Columbus Day cover art

Columbus Day

Expeditionary Force, Book 1

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.
Thousands of incredible audiobooks and podcasts to take wherever you go.
Immerse yourself in a world of storytelling with the Plus Catalogue - unlimited listening to thousands of select audiobooks, podcasts and Audible Originals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Columbus Day

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.

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

Nominee, Audie Awards—Audiobook of the Year, 2018

We were fighting on the wrong side of a war we couldn't win. And that was the good news.

The Ruhar hit us on Columbus Day. There we were, innocently drifting along the cosmos on our little blue marble, like the native Americans in 1492. Over the horizon come ships of a technologically advanced, aggressive culture, and BAM! There go the good old days, when humans only got killed by each other. So, Columbus Day. It fits.

When the morning sky twinkled again, this time with Kristang starships jumping in to hammer the Ruhar, we thought we were saved. The UN Expeditionary Force hitched a ride on Kristang ships to fight the Ruhar, wherever our new allies thought we could be useful. So, I went from fighting with the US Army in Nigeria, to fighting in space. It was lies, all of it. We shouldn't even be fighting the Ruhar, they aren't our enemy. Our allies are.

I'd better start at the beginning.

©2016 Craig Alanson (P)2016 Podium Audio
Adventure Fantasy Fiction Military Science Science Fiction Witty Star Wars War Comedy Military Interstellar China Computer Science Artificial Intelligence Space Military

Listeners also enjoyed...

Convergence cover art
Deathtrap cover art
Fear the Sky cover art
We Are Legion (We Are Bob) cover art
The Eden Plague cover art
Cartwright's Cavaliers cover art
Wayward Galaxy cover art
Dungeon Crawler Carl cover art
Ryan's Gambit cover art
Ruins of the Earth cover art
Tin Man cover art
Outland cover art
Steel World cover art
Warship cover art
Ascendant cover art
Ruins of the Galaxy cover art
All stars
Most relevant
RC Bray is reason enough to buy an audiobook. Brilliant performance of an original and entertaining book. Need the next book now!

Excellent, original and narrated by a master

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

This in not heavy SciFi like Peter F. This is fun.
Craig C. Has managed to take some form of serious adventure and also make it humerus. This isn’t slapstick as some reviews imply but it’s also not overly serious and deep like a Iain B. It’s really funny and a darn good adventure too. Some have complained it too formulaic, but so is a drink, and who doesn’t need a drink from time to time just to relax and enjoy. Just like this book.

Just a whole lotta fun.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

great story. great characters. great narrator. i love RC Bray.
Craig Alanson is my new favourite writer

fantastic book

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

What did you like most about Columbus Day?

I love Sci-Fi, I always have, I always will. Something about the thought of aliens being out there, whole new worlds to discover; I ordered this purely because the cover looked cool and R.C. narrated it. The story is great, the chapters run as like episodes of an hour long each which is perfect when I'm driving to and from work every day. Bought book 2 before I even finished this one, which I am listening to now.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Gotta be Joe, Skippy's fine n all but the fact that he keeps going out of his way to insult humanity gets a bit irritating after awhile.

What does R.C. Bray bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you had only read the book?

R.C. Bray's voice is probably the best voice ever to do audiobooks. I buy my audiobooks based on whether or not he's read it rather than who the author is.

Amazing start to the series

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Best audio book I've ever listened to! so funny, clever, and genuine. just amazing! the reader is brilliant at making sure each voice sounds different and really brings the story to life. 10/10 would recommend

Brilliantly clever and funny

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

See more reviews