Columbus Day

When the aliens arrived on Columbus Day, humanity's first instinct was relief — at least someone stronger had shown up to help. Soldier Joe Bishop quickly learns that relief was a catastrophic miscalculation. Earth has been caught between two interstellar powers locked in a conflict older than human civilization, and neither side particularly cares whether humanity survives the arrangement. What follows is a story about a man who sees through the lies before almost anyone else does — and has to decide what to do with that knowledge when the stakes are nothing less than the future of his species.

Craig Alanson writes with a sharp, sardonic voice that keeps the pages turning even when the subject matter gets genuinely bleak. The book's greatest strength is its first-person perspective: Bishop is observant, self-deprecating, and funny in the way that soldiers tend to be funny — as a coping mechanism. Alanson balances hard science fiction worldbuilding with remarkably grounded human reactions, never letting the scale of the conflict dwarf the individual story at its center. Readers who enjoy their space opera with wit intact will find this a particularly satisfying first entry into a larger universe.