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A review by benstanley
Failure Mode by Craig Alanson
4.0
I still loved it, because it was still Expeditionary Force. It was still Joe and Skippy and the whole crew, there was still great banter and engaging stakes, and all around I got what I was looking for. It was an exciting and entertaining ride.
That being said, for the final adventure of the Merry Band of Pirates, it was a bit of a disappointment. The dialogue and really a significant amount of the book was pretty repetitive, and there was a lot of discussion about how hopeless everything was. There was not a lot of progress for much of it, which was a bit of a drag and harkened back to some of the weaker early entries in the series. There were very few cutaways and PoV's outside of Bishop this time around, and while in the past those have been a little hit-or-miss, on the whole I think they added greatly to the story and were missed in Failure Mode. It also meant that characters I would consider to be pretty major were only given a line or two, and did not actually contribute to the plot, which was also disappointing.
I wasn't expecting this book to tie up every single plot element or loose thread left over from the series' run. The galaxy is a messy place, and leaving certain things open-ended is fair enough. That being said, I was hoping for a little more wrap-up than what we got, and what we did get with the primary conflict was, like I said, pretty repetitive. The finale itself was also a very abrupt deus ex machina, and while that's something of a staple for the series this one was arguably among the weakest, with next to no justification and very little explanation afterwards. The righteous smackdown with the Elders wasn't all that satisfying, and while that makes sense within the context of the events, for the final climax of the series it was underwhelming.
That's not to say that it was a bad entry by any means. Failure Mode had a lot of great stuff in it, including some really engaging plot points with the Elder AIs and some pulse-pounding action. We did get a lot of great Joe and Skippy banter. As far as an end to the series it was satisfying enough, but not amazing. It didn't ruin it by any means, and I am excited to one day re-listen to it all the way through.
P.S. Congratulations to R.C. Bray for some of the best damn audiobook narration I have ever heard, throughout the whole series!
That being said, for the final adventure of the Merry Band of Pirates, it was a bit of a disappointment. The dialogue and really a significant amount of the book was pretty repetitive, and there was a lot of discussion about how hopeless everything was. There was not a lot of progress for much of it, which was a bit of a drag and harkened back to some of the weaker early entries in the series. There were very few cutaways and PoV's outside of Bishop this time around, and while in the past those have been a little hit-or-miss, on the whole I think they added greatly to the story and were missed in Failure Mode. It also meant that characters I would consider to be pretty major were only given a line or two, and did not actually contribute to the plot, which was also disappointing.
I wasn't expecting this book to tie up every single plot element or loose thread left over from the series' run. The galaxy is a messy place, and leaving certain things open-ended is fair enough. That being said, I was hoping for a little more wrap-up than what we got, and what we did get with the primary conflict was, like I said, pretty repetitive. The finale itself was also a very abrupt deus ex machina, and while that's something of a staple for the series this one was arguably among the weakest, with next to no justification and very little explanation afterwards. The righteous smackdown with the Elders wasn't all that satisfying, and while that makes sense within the context of the events, for the final climax of the series it was underwhelming.
That's not to say that it was a bad entry by any means. Failure Mode had a lot of great stuff in it, including some really engaging plot points with the Elder AIs and some pulse-pounding action. We did get a lot of great Joe and Skippy banter. As far as an end to the series it was satisfying enough, but not amazing. It didn't ruin it by any means, and I am excited to one day re-listen to it all the way through.
P.S. Congratulations to R.C. Bray for some of the best damn audiobook narration I have ever heard, throughout the whole series!