Columbus Day: Expeditionary Force, Book 1 (2016) Craig Alanson

This book is a guilty pleasure. Joe Bishop is our hero.   He is in main on leave from the Army when first Hamster-like aliens named Ruhar come to Earth and start lighting-up all of the power plants.   Joe captures one using an illegal ice cream truck decorated with Barney (the dinosaur). Then the lizard-like, Kristang, come to “save” the humans from the Ruhar.   Big surprise! Turns out that the cute Ruhar are actually the good guys and the blood-thirsty Kristang have become our slave masters.   We have no matching technology of our own and we can eat Ruhar or Kristang food so how do we survive? Enter alien artificial intelligence invented by the ancients. Joe gives it the cute nick name of “Skippy”. Together with Skippy, Joe escapes and rescues Earth.   Obviously, the start of a series.

I like the first person narration of Joe. The details are believable (except Skippy which makes no sense except as a plot contrivance). Will I read book two? Yes – but I will feel a little guilty.