Come for the Giant Hamsters, But Stay for the Trolley Problems
Columbus Day: Book 1 of the Expeditionary Force Series by Craig Alanson
Do you like military sci-fi? No? Are you sure? See, I don’t think you can be sure yet, because you haven’t read this: Columbus Day: Expeditionary Force Book 1 by Craig Alanson.
Two words for you: Giant Hamsters. That’s right—human-sized hamsters.
A few days ago, Audible recommended Gateway: Expeditionary Force Book 18 to me. Like you, I honed in on that 18 immediately. I almost discounted the recommendation, but when I saw it was categorized as a sci-fi comedy, I clicked through and downloaded the first book to my library.
I’m 50% in as I write this. Here’s my quick review of the basics:
Writing - Good
Narration - Best
Pacing - Breakneck
But what’s it about…other than Giant Hamsters (no spoilers)
The story starts immediately—no easing into it. Earth is attacked on page one. We learn all about this through the eyes of Joe Bishop, a Sergeant in the Army who was home from a peacekeeping tour in Nigeria.
Through his eyes, we meet the Ruhar (Hamsters) and the Kristang (Lizards). These two species have been in an interstellar war for years, and it came crashing down to Earth, and now the humans are involved.
Surprisingly Deep
Something I didn’t expect to get from this book is the profundity of the situations the humans are in. The humans in this story are presented with trolley problem after trolley problem, and sometimes they do the thing that you wouldn’t have done, which leads to you, the reader, asking yourself some serious and meaningful questions that will show you who you are.
I’m excited to finish this book and move on to the other 17 in the series.
Come for the Giant Hamsters, But Stay for the Trolley Problems
Thank you for hanging out. Be excellent to each other.