Terminal Uprising by Jim C. Hines science fiction and fantasy book and audiobook reviewsTerminal Uprising by Jim C. Hines science fiction and fantasy book and audiobook reviewsTerminal Uprising by Jim C. Hines

Terminal Uprising (2019) is the second novel in Jim C. Hines’ JANITORS OF THE POST-APOCALYPSE series. It follows Terminal Alliance, which should be read first. There you’ll meet “Mops” Adamopoulos, the boss of a human janitorial crew that works for the Krakau aliens. These friendly aliens saved humanity by genetically engineering thousands of humans after the Earth was ravaged by a virus that turned everyone into zombies.

It’s been a few months since Mops and her crew found themselves accidentally in charge of the spaceship Pufferfish. They had quite an adventure and they discovered a secret about their benign Krakau hosts and about what might have caused the virus outbreak that killed off most of humanity.

Now they’ve been given orders to take the Pufferfish and rendezvous with some aliens who will give them important information about something that’s happening back on the devastated and abandoned Earth. The meeting place is in the lungs of an enormous creature that lives in outer space. (Let the snot jokes begin.)

Terminal Uprising by Jim C. Hines science fiction and fantasy book and audiobook reviewsAfter the meeting, Mops and her crew must travel to Earth to follow up on the intel they received. On Earth they team up with some librarians (who doesn’t love librarians?) to defeat a mad scientist (who doesn’t love a mad scientist?) with the help of an alien lawyer (who doesn’t love…. Oh, nevermind…). Maybe this is the janitors’ chance to clean up Earth.

Fans of Terminal Alliance will enjoy this new adventure in the JANITORS OF THE POST-APOCALYPSE series. I liked it a little better than Terminal Alliance because there are some cool new aliens, and because the humor is a little funnier, though it’s still sometimes predictable and repetitive and relies too much on what I’d call potty jokes.

Importantly, the narration of the audiobook by Tantor Audio is satisfactory this time. I had complained about it in my review of Terminal Alliance but, as I’d hoped, Rebecca Mitchell’s performance was much improved in this second novel. (This is not an uncommon occurrence with second novels.)

It seems that fans of JANITORS OF THE POST-APOCALYPSE are expecting one more book in the series. A quick peek at Jim C. Hines’ website neither confirmed nor disconfirmed this. I guess we’ll see. If a third book shows up, I’ll read it.

Published in 2019 (audiobook in 2020). Human civilization didn’t just fall. It was pushed. The Krakau came to Earth in the year 2104. By 2105, humanity had been reduced to shambling, feral monsters. In the Krakau’s defense, it was an accident, and a century later, they did come back and try to fix us. Sort of. It’s been four months since Marion “Mops” Adamopoulos learned the truth of that accident. Four months since she and her team of hygiene and sanitation specialists stole the EMCS Pufferfish and stopped a bioterrorism attack against the Krakau homeworld. Four months since she set out to find proof of what really happened on Earth all those years ago. Between trying to protect their secrets and fighting the xenocidal Prodryans, who’ve been escalating their war against everyone who isn’t Prodryan, the Krakau have their tentacles full. Mops’ mission changes when she learns of a secret Krakau laboratory on Earth. A small group under command of Fleet Admiral Belle-Bonne Sage is working to create a new weapon, one that could bring victory over the Prodryans … or drown the galaxy in chaos. To discover the truth, Mops and her rogue cleaning crew will have to do the one thing she fears most: return to Earth, a world overrun by feral apes, wild dogs, savage humans, and worse. (After all, the planet hasn’t been cleaned in a century and a half!) What Mops finds in the filthy ruins of humanity could change everything, assuming she survives long enough to share it. Perhaps humanity isn’t as dead as the galaxy thought.

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  • Kat Hooper

    KAT HOOPER, who started this site in June 2007, earned a Ph.D. in neuroscience and psychology at Indiana University (Bloomington) and now teaches and conducts brain research at the University of North Florida. When she reads fiction, she wants to encounter new ideas and lots of imagination. She wants to view the world in a different way. She wants to have her mind blown. She loves beautiful language and has no patience for dull prose, vapid romance, or cheesy dialogue. She prefers complex characterization, intriguing plots, and plenty of action. Favorite authors are Jack Vance, Robin Hobb, Kage Baker, William Gibson, Gene Wolfe, Richard Matheson, and C.S. Lewis.

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