Terminal Alliance

I'd never read Jim Hines before but I was in a mood for something light, so I picked this up expecting some kind of zany, "Guardians of the Galaxy" witty space romp.

What I got was a five star SF read. This is a funny, fast-paced, witty and original novel that also has a clever and quite serious plot.

The story takes place in a universe where most humans have been turned feral by a zombie plague from which 10,000 or so have been rescued by an alien race who now use them as a military force. The post-plague humans are hard to kill, aggressive and loyal. For the aliens, it's a great deal.

The janitors of the title humans who keep the warship clean and plumbing functioning, albeit that their leader, nicknamed mops, is occasionally consulted show more by the humans in battle command because she has good strategic insights and keeps a cool head.

When the warship gets caught in a trap that kills the alien officers and turns most of the humans feral again, it's left to Mops and her crew to find out what happened and save the universe, or at least humanity.

The pace is fast. The humour is irresistible. Yet this is not a shallow book. The universe-building is robust and complex. The characters, including the alien characters, are believable and engaging. The plot stands up against more mainstream SF and contains a big, skillfully revealed, secret. Best of all, Mops turns out to be a giant amongst humans: a natural leader, a shrewd tactician, an insatiable reader (Jane Austin's and Mary Shelley's works have survived the holocaust), quietly brave and always witty.

What more could I want?

The book works as a standalone novel but sets up the sequel, "Terminal Uprising" beautifully. It comes out in February 2019 and I'd have already pre-ordered it except Amazon want to gouge me for a you-cannot-be-serious $18.42 for the privilege. I figure time is on my side.

Amazon pricing policy to one side, I highly recommend this book to anyone with who loves SF and has a sense of humour. show less

Terminal Alliance by Jim C. Hines is the hilariously entertaining first entry in the new military Sci-Fi series, Janitors of the Post-Apocalypse.

A mysterious plague has wiped out much of Earth’s population and left the rest of humanity in a feral state. The alien Krakau have come to earth with a cure and an offer to invite humans into an alliance of sentient species. Humans largely serve as soldiers or, in the case of Marion “Mops” Adamopoulos, as part of the Shipboard Hygiene and Sanitation team. A bioweapon attack reverts most of the crew of the Pufferfish back to a feral state. Mops and her team are spared, but now they must regain control of their ship, avoid hostile aliens and find a cure for their feral crewmates. In the show more middle of their efforts, they discover that what they know of Earth history may not be entirely correct. And the truth could have serious consequences.

Terminal Alliance is first and foremost an excellent adventure story. It is aided by strong and likeable characters from Mops and her janitorial team, Monroe, Kumar, and Wolf, to the alien Glacidae, Gromgimsidalgak (Grom for short) and others they meet along the way. Mops follows clues that lead her team to different systems around the galaxy, relying on her own intelligence as well her and her team’s very particularized knowledge and skills regarding sanitation systems. Her efforts lead to answers, if not the ones she was expecting.

One of the best things about this book is the way Hines uses skills that these characters would reasonably know to problem solve, rather than having them suddenly becoming soldiers. Brief chapter introductions shine a light on early Krakau/Human relations, including naming conventions and false starts at attempts to translate and communicate that result in gems such as “We come in harmony to defenestrate your dingo”. This and other laugh out loud lines throughout the book keep the mood light. Even with the humor though, the action never slacks and the story moves along quickly to a fast-paced conclusion that nicely wraps up the book while setting the stage for continued adventures in this universe.

Terminal Alliance is fun from page one. I love these characters and I can’t wait to spend more time with them. One of the best new series of the year. Highly recommended.

I was fortunate to receive an advance copy from the publisher. show less

Terminal Alliance is Jim C. Hines' first foray into the field of space opera and I loved it. His previous form has run strongly on the side of the humorous and ridiculous – and with Terminal Alliance both of these elements of his writing and personality are strongly on display. However, although Terminal Alliance is quite a silly book, it is also a clever space opera surprisingly more in line with the works of John Scalzi and Elizabeth Moon than the zany critiques of bureaucratic corporations found in the works of the great Douglas Adams (although, there are still some similarities to the great sci-fi parody master here). And while Hines laces his story in humor, the themes of Terminal Alliance, in many ways, are quite serious. show more Terminal Alliance is a story about the nature of racism and the erasure of history. And is a story about fighting for justice.

So what's the story? In a nutshell: A virus has decimated earth, leaving the humans mindless feral beasts (they basically become zombified). Magnanimously, an alien race called the Krakau, who are part of the Alliance, managed to keep ten thousand humans alive. As humans are hardy and eat pretty much anything, they are useful for all the dirty military jobs nobody else in the Alliance wants. But the Krakau, in saving humanity, has also completely rewritten human history and language.

We find our misfit heroes in janitorial positions among on starship EMCS Pufferfish. This crew is out in space, wearing their containment suits as they clean up yet another disgusting mess, when the cruiser abruptly goes silent, and when they get back inside, they discover their human shipmates gone feral-zombie, and the Krakau officers dead. Being left in charge, they decide to investigate this bioweapon attack and they soon discover that the history they were told about Earth was not all they were lead to believe...

Terminal Alliance host a cast of highly original cast of extraterrestrials and re-created humans I've ever encountered. From Mops, the lieutenant in charge, and her typical misfit crew: a tough ex-infantryman named Marilyn Monroe (HAHAHA), a gun-ho sanitation tech named Wolf who is super bloodthirsty but also pretty much incompetent, Kumar, the nerdy rule follower, and Grom, who isn't human at all, but Glicidae, a kind of gigantic centipede, who is also a nerd addicted to video games.

This is a pretty remarkable space opera one that begs for a reread in the near future as it is filled with plots within plots and mad machinations, and really fun world building. I look forward to the next book within the series.

For fans of: John Scalzi, Douglas Adams, Elizabeth Moon, James S.A. Corey. show less

A plague on Earth killed most of humanity, leaving the survivors feral. Feral humans are incredibly dangerous. An Alien species, the Krakau, had planned to invite humanity to join an alliance with other sentient alien species. But after the plague decimated Earth, the Krakau decided to save the human race from their new feral existence instead. The Krakau can give humans "rebirth", returning them to normal, but it is rumored that injury or severe stress can sometimes make humans revert to feral behavior. Reborn humans serve in the Earth Mercinary Corps (EMC). Reborn humans make great mercenaries because they are strong, resistant to most diseases, and recover quickly from injury. Reborn humans are the crew for the EMCS Pufferfish. show more Humans do the grunt work for the Krakau Command Crew, who controls the vessel. Following a battle with enemy vessels, a bioweapon kills the Kraukau commanders and reverts the human crew members to shambling, dangerous ferals. The only humans not effected are members of a janitorial crew who are wearing protective suits to clean up a sewage spill. They go from cleaning up the poo to being chin deep in it. And their leader, Marion "Mops" Adamopoulos, suddenly finds herself captain of the ship. Not only do they need to figure out how to fly the ship.....but they also discover some sinister secrets about the apocalypse that basically ended human civilization on Earth.

Terminal Alliance is a funny and enjoyable read. The concept is incredibly creative, and executed masterfully. I laughed out loud multiple times as the zany crew worked their way through problems and situations after being forced to take over the ship. While hilarious in many spots, the plot is actually quite complex. No spoilers from me....but there's a lot going on! Mix a bit of Red Dwarf, Star Trek and The Orville....and you get the antics on the EMCS Pufferfish. I love it when I read a book that shows such creativity and wit. It definitely put a smile on my face. Terminal Alliance is the first book I have read by Jim Hines -- I can't wait to read more!

For more information on the author and his books, check out his website: http://www.jimchines.com/

**I voluntarily read an advanced readers copy of this book from Berkley via NetGalley. All opinions expressed are entirely my own.** show less

The remnants of humanity work as military mercenaries for their alien benefactors in maintaining the Alliance. When the sanitary crew is all that remains functional, Mops and her team of 4 attempt to save the rest in the face of enemy and Alliance.
This exercise in "isn't it cute to weaponize cleaning paraphernalia—and everything else", and "aren't humans so extreme in inventive destruction" didn't strike me nearly as funny as I think it was meant to. The prose is so plodding it needs a laxative to move.

Ridiculous, but

Where normally an SF comedy would be barely coherent in an effort land every possible joke, this book held firm to the plot and actually became readable. What started as tongue in cheek became a quite robust space opera.

I will buy the next novel. Best recommendation possible.

Jim Hines really knocked it [way] out of the park with this book! His characters are always complete individuals who you fall in love with and never want to leave so it wasn’t a surprise to read such well-developed characters in “Terminal Alliance”. However, Jim’s humor, always a big part of what he writes (with the exception of some of his more serious blog posts), really shines here. There are jokes that we as the reader get but the characters can’t because they don’t know Earth history the way we do (after all, when your civilization is destroyed by an alien race and you turn into ferals and are then ‘rescued’ and taught a sanitized version of your own ‘history’ there are bound to be many (many) things that are show more misunderstood or completely distorted!). The ‘aliens’ in the book are extremely varied and, unlike in so many other sci-fi books and movies, they are, for the most part, very non-humanoid. Which I find to be refreshing! Also, there are so many shades of gray in this book. No race is completely evil. No race is completely good. Instead we are shown individuals from all the races who are just trying to do their best, as they understand it, for their own kind. And, it’s nice to see different races come together to fight the bigger bad even when they don’t really agree with each other, or even like each other that much. The story-line is about as convoluted as I imagine Jim’s head is, with sub-plot after sub-plot cropping up to keep the action going but never overwhelming the main story to the point that the reader feels lost. All in all, this is a terrificly amusing and exciting action/adventure/sci-fi/humor story that is sure to keep pretty much any reader interested and begging for the next installment! (Plus I really want to know if Vera brought her pets along! Especially Slug!) Janitors in space......leave it to Jim!! show less