Terminal Alliance [Dramatized Adaptation]

Janitors of the Post-Apocalypse, Book 1

By: Jim C. Hines

Narrated by: full cast, Colleen Delany, Jessica Lauren Ball, Bru Ajueyitsi, Joy Jones, Michael Glenn, Gwen Grastorf, Lolita Horne, Megan Graves, Caroline Wolfson, Kay Kerimian, Tuyet Thi Pham

In his hilarious new sci-fi series, Jim C. Hines introduces the unlikely heroes that may just save the galaxy: a crew of space janitors.

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.

Performed by Colleen Delany, Jessica Lauren Ball, Bru Ajueyitsi, Joy Jones, Michael Glenn, Gwen Grastorf, Lolita Horne, Megan Graves, Caroline Wolfson, Kay Kerimian, Tuyet Thi Pham, Tony Nam, Dawn Ursula, Jacob Yeh, Kimberly Gilbert, Rose Elizabeth Supan, Danny Gavigan, Julie-Ann Elliott, Nanette Savard, Zeke Alton, Jonathan Feuer, Michael John Casey, Robbie Gay, Tim Getman, Jillian Levine-Sisson, Yasmin Tuazon, Christopher Scheeren, Marni Penning, Terence Aselford, Scott McCormick, Lily Beacon, Duyen Washington.

©2017 Jim C. Hines (P)2019 Graphic Audio, LLC

interesting concept and read

I really enjoyed the story and the non standard way of solving problems. There were a few qualms. first and this is a graphic audio thing. turn down the damn music sometimes. there were sections where I could barely make out the narrator over the blaring music or effects. the second which is a bit story oriented is that the aliens, supposedly smart ones, are a bit to easily outmaneuver and bullied. the main twist was also like my first thought during the first chapter. not sure if it was just that obvious or if I just have listened to so many books the trope stuck out to me.

The Janitors Will Save Us All!!!

This book is essentially a space opera about a sanitation crew who save humanity. With an idea so abstract as this, I struggled to find one singularity that would throw the story off. There were none. Even I hadn’t listened to Terminal Alliance dramatized, it would have been no less thrilling, and no less compelling. Mops is the quintessential leader, duty bound and loyal to both her superiors, and her crew. The other characters are fleshed, and author avoids ‘filler’ by even giving characters who remained nameless or unimportant, souls and agendas. The secret behind what caused the humans to go feral was interesting, but I can’t wait to see how it’s expanded upon in the next book.

Without spoiling anything, those who love the Lilith’s Brood series from Octavia Butler, will enjoy this modern take on the alien savior troupe.

Solid Entertainment

Fast moving, complete and comprehensive sci-fi. Of course starships need janitors, with technical skills. To clean up all that icky stuff, and free Earth from her ravishers.

If only the tutorials were easier to follow. Hard to believe comm units would be so difficult. (How's that cable box working for you?) At least they have Clippy - urr, Puffy, to help. Kind of.

Characters are well scripted. Dialogue is good. Details of environment makes the action feel cinematic. Voice actors are competent and well rehearsed. Sound effects add to action; not overpowering on headphones.

Great story and performance

The story was incredible and graphic audio did an excellent job performing it as always

Fun With Names

I got a kick out of the names given to characters and ships in this book. They named ships after scary things from Earth.... Pufferfish, Round Worm, T-Rex, Honey Badger, Plague Rat. Made me laugh! And the people chose names from Earth's history with no actual idea of the history or genders of who they were:

Shakespeare is a gunnery sergeant on the EMCS Crocodile.
Private Ghandi is the best sharp shooter
"Einstein? I thought she was heavy gunner on the Blue Ringed Octopus."
"Battle Captain Steve Irwin got a promotion! Good for her!"

Mops is a clever leader, and I enjoyed seeing how she managed to make things work out. There were a lot of great lines delivered in deadpan that really made me laugh.

"I volunteer to NOT team up with Wolf!"
"I take it we're not going to do the smart thing?" "We're humans. Why should we start now?"

Sound Design is Annoying

Ok, the story is fun and interesting, the voice actors are great, and Jim Hines is an excellent writer.

But whichever sound engineer mixed this has a LOT to answer for.

Almost every loud sound effect/fight noise overwhelms the dialogue, repeatedly. It's like whoever did this is only familiar with the sound design for movies, which assume the existence of multiple speakers in a huge room.

I've listened to the first 2 dramatized books, and they both need to be remastered. It's a pity, since otherwise the recordings are great.

More of a space opera then a humor book. Misleading cover art.

Miscategorized as a humor book.

Not a comedic book despite the cover art and premise. I mistook this book as humor focused, which is definetly my fault but who could blame me? The premise and the cover art definetly gives an impression of this being humor focused and its categorized in the humor section when searching for it.

This is a space action drama more then anything, with little to no comedy or humor in sight.

Sometimes hours can go by without any sort of lightening up or anything that could be considered comedic, so no more then a typical book, which makes it especially lame how this is marketed as comedy which is strange. Even here on goodreads its put into the humor genre when it's so painfully not humor based at all.

I overall had an ok time with this once I sort of tempered my expectation away from humor and just accepted that it's a action adventure. The plot overall was decent, i liked the writing to build up the focus on what the plot was aiming toward. It was clear and well written on where this was headed.

I also enjoyed the world building, it was also well done and I could clearly picture the environments.

I didn't really like any of the characters though, they felt like empty husks, actors just there to play their part but really didn't get a good feel for any of them.

By the end I also was feeling a bit exhausted with the pacing. I just found that the content of this book had way too much fluff that didn't feel as consequential to this very focused in plot and just wasn't all that entertaining with how this exposition was delivered.

By the end it was feeling very tedious and I couldn't wait for it to be over. I'm going to put my feelings though probably is related a lot to expecting and being in the mood for a humor book and never shaking the poor mood I had from being misled and not getting it. Instead I got a space opera which requires a very specific mood and more mental fortitude to get into then what I was prepared for.