Book Review: Intercepting Valhalla by Stephen Drake
Space opera to me is a fun genre. It tends to have big character personalities, space battles, blaster fights, intrigue, romance and danger around every corner. Books like Simon R. Green’s Deathstalker, C.T. Phipps Lucifer’s Star and Jack Chalker’s Midnight at the Well of Souls have all these and more, and Intercepting Valhalla is a welcome addition to the genre. It even has some elements I hadn’t seen before, and makes effective use of some genre tropes to create a fun story.
The world building is very solid. It’s an expansive universe, with a variety of differing star systems and planets, ruled in a variety of ways by different alien races. The only thing they have in common really is no humans, since humans are seen as too violent and backwater, and are interdicted from the broader universe. Which makes Henry unique as the only human wandering the starlanes. This creates some interesting interactions, especially as he is seen in a lot of eyes and other ocular devices as little more than an animal, who should be kept on a tight leash. It’s this kind of universe Henry finds himself in, where sometimes the only justice is gotten with a blaster bolt or a knife in the ribs. The introduction of even more advanced elder races really throws things into chaos, as the universe gets even bigger than Henry thought it was.
The characters really shine. This starts off with Henry himself, who uses a variety of aliases throughout the story. Being a trained assassin, having multiple identities is important. He is weird for an assassin, trying whenever possible to find alternate ways to solve the contract on people that doesn’t involve killing them. He is diligent in finding out why the contracts were taken and finding non-lethal solutions. As a character, he reminds me a lot of Han Solo if he’d been an assassin instead of a smuggler. Since Henry was 14 when he was abducted, it wouldn’t shock me if he was familiar with the character and modeled himself a bit on him. He also has a couple enhancements due to the experiments the Greys performed on him, such as a data port in the back of his neck that allows him to connect to electronic systems, as well as extended lifespan, which he’s still not sure is a blessing. All in all, he’s tough, resourceful, and works to complete his assignments with as little damage as possible.
The secondary characters are well fleshed out as well. There is Eashna, an alien shapechanger who uses her one shapechange to turn into her race’s closest facsimile of a human, who ends up being Henry’s first mate in both ship and love. She is alien, though, and has a couple unintended side effects on Henry due to her physiology, so there are some funny moments of discovery. She also has a past that doesn’t reveal itself until the end, with shocking results. There are also some other crew Henry takes on later that really add to Henry’s business dealings, but I can't get into too many details because it would spoil things badly. That being said, let’s just say we get a peak at some ancient earth mysteries solved in this book with these characters.
The villains are decent, They came across as fairly benign to start but turned out to have much darker intentions. That is kind of a given when you go out and capture other races starships and repurpose them. I think the backstory for this could have been expanded on a bit more, but that’s just my personal preference. They were still fleshed out enough to make the story work, and be a legitimate threat, although with the upgrades Henry gets to his ship throughout the story, he has less to fear from them as time progresses.
This is a story I really enjoyed. It had all the elements I enjoy about space opera, and I think it is an excellent start to a potential long series. I can just imagine the adventures Henry and his crew can get into, what mysteries they can solve. It will have a real appeal to fans of space opera, or sci-fi fans in general. If you are looking for a fun space adventure to get lost in, I heartily recommend Intercepting Valhalla. You won’t regret checking it out.
