This wasn't at all what I expected. Often that's a good thing, but in this case it made zero sense, and I have only myself to blame for making such a bad decision. I had read the description, so I have no excuse. I thought it might be amusing or engaging, but it was boring and silly.
The first problem is first person as usual. The story is told by a sociopath if not a psychopath, who is one of the misfit crew describing his experience of being sent as humanity's joint ambassadors to aliens who apparently don't want to meet us. Why send anyone instead of a drone or two is unexplained and apparently went unconsidered by the author in plotting this, as did the point of sending these people as opposed to trained experts.
What really got me though was the tone of the narrator - the sociopath - which is full of understanding of emotion and which simply could not be there in a sociopath, hence the story was completely unrealistic from the outset, regardless of the characters involved.
This is yet another problem (like it needs any more) with first person - a voice which really ought to come with an 'unrealistic' warning on the book cover. Had I known that this would be first person before I bought it, I would never have spent a penny on it. I gave up on it quickly because it simply wasn't doing it and seemed obsessed with trying to gross out the reader. I can't commend it based on the small portion of it to which I listened.
