Why You'll Love This
A lean, fast side story that proves Alanson's universe is just as compelling without the main crew stealing the spotlight.
- Great if you want: a grounded military sci-fi story with real stakes on Paradise
- The experience: brisk and propulsive — reads in one or two focused sittings
- The writing: Alanson keeps his dry wit intact while letting new characters breathe
- Skip if: you're not already invested in the Expeditionary Force series
About This Book
When the Flying Dutchman's crew finally catches a break, you'd think the universe might cooperate for once. It doesn't. While the main cast navigates its own chaos elsewhere, Major Emily Perkins and her team are left holding things together on Paradise — an alien-controlled planet where "holding things together" is a generous description of what's actually happening. This novella-length entry in the Expeditionary Force series puts a secondary cast front and center, raising the stakes for characters who don't have the luxury of a pirate starship as backup. It's a story about competence under impossible pressure, and the very human cost of being left behind.
At 167 pages, Alanson strips away the sprawl and delivers something tighter than his full-length entries — lean, focused, and surprisingly punchy. The signature dry humor is still present, but the shorter format forces the storytelling to earn every scene. Readers who appreciate the broader series will find genuine payoff in seeing Perkins given room to breathe as a protagonist, and newcomers curious about the universe get a compact, self-contained taste of what makes these books click.
