ridel reviewed Paradise by Craig Alanson (Expeditionary Force, #3)
One Small Step For Humanity
4 stars
Paradise is an improvement over its predecessor while maintaining its core formula: a lighthearted space adventure driven by the buddy-comedy duo of Skippy and Bishop. While its predecessor felt very episodic, this novel widens its scope to address the social-political impact of humans taking their first steps on the galactic stage.
Craig Alanson takes a further risk and introduces new POVs. This is a welcome change! Bishop's solo narration is joined by a variety of new characters. As a military sci-fi novel, often the solution to most problems involves guns and explosions. Battles were never tense though, as the fate of Skippy and Bishop is never in doubt. New narrators don't have such plot armour and so the novel is tenser and more vivid than its predecessors.
The worldbuilding deepens by returning to familiar territory. Previous time spent explaining the political situation of the Ruhar, Kristang and UNEF on Paradise …
Paradise is an improvement over its predecessor while maintaining its core formula: a lighthearted space adventure driven by the buddy-comedy duo of Skippy and Bishop. While its predecessor felt very episodic, this novel widens its scope to address the social-political impact of humans taking their first steps on the galactic stage.
Craig Alanson takes a further risk and introduces new POVs. This is a welcome change! Bishop's solo narration is joined by a variety of new characters. As a military sci-fi novel, often the solution to most problems involves guns and explosions. Battles were never tense though, as the fate of Skippy and Bishop is never in doubt. New narrators don't have such plot armour and so the novel is tenser and more vivid than its predecessors.
The worldbuilding deepens by returning to familiar territory. Previous time spent explaining the political situation of the Ruhar, Kristang and UNEF on Paradise allows the author to build momentum into some fairly complex plots. It's a suprising trade-off: our cast explores fewer star systems, yet as a reader, the story explores much more alien topics. Instead of constantly introducing new locations that lack emotional buy-in, the author reduces the locations covered by the story and makes the stakes much more real.
Additional narrators also reduces Skippy's screentime. While I think readers (by this point) are all fans of Skippy's special personality, distance makes the heart grow fonder. He's funnier when he's not the focus of every scene, and his competence is all-the-more impressive now that we get a closer look at some of the aliens.
Paradise is one small step for content, one giant leap for the author's writing skill. I look forward to future output by Craig Alanson.
Recommended.
