Failure Mode

Expeditionary Force #15

by Craig Alanson

When a mission ends in disaster and there is no way to achieve the objective, no way to regroup and try again, no plan B, no hope, all you can do is fall back into FAILURE MODE: try to salvage what you can.

If it is even possible to save anything. Or anyone.

The galaxy is doomed. Monkeys may be clever and too stubborn to give up, but Skippy The Idiot Who Got PLAYED knows the harsh truth: this is a fight he can’t win. The odds are not only stacked against him, he was designed not to win this fight.
Maybe he can salvage some faint memory of the civilizations that inhabit the galaxy, but those beings are doomed. Doomed. Including the Merry Band of Pirates.

Genres: Science Fiction, Audiobook, Fiction, Space Opera, Space, Aliens, Military Fiction

697 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 6, 2022

About the author

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My Bio:
Craig Alanson used to create financial reports for a large IT services company. Writing fiction at nights and on weekends, he finally independently published three novels on Amazon. Within 6 months of his first ebook release, he was able to quit his day job and pursue a full-time writing career.

The breakout success of Columbus Day (Expeditionary Force, Book 1) reached new heights when Podium Audio released it in audio format, narrated by Audie Award Winner R.C. Bray. The Columbus Day audiobook was a huge hit, and a finalist for an Audie Award as Audiobook of the Year.

The ExForce series, as it is known to fans, has gone on to 10 books/audiobooks, many of which have hit the NYT best-seller list, with a 11th book releasing June 2021 and 14 books planned.

Craig has also published a spin-off series, ExForce: Mavericks; an ExForce audio drama, Homefront; a fantasy trilogy, Ascendent; and a young adult space opera, Aces. Craig lives in Virginia with his wife, who loves him even though he perpetually refuses to clean the garage.

Reviews

[Kacy❁ · Rating 2 out of 5]

15 books. 15 Audible credits. For THAT ending? That wasn't even worth it. That was the Barney Style of endings. Wow.

I'm so disappointed.

EDIT: ITS BEEN A COUPLE WEEKS AND I'M STILL SALTY 'BOUT IT.

[Ethan Tedesco · Rating 1 out of 5]

After investing so much of my time in this series and enjoying many many parts of it, the conclusion came as quite a let down. Rather than resolve the many threads and stories and come up with something at the end that ties it altogether and brings us to a satisfying conclusion, the author has taken time off and given us a book of mind numbing filler and a small story about skippy saves the day (yet again) and let the galaxy remain pretty much as is, with no further updates. I'm not only let down, I'm angry. There is no tying up any threads, there is no final outcome to resolve all the issues that have been created in the series. In fact one could almost be forgiven for thinking there are still 5 more books to come. Thankfully, I won't be reading anymore, its as though the author has become bored with the series himself and jotted down a few dot points, given it to someone else and said here you fill in the rest. What a waste of my time. It could have been great, magnificent even, but this lazy ending of 2% action and 98% skippy soul searching has left a bitter taste in my mouth. Author rating just did a crash and burn in my eyes.

[Synia · Rating 4 out of 5]

+1 star happy jates at home with his little lizard babies
+1 star nerts chipmunk haircut
+1 star Joe buys a black market tractor for his ma and pa
+1 star Rc bray narrates well
+1 star that whole discussion where Joe obsessed over the minutae of clam chowder variants
+1 star elder ascension platform is like something out of Warhammer 40k
-1 star ending too abrupt
-1 star no epilogue
-1 star I'm still mad at him for killing the two lovebird thuranin all those many novels ago
+1 star bold of you to assume I want to know how the alien assault on earth effected professional sports scheduling

[C.T. Phipps · Rating 5 out of 5]

All good things must come to an end and that includes one of my favorite series of 2022. I read virtually the entire series over the span of a couple of months and it was a delightful respite from real life's trouble. If nothing else, Skippy and the Merry Band of pirates will hold a special place in my heart. They were good reading fodder between writing my Space Academy books and also needing to listen to something purely fun.

So how does the series end? Well, quite well. We have no Mass Effect 3 "crashing and burning during the landing" and that's always a good thing for a long series to end. The Elders are coming back and despite the numerous incredible impossibilities that they've achieved through Joe Bishop's Wile E. Coyote "Super Genius" skills, he is quite adamant there's really nothing they can do this time.

Indeed, I give really good props for how it does end and while I would absolutely love to have a lot more adventures of Emily Perkins, I do think Joe has earned his respite and hope he shall return to Earth with the fanfare he deserves. Yeah, right. Still, it saddens me that I won't be able to get another of these fantastic books and look forward to reading whatever Craig Alanson comes up with next.

[Anna gillam · Rating 2 out of 5]

Definitely time to end this

All the negatives of the last 18 books without the positives to balance. It started being a boring slog at about 10% in, and stayed that way until literally the last 2%, which was just sad, pathetic and lame. Joe has gotten dumber with each book, and is now bordering on semi-functional recipient of a botched lobotomy; Skippy has been nerfed into little more than a talking beer can with extreme narcicistic disorder who, every single page, rants about how impossible the situation is and how doomed the universe is.

Truly a tragic end for what was once a promising series.

[Daniel Lewis · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a fantastic book. Craig Alanson really hit this out of the part. I am not going to give any spoilers about plot. The book is full of star trek and star wars referenced as usual, skippy the magnificent being magnificent and temperamental and having his usual distracted states. There is the ever increasing threat from the ascended beings.

Parts of this book will gut you. There are some pretty terrible losses. I won't say who! I was going to try and read some tonight then the next day finish the last few hours worth of reading left in the book. Unfortunately it was such an edge of the seat ride that I ended up reading until 2am (I usually get up at 5am!)

#skippythemagnificent
#expeditionaryforce
#spaceopera
#sassyai

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

The series is winding down. This volume is a bit different than the rest as Mr. Alanson wraps up many of the threads within the story arc. There is a lot of dialog, much more than in previous books. There is action, but it's not quite the edge of the seat that we've had in previous volumes. Still it's good to know the outcome of many unknowns. Only one volume left in the series... I'll miss these characters once I'm done.

[Wayne Fielding · Rating 5 out of 5]

Trust the Awsomeness!!

[Karsyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meh. Too much blah blah blahing for most of the book. I enjoyed the last 20% and that was about it.

[Isabel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m a little conflicted on how I feel about the ending (no spoilers), but it’s a Joe and Skippy book. I couldn’t give it less than 5 stars. It was the last book, so I figured some stuff had to happen and I certainly did cry. A little abrupt of an ending would have loved to hear a little more about characters after these events rather than it just ending. However, it has been a wild ride, and I will be revisiting this series over and over and over. Looking forward to the series with the Jeraptha!

[Vakaris the Nosferatu · Rating 5 out of 5]

all reviews in one place:
night mode reading ;
skaitom nakties rezimu

About the Book: Elder Ones, seemingly the first or among the first races of the Universe, have ascended into a different kind of existence, abandoning their bodies. But not before they put together technology that was meant to keep this corner of Space – clean of life. This way they planned to protect their power source and the barrier built against someone or something that scared even them. Said plan, of course, didn’t wholly work, as is proven by Joe Bishop and his Merry Band of Pirates, entire humanity, and many other races, and species, who got into quarrels with them over the past several books. But, as Skippy thought, for as long as Elders aren’t aware of it all, it’s as good as perfect. And then he had to kill that other damned Elder AI, who sent out a distress call, one that can only be sent by their kind. Worse still, Elders acknowledged the call. Now, Skippy can’t see any scenario in which Elders would just go back to sleep and ignore everything, instead of, you know, waking up and committing some genocide to tidy up the mess, fixing their rogue AI on their way out so, his, and Universe’s best hope are us, the monkeys. Joe Bishop at the helm, with such insane and impossible plans that, hehe, no one’s going to like them…

My Opinion: It’s hard to resist the greed when tales of your favorite characters are so very well finalized, because they might just be the last ones. Turned pages through high-strung action on the edge of my seat, the fights, the escapes, the impossible, the momentary lapses of judgement, and perfect ideas from people in the book, rather than universal luck by author’s divinity. Every character, even the side-side had their own firm personality, characteristics that made them – them. Basically, quality is so superb that 15 books later I wish there were more in the future. Because while I couldn’t ask for more, got my open ending to daydream about, got a glimpse into things that were forbidden through the previous books, and so on, I’d still have more, happily.

[Edward Christensen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Unsatisfied with it all

I have loved this series. Craig Alanson had a good imagination for the big events in the universe contained within. Every book has been entertaining. But every book has also had plenty of fuller. Dumb nonsense conversations that meant nothing to the end goal of the story and was just frankly boring. Pages upon pages of talk of opera or insulting each other was just useless and filling pages to make the books longer. And normally it would be fine. I can deal with that as long as the rest of story was good.

In this case, almost all of the book was filler. I skipped page after page of this dull talk among Joe and Skippy about nothing that I wondered if anything was ever going to be accomplished. The book could probably be boiled down to maybe 100 pages of true content. And for a long series such as this, I feel it was just the author of being bored and needing to put a quick end to it. This last book should have been magnificent and to be honest you subject matter could have been. But it was mostly boring stuff.

But what really made it two stars was the ending. Semi-spoiler ahead. It all wrapped up entirely too. Happy. I was completely shocked at the events that took place in the last 20 pages, events that were shocking in the number of key members of the story dying. And then he rebound all of that like a "it was all a dream" sequence you have seen so many times. And though a few people did die, the real shocking stuff got rewound. Which is a gimmick.

I felt the entire story would have ended better with nothing being rewound and Joe and Skippy going off together by themselves in the elder spacecraft having lost everyone that they love accept each other. This is what they discussed they were going to do since they ended the threat on earth. And this would have been a fitting end. Instead everything was happy happy.

Overall a great series, but I wish it was more thought-provoking and less full of fluff. Though I hope to see more of Joe and Skippy and how they deal with those from outside the universe.

[Julian · Rating 2 out of 5]

Anyone who has come this far will read this last one regardless of any reviews, but to some this up, to me, the author has written a whole book that might have done just as well having printed “I have run out of ideas” over and over for several hundred pages. There is little direction, just a lot of disjointed back and forth, and a pretty lazy conclusion. Shame but regardless of this rather poor ending to the series, I have literally loved the journey and wish to thank the author for some amazing escapism over the past 15 books. It is ok to run out of steam after 15 books, he should be commended for getting so far on one single idea.

[Aaron Barker · Rating 3 out of 5]

A pretty lame ending to the series. So many questions left unanswered. A book full of fluff and needless tangents, a hurried ending and no resolution to even the situations added in this very book. One of my favorite series that I promoted to many friends, but am now sad to have gotten people hooked on for the lame ending. *sigh*

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

@craigalanson you bastard don’t you dare conclude this series!!!!!! Keep ‘em coming!!!! Joe should have ended up turning into an elder AI but it’s ok we still love you craig. ExForce is THE BEST sci-fi audiobook series, completely out classes all other series. RC Bray is a national treasure.

[Abe Powell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best book series I have ever read. I am sad to see it end, but it could not have been better.

[Wild · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sad farewell to the series. (Kindle/whisper sync version)

Once again Joe, Sippy & crews, find themselves in all sorts of drama.

Not only is this the end of the series but it's the worst battle they face with the Elders & their tech.

If you've invested in the whole series, you'll find this a tear jerker. As the losses are massive & brutal. The ending is bitter sweat & somewhat tragic for some of the crews favourites, especially Joe's better half.

I won't give any more details for fear of spoiling this finale to the adventure. I'm very sad it's come to an end. I've thoroughly enjoyed each narration & each stage of the adventure.

This is one series I can see me revisiting multiple times. Thanks for the edge of seat moments, the OMGs & all the hilarious banter between the monkeys & their beer can. I will miss you all..... wait.... no I won't, I'll just start again! LOL

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fitting ending for Skippy the Magnificent and the Merry Band of Pirates. The pacing was a bit if an issue, with the opening chapters focused a bit much on the mundane while the third act felt a bit more rushed than usual. You could argue the ending, but for me it skewed a bit deus ex machina and glossed over the mechanics and details in a way that is unusual for the series.

Regardless, Alanson has achieved an fitting conclusion to an epic series that has managed to consistently raise the stakes on layers and layers of incentive technological capabilities/limitations without contradicting itself. It also managed to be fun and funny throughout.

[Steve Horman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Audiobook. Wow. 15 books deep and then it ends. Skippy is the best and the ending was good-ish. Tears were shed, battles were fought, but it felt rushed and there was no epilogue which was REALLY disappointing considering the rushed ending. Maybe Craig can do a 1-2 hour novella and call it the epilogue. Overall, liked it. And didn’t see a few things coming. I did finally guess one monkey brained idea which felt very satisfying!

Thank you Craig!

[Jason Lucas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Once I delve into an Expeditionary Force audiobook, I find myself captivated until the very end, as usual. RC Bray's exceptional narration never fails to impress, and Craig Alanson's boundless imagination leaves you wondering how he conjures up such incredible ideas. While many loose ends are tied up throughout the series, I sense that there is still potential for further expansion.

[Pete Keane · Rating 5 out of 5]

A top five all time favorite book series. simply great!

Uh Joe, hehehe, we may have a problem. Said Skippy…
I am so sad to have this exceptionally well written, entertaining, fun, happy, sad, and just wonderful book series end.

Craig Alanson, thank you. You did a spectacular job writing the entire 15 book series. But like Skippy would say to Joe, I” hate you sooo much” for ending this series.

I already miss all the characters.
I recommend this entire series to everyone.

[Suz · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love these characters but Skippy was HARD to warm up to! LOL Here at book 15 it's starting to feel like gary stu goodness all the time.

It was fun, though. I can't imagine where Alanson will take it next.

[Robin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perfect. Everything you would want in the series. Going to miss the characters. Maybe craig will find a way to bring them back one day. Spinoff????

[James Tomasino · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one raised the stakes as high as they can go. The ending felt rushed though.

[Dee Haddrill · Rating 4 out of 5]

While certainly not the best in the series, I was quite happy with how everything wrapped up. Except for a few certain deaths, which were sad, but understandable. Apparently it’s no longer the end though so let’s see what comes next.

[Mike Davidson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Skippy the Magnificent and meat sack Joe Bishop. I’ve read each book and they continue to entertain me. This particular one is strong on the Elders and great overall. Definitely recommend.

[Miles · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75☆

[Cole Pate · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book! This book raises some religious questions about matter and a soul which is interesting. I appreciate the comment about that conundrum and how that topic is “above his pay grade.” I’m curious about where the series goes from here!

[Praneeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ending left me wanting more, even after 15 books in the series

[Cole Schoolland · Rating 4 out of 5]

Continues to be wonderfully enjoyable.