothing to write home about, as Skippy would say, the story is wonderful.

All in all I came to the conclusion that at least for this volume it broaches the not to be missed status of only the best brain candy... So from a possible 3 or 4 stars this one moves to the 5 out of 5 rating I don't often give.Unfortunately, the constant use of humor was a bit of a two edged sword. I’m all for a good bit of mindless entertainment every now and then, but this was a bit much for me. Some of the writing was over the top glib and the cheese factor was strong at times. The first half in particular was a bit of a struggle, and until we meet Skippy I thought this book was heading for a 2 star rating. Independent 'Audio-First' Entertainment Studio Releases Trailer for Audible's #1 Sci-Fi Audiobook Series: Expeditionary Force by Craig Alanson". businesswire.com. February 4, 2020 . Retrieved December 3, 2021. Glad I did. Columbus Day is fun. It's well-written. The characters are fairly standard, the aliens equally so, the plot pretty much what it says on the cover. But I liked it. It's like a cheeseburger. (One of the running jokes in this book is how much the main character, Sergeant Joe Bishop, misses cheeseburgers.) You don't expect a cheeseburger to be an innovative new taste experience. You aren't expecting a culinary experience that transcends previous cheeseburgers. But a decent cheeseburger is tasty, and a good cheeseburger can be really, really good, and this is a good cheeseburger. books. it's been 14 books building up to the appearance of true antagonists of the entire series: The Elders. The revered Elders who's existance and influence is central to the entire premise of everything that has happened, can happen and is allowed to happen in this universe. The supremely powerful and intelligent beyond comprehension Elders who transcended beyond physical reality. The Elder's for whom The Theory of Everything would be something they'd teach to infants. After buying the sequel on the 24th of February I finished reading the whole series by Mar 22. That's 14 books in a month.