Book Review: Terminal Alliance by Jim C Hines
Goodreads Description: The Krakau came to Earth to invite humanity into a growing alliance of sentient species. However, they happened to arrive after a mutated plague wiped out half the planet, turned the rest into shambling, near-unstoppable animals, and basically destroyed human civilization. You know—your standard apocalypse.
The Krakau’s first impulse was to turn around and go home. (After all, it’s hard to have diplomatic relations with mindless savages who eat your diplomats.) Their second impulse was to try to fix us. Now, a century later, human beings might not be what they once were, but at least they’re no longer trying to eat everyone. Mostly.
Marion “Mops” Adamopoulos is surprisingly bright (for a human). As a Lieutenant on the Earth Mercenary Corps Ship Pufferfish, she’s in charge of the Shipboard Hygiene and Sanitation team. When a bioweapon attack wipes out the Krakau command crew and reverts the rest of the humans to their feral state, only Mops and her team are left with their minds intact.
Escaping the attacking aliens—not to mention her shambling crewmates—is only the beginning. Sure, Mops and her team of space janitors and plumbers can clean the ship as well as anyone, but flying the damn thing is another matter.
As they struggle to keep the Pufferfish functioning and find a cure for their crew, they stumble onto a conspiracy that could threaten the entire alliance… a conspiracy born from the truth of what happened on Earth all those years ago.
My Review: Terminal Alliance is a rip-roaring adventure through space from the first page to its very last. Hines uses humour to hook the reader and keep them invested in the foreign environment filled with different alien races, relying mostly on dramatic irony as characters fumble about with human history. The story focuses on Mops and her janitor crew who happen to be the only ones unaffected by an attack that kills their alien captains and leaves their human crewmates feral. From the first page, the book launches into plot-heavy action interjected with humor that doesn't waste time trying to catch the reader up to speed on the intricacies of this galactic society. Despite that, Hines is very skilled at layering important information throughout the action, so the reader isn't bogged down by information while also never feeling lost in the action.
My biggest issue with the book came down to its characters. I'm a character-driven reader, and this story was very plot-driven, with little depth given to its characters. Hines kept his characters solid and consistent, and even managed to buck a few tropes, but the book isn't interested in who they are beyond the surface level or diving into their inner worlds. They are merely the players that help the plot move forward, which just isn't my style. Aside from the interesting mystery behind what happened to the human crew, I struggled to keep myself invested in the story. For readers who prefer more action heavy, "less talky, more blowing shit up," kind of reads, these characters are probably perfect. They're fun, funny, and each distinct without feeling like something I've seen before, but they don't grow or change much throughout the story. They encounter a problem and they solve it, while having sassy space battles along the way.
The writing is solid, accessible, and cleverly utilized. This is clearly not Hines' first book, as he uses his words wisely to save 'space' and increase the flow. Instead of showing something and then having a character react to it, Hines will have a character react, and in that reaction, show us what's happening. This is a great tool for keeping the reader moving forward. The mystery was also written in such a way that I felt really smart? Which sounds like a funny thing to say. I don't usually play detective while reading, but if the clues line up just right, then it's hard to ignore an obvious solution. That's definitely how it felt in TA, and I can't tell if that's because Hines made the mystery too easy to solve, or if he just laid all the clues out in a way that felt obvious to me. While I didn't feel the mystery was stupid or 'too easy,' I did find myself getting frustrated with Mops by the end when the enemies all but told her the truth, and she still struggled to put together what I had pages ago. If you're someone who likes to solve puzzles, this one may be too frustratingly easy for you, but if you're just along for the ride, you may get the added benefit of feeling like Sherlock.
Aside from my struggles to connect with the story, I really enjoyed the ride. TA was like that crazy sci-fi action flick you turn on, enjoy it for its popcorn simplicity, and then never watch again, though you remember it fondly. The world in TA was delightful and layered in a way I could see myself being drawn into, lore-wise, and I really enjoyed the worldbuilding scenes at the beginning of each chapter, with excerpts from military manuals, alien cookbooks, scenes from alien POVs, etc., that all helped to flush out the expansive starsystem. And again, Hines adds a touch of humor that keeps things from feeling like a dry alien textbook.
TL;DR: All in all, 3.5/5 stars. An all around fun, sassy space-opera driven by its exciting plot and inter-species mystery.
