• Valkyrie

  • Expeditionary Force, Book 9
  • By: Craig Alanson
  • Narrated by: R.C. Bray
  • Length: 19 hrs and 45 mins
  • 4.8 out of 5 stars (20,931 ratings)

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Valkyrie  By  cover art

Valkyrie

By: Craig Alanson
Narrated by: R.C. Bray
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Publisher's summary

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

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

A chore to read. A disappointment and repetitive.

My first review was removed. I'm not sure why? It was ranked the number 1 review of the book as most helpful....

I'm pretty upset. I'm not going to lie. I download and binge the books as they are released. Pulling all nighters...

I've been patient. I've been calm. I've defended the series from justified criticism... but I'm so disappointed with this book. Half the book was nothing but filler that didn't need to be there.
The first half of the book had me fist pumping the air.
The second half made me tired, annoyed, upset, and honestly it was a chore to finish the book. I've never felt so bored and annoyed by an author's choice to create a problem that doesn't need to exist, ONLY TO THEN SHOEHORN the advertised revealing of everything. It felt unnatural. And it was as if he simply got tired of writing the filler and just wedged in the reveals.

It made me mad that the MBOP also never seem to actually show appreciation of Skippy. They are jerks to him. Yes he's a jerk at times, but look at some of the statements towards him.... I cannot recall a genuine thank you or anything. It's unnatural and a poor attempt at foreshadowing.

The ending.. I'm glad we know, but I'm certifiably mad that Craig decided to waste the second half of the book on some mission that did not need to be in the book at all. There's literally no reason for that problem to exist.

I'm so tired of the filler dragging the books out. Honestly, I'm seriously debating giving up on my second favorite book series. I'm a diehard fan and have read each book at minimum 4 times each.

The cliffhanger wasn't clever or exciting, it was annoying. We deserved better after waiting so long for answers.

I'm genuinely disappointed that after everything, our heros have yet again waste their time, nothing matters, no one respects Joe for some darn reason, and he still might not get the girl. It's been 9 books, do your thing or get off the pot with the relationships.

The repetitiveness of the story arches and the repetitiveness of the books plot points is unnecessary and filler. We get it, the earth is doomed. Okay. You told us that 7 times in the last 20 pages. We.get.it.

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461 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

You stupid monkeys! Why would anyone read a review for book 9

It’s book freeking 9. If you ate 8 bananas from a bunch would you think the 9th banana would be so different that you would have to consult other monkeys on the tasty deliciousness of their 9th banana. Nnoooooo stupid monkeys love bananas and when they have loved their previous 8 bananas form this bunch, said stupid monkey should already know that they will love their 9th banana. Or similarly they will love the continuing adventures of the worlds most magnificent and awesome elder AI Skippy the Magnificent and his stupid side kick Joe “stupid smelly monkey” Bishop on their newly assembled BATTLECRUISER Valkyrie

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305 people found this helpful

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Talk about beating the dead horse.

I was huge fan of this book series. But it feels like I'm reading the same book over and over again. I have relationship fatigue. Sick of hearing the unnatural Way the relationships all exist. This series should have ended three books ago. I think Skippy says it best when he sums up everything blah blah blah

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184 people found this helpful

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    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Feel sorry for RC Bray having to read this

Loved the first book. Sadly the quality have declined steadily as the series have progressed. Seems the author has run out of fresh ideas and is just rehashing old material without being able to develop the plot further. As the story gets more and more confusing, it ends in a cliffhanger. A waste of time and a waste of money. It is obvious that Alanson has decided to milk this series for all it is worth by publishing books faster and faster at the expense of ever declining quality.

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163 people found this helpful

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    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Terrible book

You keep hoping the story is going to progress it doesn’t. The narrator is awesome. If it wasn’t for him I would not even bother with the story.

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145 people found this helpful

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    2 out of 5 stars

I made it this far, but I can't take any more.

First review ever because enough is enough. I'm done.

I've been waiting for the plot to advance. And it did to an extent as they went on the offensive and the dynamic of the Universe totally changed. I really enjoyed it.

But then do something incredibly dumb based on Bishop's jealousy over an Adams non-issue (For the love of God retire the "I can't date Adams because the Army would be mad at me." trope. It's not even casual mentions this time either, Bishop vomits on and on about it and even the other characters are tired of it. Like Bishop hasn't commited Mutiny before? More insultingly, Bishop casually dismisses Army regulations in a single sentence later in the book (Chinese General).

Furthermore, Bishop has not developed as character. He's been in command for years, but still struggles to act like an adult, both in terms of maturity and intelligence (he's almost proud of his ignorance). When people tell him obvious truths his feelings get easily hurt, and then he mopes. Skippy has to lock Mario Kart until he finishes his readings. He thinks "fortuitous" is a fancy word. The list goes on and on. Would Piccard or say Jack Ryan act like this?

And then the plot goes to die. An entire section of the book should have been cut. It killed the plot momentum for a mission that made no sense. What made me the most mad about the situation is that it heavily referenced book 3.5 about the Mavericks; I didn't listen to that one as these books don't work without Skippy/Bishop dialogs. Same thing he did in book 8 with Daytona (book 7.5). I was confused about my first read of book 8 that reference Daytona. So I tried to listen to Daytona, but I couldn't finish. Just terrible. Upside however: I learned how to exchnage Audible books. These plot references feel cheap and simple quick cash grabs. I'm disappointed in the author. He has plenty of plot ideas to work with and we've proven we'll pay for strong content.

New and usual faults aside, the cliffhanger at the end is intriguing. But it's a development that didn't require 11 books to introduce.

Narration was great, but I'm still done with the series.

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141 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Don't stop now!

I have experienced all nine books and all I can say is please don't stop now even if you have to make up something... hehe. This author and narrator combination make these books very fun to hear. If you wrote 90 books I would listen to them all!

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84 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

wow hours I cant get back

I have over 100 books 1st review.. loved the books till now got the preorder. 1st time not worth it on this one. sorry 1st bad reviews

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75 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Thank you !

RC and Craig do it again
This is a series I will never tire of
The interplay is just sooo damn good

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41 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

WTF Craig!!!!

i love expeditionary force, overall its a great series and when book 9 was announced i immediately preordered it and waited several months. then it was released and i dived on in expected another amazing adventure with the merry band of pirates. And for the most part, i got that.

However...... [[[Spoiler Alert]]]


Spoilers are ahead, if you dont want to know them, dont continue this review. My non spoiler complaint is the cliffhanger, i HATE them. The rest involves spoilers, you have been warned.

---------------------------------‐-----------------------------------------

Skippy got his memories back at the end of a mission, hooray right? WRONG. He has a sudden personality shift and betrays the entire crew, abandoning them to certain death by a very pissed off alien AI who has full control over both the valkryie and thr dutchman, who has beatten nagetha, putting the dutchman's reactors on critical and is using combat and maintenance bots to murder the Valkryies crew......oh and joe is alone on a dropship that has been caught by the thranin.......did i miss anything?

Craig WTF, this is NOT a good ending or cliffhanger, skippy is absent minded yes, but not to extend to get everyone killed or betray them!!!! theres no forgiving what he justvsid and many members of the team are probably going to die if not everyone....

i am so......mad righy now its not even funny. i use to love this series and recommended it to all my friends, now, i gotta tell them to hold off because of this horrible ending. that was completely unnecessary. if you wanted to shake things up craig, this was NOT the way to do it.

if their is a book 10, i dunno if i even want it or hear what happened to my favorite scifi heroes.


ill end this rant-review here with one word....

Disappointed.

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