Terminal Alliance

November 13, 2017
Though humorous, the strong first installment of Hines’s Janitors of the Post-Apocalypse military science fiction series takes its core concept very seriously. It’s set in a future in which a plague killed most of humankind and turned the survivors into feral monsters. The alien Krakau have cured a handful of humans, leading to the creation of the Earth Mercenary Corps. When a bioweapon attack against the EMCS Pufferfish kills or incapacitates everyone aboard except Lt. Marion “Mops” Adamopoulos and her shipboard hygiene and sanitation team, they must commandeer the damaged ship and expose a conspiracy backed by villains who may be capable of undoing the Krakau cure. Much as in Hines’s Jig the Goblin series, the humor here comes from the contextual absurdity of underdog protagonists standing up to superior forces through cunning, unpredictability, and unconventional tactics—in this case, “space janitors” outwitting those who underestimate them. The ragtag EMC members also have an entertainingly incomplete understanding of human civilization, so they choose names that defy traditional gender norms (a woman is called Wolfgang Mozart) and name their ships for what they think of as Earth’s most intimidating creatures (e.g., the EMCS Honey Badger). This solidly entertaining story has plenty of potential for further installments. Agent: Joshua Bilmes, JABberwocky Literary.

Starred review from October 15, 2017

Decades after the alien Krakau rescued the last few thousand inhabitants of Earth from a plague that had turned humans into mindless savages, Marion "Mops" Adamopoulos considers herself lucky to have been restored to her humanity. Mops serves as a lieutenant on the Earth Mercenary Corps ship Pufferfish, where she heads up the sanitation and hygiene crew. Her ship is attacked by a bioweapon that kills the Krakau who direct operations and turns the human crew back into a feral state, but Mops and her small crew of janitors fortunately were in environmental suits to tackle a particularly noxious mess. They must find a way to save their crew until the Krakau can reverse the effects of the weapon, while trying to find out who is responsible. VERDICT Hines (Libromancer) delivers a fantastic space opera that doesn't skimp on the action and excitement but pairs it with a hefty dose of slightly scatological humor. The author is especially clever in having Mops and her team leverage cleaning tools and a knowledge of spaceship plumbing to fight their enemies. [Previewed in Marlene Harris's "Galaxy Quests" Sf/fantasy preview, LJ 4/15/17.]--MM

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