Podium is an independent publisher specializing in audiobooks within the genres of fantasy, mystery, romance, and sci-fi. In the end, Alanson chose to publish with Podium, a company that is nontraditional in another respect. Don’t get me wrong considering the market share of the big publishers, they have a hugely successful business model. “I don’t want the shelf space and cost of printing to dictate the length of my books, and I like to price my e-books below the cost of a paperback. “The focus on print in the traditional publishing space is problematic for me,” he says. The series has grown to 12 titles, with Breakaway, the latest installment from Alanson, publishing earlier this month and immediately debuting at #1 on Audible.Īlanson likes to have creative control over his stories, which is a big reason he’s taken an indie publishing route. The series charts the course of an intergalactic war between humans and a technologically advanced alien species called the Ruhar-and a second alien race that comes to assist Earth. His conclusion? “There is no way humanity could survive a real invasion,” he says, “not without a lot of outside help.” The question of who would step up to help humans on the receiving end of an alien attack would ultimately lead Alanson to write Columbus Day, the first installment in his Expeditionary Force series of humorous military sci-fi books. In a sentence, what this book lacked was a good hook and pacing.As a connoisseur of alien invasion movies, author Craig Alanson has given a lot of thought to the logistics of potential encounters between humans and extraterrestrials.

Could’ve done without the initial action segments for example, but I now see they were an attempt to cover up the pacing of the rest of the book.

Do I know how? No, this series has so much going on storywise that Craig is a victim of his own success and had a lot to clear up. This book would be better if everything was in some way a little more interwoven. That was very good and sets up some intriguing broad drama for next time. Why do I, Mr Internet man get up on my soapbox and lambaste this book you ask? Because I want to tell everyone to hold out for the last third. What it creates is the most bizarrely structured book I’ve seen for a while. It’s like the subplots were all frontloaded and then the main plot takes place afterwards. I dare say this book doesn’t get properly started until the 10 hour mark. Yes we got a few Kodak moments with characters I have been invested in for a long old time and some of it was pretty funny, but it was buy and large devoid of story. I won’t lie, the first two thirds were a slog.

Columbus Day by Craig Alanson