Pleasant writing style. I found the story to be a bit farfetched at times, but it did have physically flawed people as main characters, and good female representation. ( )

I don't know what I expected this to be, but I loved it. Expendable is, by turns, funny, snarky, intelligent, thrilling... everything you'd want from a ripping good space yarn. ( )

I really felt this book was a lot of fun, and was genuinely enjoying the experience...until the scene changes about halfway through the book. I kept slogging, thinking that possibly it'd pick back up, until I realized I was page flipping about eighty pages from the end. Blargh. Not worth continuing with if I'm going to be doing that. :/ ( )

Interesting piece of world building which promises to be an equally engaging series. Gardner's approach not only to FTL travel and exploration but to the social/political/military hierarchies it engenders is novel, to say the least, and he complements the story's biological stretches with enough droll humour to make it all seem plausible. ( )

I plowed through this whole seven-book series in less than two weeks time, joined the author's Patreon, tweeted at him (and received a reply!) and then went looking for more of his books (sadly, there aren't many -- yet!). I don't remember each of the books individually very well (should have reviewed them right away), but I'll leave this review for the series as a whole:
The basic premise is that we aren't alone in the universe, there is a League of Peoples who have agreed to an edict handed down by a far superior (and never actually seen) species, which is basically not to cause harm to any member of any sentient species. There are still people living on Earth: those who refuse to agree to this rule or who have already broken it, but the sentient individuals who can abide by it flit around the universe, investigating new planets and species and making trade relationships.
Throughout the series we get to meet various fascinating races of 'aliens' and learn about their cultures and species. We also get to explore the theme of what constitutes "harm" intentional or otherwise, and towards the end make some hypotheses about the nature of this superior race who enforce the no-harm rule by basically immediately killing anyone who has broken it the next time they try to leave one planet for another. The series is packed with fun characters the reader comes to understand and even love, but they are properly flawed and dynamic individuals who are living their own journeys.
I really, really wish (hope?) there were (will be?) more books in this series. You should do yourself a favor and read it. I'll definitely revisit it someday. ( )