Columbus Day: Expeditionary Force, Book 1 Audible Audiobook – Unabridged

Craig Alanson (Author), R.C. Bray (Narrator), Podium Audio (Publisher)

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Nominee, Audie Awards - Audiobook of the Year, 2018

We were fighting on the wrong side of a war we couldn't win. And that was the good news.

The Ruhar hit us on Columbus Day. There we were, innocently drifting along the cosmos on our little blue marble, like the native Americans in 1492. Over the horizon come ships of a technologically advanced, aggressive culture, and BAM! There go the good old days, when humans only got killed by each other. So, Columbus Day. It fits.

When the morning sky twinkled again, this time with Kristang starships jumping in to hammer the Ruhar, we thought we were saved. The UN Expeditionary Force hitched a ride on Kristang ships to fight the Ruhar, wherever our new allies thought we could be useful. So, I went from fighting with the US Army in Nigeria, to fighting in space. It was lies, all of it. We shouldn't even be fighting the Ruhar, they aren't our enemy. Our allies are.

I'd better start at the beginning.

Listening Length

16 hours and 23 minutes
Author

Craig Alanson
Narrator

R.C. Bray
Audible release date

December 13, 2016
Language

English
Publisher

Podium Audio
ASIN

B01MQR08XA
Version

Unabridged
Program Type

Audiobook
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Product details

Listening Length	16 hours and 23 minutes
Author	Craig Alanson
Narrator	R.C. Bray
Whispersync for Voice	Ready
Audible.com Release Date	December 13, 2016
Publisher	Podium Audio
Program Type	Audiobook
Version	Unabridged
Language	English
ASIN	B01MQR08XA
Best Sellers Rank	#10,574 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals) #404 in Adventure Science Fiction #1,238 in Science Fiction Adventures #1,609 in Fantasy (Audible Books & Originals)

Customer reviews

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3 star		8%
2 star		3%
1 star		2%

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Marvin D. Noland Jr.

Author blasphemes through his characters!

Reviewed in the United States on July 12, 2019

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The story was gripping, the action compelling and the characters well devoleped! However I must ask one question. Why do otherwise good writers find it necessary for characters in their stories to blaspheme the name of Jesus Christ? I am a minister who enjoys a good sci go story, but to take the only name that is worthy of praise and use it to curse certainly ruins the enjoyment for me ( and hopefully any other serious Christian)!

122 people found this helpful

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Patroo

I found another fantastic series! Yay!

Reviewed in the United States on June 20, 2017

Verified Purchase

This is a simply outstanding series. I am very glad that I discovered it AFTER he wrote four books so that I wouldn't go into serious withdrawal issues upon completing Columbus Day. It's original, clever, funny, and a real delight.

You have an ordinary Joe who just wants to serve his country and go home, but he finds himself in the middle of an interplanetary invasion by...hamsters. Yes, the aliens are similar to bipedal hamsters. Alanson had me right there. Hamsters?

He gets a scratch team together and manages to capture two aliens. He treats them well and turns them over to the authorities, figures that's the end of it. The war goes on, and another alien army shows up. They conquer the hamsters and seem to enlist Earth as an ally. They're lizards, and you know you just can't trust lizards.

Earth sends military forces out with the lizard ships, ostensibly to be trained and used in the war against the hamsters, but they end up on the hamster planet as occupation forces. Joe is semi-famous for capturing hamsters on Earth, but here he's considered trouble, and the plan is to station him at a remote area where he can't make more trouble.

He befriends a hamster official who turns out to be in charge of the hamster government, and learns a lot more about their supposed allies, the lizards. They aren't allies...just slave labor in training for the lizard overlords. Yet another alien nation is participating in this messy war, but they're mainly support and transport. They don't get into the messy stuff, just deliver lizard ships and supplies.

You can't tell the players without a score card in this interstellar war zone, and Joe realizes humanity has been duped into helping the equivalent of space Nazis in their regime. He tries to get the information to the decision-makers, only to discover that he's in more trouble...and then in jail, awaiting execution. He's locked in a makeshift cell with some stuff stored in it, and there he finds an ancient alien Artificial Intelligence unit who is millions of years old, knows everything, and is bored out of his little metal gourd. He actually occupies a huge volume of space in another dimension, but in this one, he's manifested as something like a silver beer can with an attitude.

With the help of Skippy, the AI, Joe and a few other prisoners escape and try to save themselves...and planet Earth, a wormhole away from their present location.

I love this series, and in fact, went ahead and bought all four of the main books so that I could find out how this all went. There are some minor editing issues (you and your, omitted words, phrases that were "test-driven" and not used, which should have been removed. The story is good enough that I'll put up with that stuff just to find out what happens to our merry band of space pirates next. After all, that's what they are. Pirates operating under the guidance of an ancient intelligence who can manipulate computer systems, wormholes, and so much more, particularly with the help of the "monkeys," his term for humans.

46 people found this helpful

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Trina Ives

Love this series

Reviewed in the United States on August 10, 2021

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I have read the first 7 books plus the novella. I love the characters and the way they interact. The snark and sarcasm make me laugh out loud and just make my day that much better. The author does a really good job of dumbing down the science for us "hairless monkeys". Skippy and Joe and the rest of the Merry Band of Pirates are my new best friends. Have purchased the rest of the series and the spin-off except the audible book (7.5). Will have to wait for it to come out in ebook form as like to read a book not listen to it, maybe if I lived somewhere where I had to drive long distances would be ok, but live on a small island in AK- so not getting Audible. Thank you Mr. Alanson for a great read.

4 people found this helpful

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Jas PTop Contributor: Star Wars

Exceptional Sci-Fi of a Soldiers fight for Earth against an Ally turned Enemy – Sheer Brilliance!

Reviewed in the United States on January 21, 2017

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I haven’t had the opportunity to read any of Craig Alanson’s work before, but if this is the quality of his work all the time, I will definitely be getting all of his books.
This was a brilliant book, with a lot of action, humour, exceptional character writing, fantastic tech and aliens, outstanding plot twists, and just some of the funniest things I have read in a sci-fi book in a long time.
The story follows Joe Bishop, a grunt in the army who is on Earth, in the US during Columbus Day, one of the US holidays, when Earth is attacked by aliens. During the attack, a second alien race arrives, and it appears, chases off the first. The second alien race stay, enlisting humans to help in a galactic war, and suddenly Joe, who did some interesting things during the interrupted invasion, is thrust into the galaxy as a soldier on another planet.
The story is told from Joe’s point of view, and really gives us a good understanding of what is happening, how he and his men feel, and the impact of the Ruhar invasion, Kristang relief, and Kristang using humanity.
Alanson has written some amazing characters for this book, not just the soldiers, but also the invading alien races.
His world building is also incredibly detailed, giving us some interesting and very descriptive planet scapes to investigate.
The following section has some spoilers, so if you are not interested, please stop reading – just go and buy the book and read it, it's definitely worth it! – otherwise if you don’t care…

SPOILER ALERT…..
So this book is split into two parts in a way, the pre ‘Skippy’ section and the post ‘Skippy’ section. This is before Joe meets the AI Skippy and after he meets Skippy, an ancient AI that was evolved (not built) by a race millions of years ago.
The story is a brilliant Space Opera, Alien Invasion, Colonisation book prior to Skippy, but after this, it becomes simply sensational. I know that there has been some criticism of the Skippy character, but I found that he brought a level of humour to the story that left me laughing so hard I was crying at points. The interactions between Skippy and Joe, as well as Skippy and other ‘Monkeys’ is just pure genius. Personally, I think that this book was all the better for the addition of Skippy and the AI plot. It added a new twist to the story, something that was somewhat unique, but allowed Alanson to have a lot of fun. It turned a fantastic story into an absolutely brilliant story.
END OF SPOILERS!!

There is no doubt that this is one of the best Sci-Fi stories of the year, and well worth the read. Having said that, this is one of the few that are actually better as an Audiobook if you have the opportunity (I read it and listened to it as an Audiobook, so I would go for audio if you have the chance). Regardless of format, this should not be missed, and I will be getting Spec Ops in both formats ASAP!!

13 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Jarrak

Entertaining Story

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 7, 2018

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The Earth was alone until that day flashes in the sky herald the arrival of an alien species that we later learn were known as the Ruhar, they struck our industry and infrastructure but left the cities mostly intact and then their soldiers arrived. Jo Bishop (former US Army) was back home looking forward to celebrating Columbus Day but finds himself and a few friends engaging in a cat and mouse maneuver with the alien occupants of a damaged troop ship but when it looks like the end is nigh the sky erupts again as second alien fleet arrives and engages the first.
The Earth is saved and in gratitude the world governments commit ground forces to aid the second alien species (Kristang) in their ongoing galaxy wide conflict but the men and women who journey to the stars are in for a rude awakening, not everything is as advertised and the Earth and her people are little more than pawns in a greater game.
Columbus Day was a purchase based purely on reading the blurb when the Amazon algorithm decided I would like it and you know this time it got it right. The central character of Joe Bishop was written well and with enough flaws to make him the everyday former soldier drawn back into what he's really best at and to exercise his ethics in a theatre that has little time for compassion and justice. The novel takes its time to create the world the series is based in and of course that always pays off so when the scope of the narrative expands greatly it all fits together well and doesn't stretch the bounds of credibility. I'll certainly be reading the rest of the series but not right away, there is a lot on my to read list but when I'm ready they are on the kindle good to go.

8 people found this helpful

Rob Roy

Brilliant stuff

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 10, 2020

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This is up there with the best military space opera I have read in the past. Multiple alien races - pretty much all more technologically advanced than humans. Alien invasions & occupations. Alien spacecraft and an advanced sentient SO with a sense of humour. Plenty of action plastics and in space. Last but not least numerous instances - mostly involving the AI's interactions with the central human character - where I had to chuckle or even laugh out loud. Great stuff. Suffice it to say I will be reading the next instalment in very short order. The story COULD conceivably be regarded as stand alone since there is an ending of sorts, but I feel that most readers will feel compelled to find out what the future holds in store for Bishop, Skippy and the remaining Parameciums/bacteria/monkeys and maybe even the hamsters too? Narration of the Audio book was superb, as you may expect when R C Bray reads science fiction.

3 people found this helpful

Adrian

Great start to a series.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 23, 2022

Verified Purchase

I always start a new book, one at the beginning of a series, with an open, but cautious mind. As was the case with this one.
I was soon flicking my screen with abandon waiting to see what happened nxt.
The storry begins in a similar, and not entirely unpredictable way, alien invasion yada yada. With that in mind, i expected to be dragged through an overly serious, stuffy and derivative story.
Wrong. Right ffom the get go, i was treated to very human characters, with real flaws, and emotional response.
The story that follows, not only tells us we're not alone, but informs us that, we're the inferior species in a galactic political chess game. No plot spoilers, but this book is at times, funny, clever, and very well imagined. It has the power to flip-flop between heart wrenching and heart warming in the space of a page. And just keeps getting better the further into the book you travel.

Alistair

Space Opera with a Twist.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 27, 2021

Verified Purchase

If you're a fan of military science fiction, then when you start this book you'll feel in familiar territory. Present-day Earth, alien invasion, first-person viewpoint from a (not very senior) soldier. All good stuff if you're a fan of the genre, and the writing really helps you to empathise with the main character. The technology is well-imagined and the aliens (if a bit like terrestrial species) do the job they need to. SOP, as they say in the military. There's a fair bit of humour as well.

Then suddenly a plot twist occurs which takes this book to a whole new level. We've still got the military, the scary aliens, the seemingly overwhelming odds, but added to it is the fact that the humour goes up to Warp Factor Nine. All because of the introduction of a new character.

No spoilers. That's all I'm saying. Try it. Stay with it. I did. I've just finished this one and as soon as I've posted this I'm downloading the second.

2 people found this helpful

Paperback Reader

Refreshing story telling, absolutely love this!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 25, 2021

Verified Purchase

I read a lot of space books and sometimes they let you down, I didn't know what to expect from Craig and this story. I wasn't let down, from the start it's got a great way to tell us the story, apart from the initial USA rules theme (But that is the character we're getting to know) then we meet Skippy, a great read with plenty of action just became something I couldn't put down, the relationship between these two makes every word riviting.
I would love to see this as a film or mini series. I'm nearly at the end of book one and have just ordered books 2 & 3.
If you like space operas, enjoy authors like Jack Campbell and M R Forbes you're sure to enjoy this series from Craig Alanson. Just a hint and wink to Douglas Adams which is great as that kind of author is one in a million. I'm now a follower!

One person found this helpful

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