Clara’s Verdict
There is a particular kind of audiobook that asks nothing of you except that you keep pressing play, and SpecOps is unashamedly one of them. Craig Alanson’s second Expeditionary Force outing knows exactly what it is, a big, brash, wisecracking space adventure, and it delivers that with the confidence of a book that has stopped trying to impress the literary set and simply started having fun. I found myself grinning at the sheer cheek of it more than once.
What keeps it from tipping into noise is the odd couple at its heart. Colonel Joe Bishop is an everyman soldier saddled with responsibilities far above his pay grade, and his sparring partner is an ancient, impossibly powerful artificial intelligence with the ego of a toddler and the vocabulary of a stand-up comedian. Their banter carries the whole enterprise, and when the plot slows, as it occasionally does, the double act picks up the slack.
It is not flawless. The prose is functional rather than beautiful, and listeners who need their science fiction to feel weighty may find the tone too flippant for their taste. But taken on its own terms, as an easy, propulsive listen for a long commute or a longer flight, it earns its keep. I came away thoroughly entertained, which is precisely what it set out to do.
About the Audiobook
SpecOps is the second book in the Expeditionary Force series, and it picks up with Colonel Joe Bishop determined to keep a promise: taking the captured alien starship, the Flying Dutchman, back out into the dark. What complicates matters is the United Nations, which decides to send almost seventy elite Special Operations troops, hotshot pilots and scientists along with him. Bishop is far from convinced. To his mind the mission is a fool’s errand, the sort of assignment nobody expects to return from, and at least, he tells himself, Earth is safe this time around.
Not so much, as it turns out. That wry deflation is the engine of the book. Alanson sets up an expectation and then knocks it flat, sending his mismatched crew from one improvised crisis to the next. The scale is genuinely galactic, with rival alien factions, salvaged technology and the constant sense that humanity is punching well above its weight, yet the storytelling stays grounded in the small human decisions that go right or, more often, hilariously wrong.
The Narration
R.C. Bray narrates, and if you have spent any time with modern military science fiction his voice will feel like a homecoming. He has a real gift for the deadpan, which is exactly what this material needs. Bishop sounds tired and capable in equal measure, and Bray gives Skippy a preening, theatrical relish that makes the artificial intelligence’s insults land as jokes rather than mere snark.
Across fifteen hours and fifty minutes he keeps the pacing brisk without ever gabbling, letting a punchline breathe before moving on. The action sequences are clean and easy to follow, which matters a great deal in a book this busy, and the quieter exchanges never sag. It is a performance that understands comedy is a matter of timing, and Bray’s timing is close to impeccable.
What Readers Say
With an average of 4.4 stars across a small but enthusiastic set of ratings, the early verdict from listeners is warm. Jarrak called it an enjoyable sequel and relished more adventures with Skippy, while ladybandit12 captured the divide neatly: Skippy, they wrote, is like Marmite, a character you will either love or hate, but without whom there would be no tale to speak of.
Several readers place Alanson in good company. Bollard situated the book in the Scalzi zone, praising its imagination and its witty banter with a tin can, while conceding that some may find Skippy’s personality a touch wearing. Ashley R Pollard admitted the writing is not highfalutin, with no pretentious prose for literary nerds, before adding that the story is awesome and had them hooked enough to order the next four books. Not every note is rapturous, but the direction of travel is clear: listeners who click with the humour tend to keep going.
Who Should Listen?
So who is this for? SpecOps rewards anyone who likes their space opera fast, funny and unpretentious, listeners who grew up on the lighter end of military science fiction and want a series they can sink weeks into. If you need hard science and solemn stakes, you may want to look elsewhere. But if the idea of a beleaguered colonel bickering with a narcissistic supercomputer makes you smile, you are the target audience, and you will want to have started with book one first.
For everyone who has already met the Merry Band of Pirates and wants more, this is an easy recommendation. You can Listen to SpecOps on Audible and settle in for another long, cheerfully chaotic tour of the galaxy.
