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Valkyrie

Expeditionary Force, Book 9

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Valkyrie

By: Craig Alanson
Narrated by: R.C. Bray
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About this listen

After saving the world many times, the Merry Band of Pirates have accepted the inevitable: Earth is doomed.

All they can do is try to bring a few thousand people to safety, before vicious aliens arrive to destroy humanity's home world.

No.

There is one other thing they can do: hit the enemy so hard that the aliens will regret they ever heard of humans.

©2019 Craig Alanson (P)2020 Podium Publishing Adventure Military Science Fiction Space Opera Fiction Pirate

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After this time being pushed around several galaxies, of being invaded, forced into subservience humanity aims to get some of its own back! The Merry Band of Pirates have a new toy and boy do they intend to use it. It's a lovely change of direction, though of course this is Joe and Skippy so nothing works out quite as they might have imagined.

I think most people who've enjoyed the books so far will enjoy this acceleration of the action, finally rather than simply skulking around in desperation the Pirates look to turn the tables in a last desperate act of defiance at the Maxxolts close in on Earth. Fans will enjoy more of the same, the same banter the same zany problem-solving and some more classic space battles involving all manner of mad tactics.

Whether those same fans will be happy at how the book ends I am not so sure. The first half of the book is definitely the better part and then it really does get a more bloated feel to it. And then the ending . . . I don't do spoilers but having got there it's a very sudden and sharp change of gears and I suspect this cliffhanger will annoy a few. All I can say is that Allanson will have his work cut out to carry on in the next one.

Of course there are two constants with this series now. First, it would be a mistake to just start from this one, it will probably work as a story but a lot of the nuance and humour will be lost, best to start at the beginning. Second, RC Bray is simply fabulous but unless you are new to all this you don't need me to tell you that.

So, some really good stuff but maybe some editing could have been useful in the second half and once you get there the ending might raise the blood pressure. One thing's for sure, I am going to have to get the next book to see how it resolves!

Wallop, Go Pirates! Then a bit of a WTF moment . .

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For the very first time in the entire Expeditionary Force series of books, the previous instalment, Armageddon, fell a little short in my opinion. Alanson relied too heavily on the jibing between Bishop and Skippy rather than on some solid plot. Don't get me wrong, Armageddon wasn't a 'bad' book at all and it did have a satisfactory second half, but it wasted much of the book on the aforementioned back and forth between Skippy and Bishop.

I am happy to say that book 9 in the series, Valkyrie, has mostly remedied that and has Alanson back on top form with a solid story. Alanson also leaves us on a hum dinger of a cliff hanger I was not prepared for or expecting, which follows the best practices of good writing, that being 'Always leave them wanting more'!

I'm generally not one to read other reviews for a book I've already read, but glancing over several of them, I noted how some people were upset about the ending. This baffles me as the classic cliffhanger is a bedrock of episodic story telling. Valkyrie's ending is a more intense cliffhanger than others in this series, but the others still end in such a way as to make the reader wonder what will happen next. It does appear that we live in an age now where some people want it all and must have it now otherwise they get"angry".

Valkyrie sees our merry band of pirates take a more proactive role rather than a reactive one, which is a welcome change of direction and in itself offers a different set of challenges.

In the best tradition of Alanson's Expeditionary Force series, the plot takes several turns, which once more have Bishop and company having to come up with brilliant problem solving solutions. I'm always impressed with the way Alanson is able to achieve this, coming up with innovative methods of dealing with obstacles. Alanson never makes it easy for himself either, which is the mark of a good author. He throws proverbial spanners into already impossible situations, keeping everything moving along at a nice clip in the process.

I was looking back over my library to see that his previous book in the series, the aforementioned Armageddon, was only released sometime around October last year, so I was quite shocked at how rapidly Alanson is able to write these stories. I know he is now a full time writer, but it does seem rather fast to me. My hope is that he doesn't burn himself out. I'd much rather he slow down and come up with quality over quantity every time. Still, he is clearly a very talented writer, so perhaps this rapid work flow is his natural cadence and one that suits him.

The incomparable R.C. Bray narrates once more and having him do so is the icing on the cake. By now, no other narrator would do. There are other series' of books out there on Audible that use different narrators throughout, which really disrupts continuity in my view. Bray is superb, as ever, although I did note an inconsistency when he rendered the voice of the Maxolhx aliens. In a prior story, one where we first get dialogue from these aliens, Bray delivers it rolling each of the 'R' sounds in a clever way of differentiating these new alien voices at the time. Sadly, this unique speech attribute is missing from the Maxolhx dialogue now.

Still, this is a very minor observation on my part and not a criticism. As an extra treat, be sure to listen right to the end as there is a montage series of out-takes relating to Bray's narration. A nice humerus touch that I cannot recall ever hearing in an audio book before.

Valkyrie ticks pretty much all the boxes I have come to look for in an Expeditionary Force story. I think I'd like to see another Mavericks book next. Unlike some other readers, I can wait for the conclusion to the cliffhanger we were left with, that's kind of what gives them the power they have over the reader .... the waiting and therefore the hunger it generates to continue with the story.



Kicking The Rotten Kitty's

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Damn it Skippy!

ok fine, here are the extra words needed to post a review

Skippy!

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Yes, this time you will get the same, usual items of entertainment, but this time, you finally get a twist of something actually happening. Too bad it’s toward the end

About time a proper twist!

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Finally we got answers and a cliff hanger I have to wait until AUGUST to get a resolution for?!!?

My only gripe is the Canadian going Eh every two sentences, they don't sound like that and it's really distracting, but aside from that, we're going in a whole new direction!!

Amazing amazing

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