Kicking The Rotten Kitty's

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.







