Book Review: Terminal Uprising
Hey look, it’s a sequel review! From before the hiatus! Well done, me. I actually debated whether or not I wanted to continue reading this series after Terminal Alliance. It wasn’t quite as funny as I expected, and while I liked the characters, there were a lot of other books clamoring for my attention. I ended up compromising and waiting until the paperback came out. Altogether, I’m pretty happy with my decision because this sequel is about as good as its predecessor.
After learning the truth about the plague that turned most of humanity into mindless zombies then saving the Krakau homeworld, Mops and her crew are some of the most wanted people in the galaxy. A tip from a Prodryan lawyer sends them hurtling back to Earth, in search of a mysterious human who seems to be fully and totally cured. Can Mops and her crew uncover yet another mystery surrounding the plague? Or will the power-hungry Krakau general, the hordes of zombie humans, or the strange indigenous wildlife get to them first?
Terminal Uprising has a lot in common with its predecessor. Like the first book, it’s more humorous in theory than humorous in actuality. It has its occasional moments (the quoted incident below being one of them), but this is a book that makes you chuckle rather than outright laugh.
The core cast hasn’t changed much, but there are a few additions, namely Advocate of Violence, or “Cate,” the Prodryan lawyer who joins up with the crew early on. A lot of the most clever and engaging dialogue revolves around his straightforward attempts to screw over all the races in the galaxy while also sort of helping the humans in the process. He’s completely incapable of lying, loves violence (as the name suggests), and actually makes quite a fun foil for Wolf.
Mops and her crew are just as determined as ever, and it’s endlessly entertaining to see how they use janitorial supplies to get out of tight places and commit heinous acts of destruction. This book places them in the uncomfortable position of being back on their homeworld and forces them to confront what that means, what they lost, and whether they’re truly even human anymore. It’s a nice emotional through line for all of them.
One of the sad things is that about half the crew gets sidelined pretty early on in the novel and only appears in a few brief paragraphs. Twice as sadly, this includes the alien crewmembers, so we miss out on their perspectives for the majority of the book. While I can kind of see the logic, given the tight focus on what it means to be human, it definitely leaves the world feeling less flashy and interesting than it did in Terminal Alliance.
Thankfully, Hines’ pacing remains tight and the plot and prose are equally engaging. Terminal Uprising is a quick read that marches from one danger to the next, stopping only to fill in a few information gaps before introducing the next threat. And those threats have a much different feel than Terminal Alliance’s threat — here, the focus is on a semi-rogue Krakau, her secret lab, and the horrors she’s been cooking up inside. Much like it’s predecessor, it’s not super hard to figure out where the book is going, but the journey is incredibly fun and mostly light-hearted, interspersed with a few deeper, more poignant moments.
And as for the end, well. Mops and her team have a bit of a Pyrrhic victory on their hands, don’t they? But the situation on Earth gets sorted quite satisfactorily, and Hines sets up a climax focusing on the Prodryans, with a mysterious planet ominously known as “Hells Claws.”
When it comes right down to it, this series is just good, old-fashioned fun. It’s not going to win any awards, and it’s not the book that’s going to keep you up at night, but it’s a fast, easy and enjoyable read that will give you your money’s worth of entertainment. And to be honest, that’s really all I can ask for right now: something that lets me escape the world for just a little bit.
Grade: 4/5 stars
Memorable Quote:
““It was just an animal. Puny looking thing, black with white stripes. I think it was what the feral was getting worked up about, so I thought I’d scare it off, maybe make it easier to take care of the feral.”
”Based on Wolf’s description, I have a possible identification of the animal,” offered Doc.
”The damned thing blasted me with some kind of chemical weapon,” Wolf continued.
”Identification confirmed.””
