Black Ops cover art

Black Ops

Expeditionary Force, Book 4

 Preview
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free
Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.
Prime members: New to Audible? Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Just £0.99/mo for your first 3 months of Audible.
1 bestseller or new release per month—yours to keep.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, podcasts, and Originals.
Auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

Black Ops

By: Craig Alanson
Narrated by: R.C. Bray
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly. Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £16.99

Buy Now for £16.99

LIMITED TIME OFFER | £0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Premium Plus auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Terms apply.

About this listen

The elite crew of the pirate ship UNS Flying Dutchman had a simple mission: determining whether the Thuranin are sending another starship to Earth. Along the way, they became sidetracked by securing a future for the UNEF troops on the planet Paradise. When asked whether Earth was now safe, their ancient alien AI responded "Not so much"...now they have to deal with the consequences.

©2017 Craig Alanson (P)2017 Podium Publishing Adventure Fantasy Fiction Military Science Fiction Space Opera Interstellar

Listeners also enjoyed...

 Columbus Day cover art
Convergence cover art
The Singularity Trap cover art
Deathtrap cover art
Ascendant cover art
The Eden Plague cover art
Fear the Sky cover art
We Are Legion (We Are Bob) cover art
Sentenced to War cover art
Outland cover art
Warship cover art
Defiance of the Fall cover art
Titanborn cover art
Spellmonger cover art
The Expansion: Publisher's Pack cover art
Rebel Fleet cover art
All stars
Most relevant
loved it
you didn't have to do that at the end... WHEN IS THE NEXT BOOK!!!!!!!!

Oh you Bastards!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Another excellent installment , expertley narrated by RC Bray, believe in "The Awesomeness" of Skippy the Magnificent..

Skippy the Magnificent

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
What can I say? I often write lengthy reviews and go into a bit of detail but I can't say a lot more than how much I thoroughly enjoyed this latest book from Craig Alanson. The book picks up the story from the cliff hanger finish of the previous book and Alanson develops a story that is just as entertaining and enthralling as his previous parts to this superb series. This book is also narrated by the utterly brilliant R.C. Bray and it's so good to see that publishers are using the same narrators within book series. Bray makes these books as special and entertaining as they are. I've said to before and I'll say it again, when you have a superb narrator like Bray who injects personality into each character, the audio form of the written word must become the definitive version. As good as the story is, I feel reading the book in the conventional form would not give you nearly the experience you get here.

Alanson has managed to put together another mini masterpiece in my view. I didn't want to put this book down and I would've read it in one sitting if feasible. Alanson has a knack for weaving a clever and interesting narrative and comes up with superb twists and turns as well as situational prose. Pace is perfect and you will never lose focus in this book.

Some might argue that having an almost omnipotent power in the form of the alien AI known as Skippy makes life too simple for our band of merry pirates. This has some truth to it but it also means that we also end up with characters getting into situations that would not otherwise happen. These situations rarely run smoothly despite Skippy's best efforts and so we have a complex set of circumstances that Alanson handles with aplomb. Without Skippy, I feel that the scope and complexity of the situations our merry band faces would be quite limited so I think that the alien AI makes a perfect tool for getting Bishop and company into all kinds of interesting and dangerous situations and as mentioned before, clever solutions to problems that are very original. As a result, the book is ultimately entertaining which is what makes Alanson's series so very good. Balance that with the humour so lacking in science fiction in general and you have a winning and endearing combination. How Alanson comes up with the complex scenarios and ingenious work arounds amazes me.

If you've read the previous books in this and was like me in that you jumped on the release of this latest part then you won't be reading this review I imagine. To anyone else that comes across it, do what I always recommend and find book 1 in this excellent series and go from there. I cannot recommend enough this series and it has remained consistently good throughout. Many series start off strong but tend to wane or have duff parts but this has, so far, been exceptional throughout.

Trust the awesomeness and get this book.

Trust The Awesomeness

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Another fantastic instalment in the series.

My only criticism would be that it is over far to quickly. Keep em coming!

Fear for the awesomeness!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
What a way to end the book, this is a really enjoyable series of books.
Joe Bishop and his merry band, bouncing from one disaster to another.
Saving earth the hard way

How can you do that!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews