Audible Book Review: Black Ops, Expeditionary Force, Book 4, by Craig Alanson

I enjoyed this episode in this fav series.
Black Ops Expeditionary Force, Book 4
By: Craig Alanson
Narrated by: R. C. Bray

Series: Expeditionary Force, Book 4
Length: 16 hrs and 44 mins
Release date: 09-26-17
Publisher: Podium Audio
Genre: Military Science Fiction, Space Opera
My Rating: 4.5 of 5.0 Overall; Story 4.5; Narration 5.0.

Publisher's Summary
The elite crew of the pirate ship UNS Flying Dutchman had a simple mission: determining whether the Thuranin are sending another starship to Earth. Along the way, they became sidetracked by securing a future for the UNEF troops on the planet Paradise. When asked whether Earth was now safe, their ancient alien AI responded "Not so much"...now they have to deal with the consequences.
©2017 Craig Alanson (P)2017 Podium Publishing.

Review:
Colonel Joe Bishop and the crew of the stolen, therefore pirate, ship UNS Flying Dutchman are hiding out in space, where the human species is supposed to have no presence unless under the control of one of the alien species. The Dutchman has been tasked to spy out whether there are any imminent threats to their home planet, Earth. Skippy, the alien AI shaped like a beer can who was rescued by Joe, has intercepted messages indicating that one of the alien enemy forces is negotiating to send another alien force to Earth. Now the less technically minded humans (‘monkeys’ as Skippy calls them) have to find a way to prevent the negotiations from going any further.

This mission, like all of their missions, needs some improbable but remarkably doable human planning, a bit of luck, and – mostly – the awesomeness of Skippy the alien AI. Things get dicey when Skippy investigates a dead Elder cylinder like his own and goes silent. The humans don’t have the knowledge to even maintain the ship they are on, much less use the worm holes properly to navigate stealthily in space. Skippy ‘created’ another AI to help monitor events, but he failed to program Nagatha (named for Agatha Christi and a particularly annoying trait of the new AI) on maintaining the ship so her help is limited.

As with the previous books, a big part of the fun of this series is the sarcastic banter between Skippy and Joe. The new character of Nagatha adds another element of amusement. This episode develops a few crew members more deeply while also continuing with several previously highlighted characters.

I totally love the action and the fun dialog. There is always suspense with each mission and I enjoy the creative and sometimes rather zany solutions that the lowly humans come up with to complete each step of the mission. There are expected and sad losses but the tension really increases when Skippy isn’t available to work his awesome ‘magic’. I am glad I have the book 5 in my library so I can pull it forward in a month or so to continue the adventures.

There is a strong friendship, love/hate relationship between Joe and Skippy. Any reader who is offended by belittling banter may not enjoy their barbs. However, there is a particularly moving sequence where Skippy acknowledges the creative illogic of the human species. I recommend this fun series to fans of military space opera (sans any romance).

Audio Notes: This series as narrated by R. C. Bray is a delight to listen to. He conveys the snarky Skippy personality, complete with arrogance, eye rolls, and head slaps. He provides a fun female voice for Nagatha, and delivers the human and alien characters with distinct voices. I plan to continue to listen for the best enjoyment of this series.

Source: 3/8/2020 Two For One Credit Sale at Audible. This qualifies for 2021TBR, 2021Audiobook and 2021Alphabet goals.

Prior book reviews:
Columbus Day (Expeditionary Force, #1) by Craig Alanson
Audible Book Review: Spec Ops, Expeditionary Force, Book 2 by Craig Alanson
Audible Book Review: Paradise, Expeditionary Force, Book 3 by Craig Alanson