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. 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. ( )

Entertaining but I'm not going to rush to read others in this series. ( )

This is a full cast audio of the story and it was great. Humans on Earth live like zombies. The Krakau found Earth like that not long after some bio engineered plague caused everyone to become a zombie. With their help some humans have been cured and they serve in a multispecies Alliance mostly as janitors or combat marines that have a short lifespan. But most of the universe see humans as dangerous and potentially stupid. After a battle the marines came back to the ship and reverted back to the zombie state killing almost all the crew except for a few janitors that were bio hazmat suits. Mops and her coworkers quickly find themselves having to take back the ship and then find out just what happened and how to stop it. By the end of the book, you find out just what happened on Earth to start the zombie outbreak and what the crew can do about it. ( )

Mops and her crew of space-janitors are dealing with a sanitation emergency aboard the starship Pufferfish when something takes out the entire rest of the crew. As the sole survivors of the attack (sort of), they must find out who attacked their ship, why, and what the grand plan is.

Science fiction too often ignores the so-called lower decks: the little guys there to do a day's work for a day's pay. But aren't their stories just as valid as the bridge crews'?

John Scalzi's Redshirts meets Tanya Huff's Confederation series in this light-hearted take on military science fiction.

4.5 stars as it did lag a bit in the middle. ( )

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. 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.**
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