The members of SG-1 find themselves in the middle of an eternal alien battle, and turn to Jonas Quinn for help.
Valhalla, the legendary afterlife of Norse mythology. A place where Viking warriors rise with the sun to do battle on the field of honor to prove themselves worthy of the Allfather Odin.
A place where death only lasts the night, the fallen rising each morn to fight a new day.
A place where SG-1 is caught amidst the chaos and carnage until they can acquit themselves admirably to earn a meeting with the Allfather himself. Though Jack O’Neill had a reasonable question regarding his and the rest of SG-1’s participation in the whole battle to the end of eternity thing: “So how about us? If one of us gets hurt or dies, will we be healed?”” Unfortunately the answer he received was an enigmatic, “Find out for yourself.” Talk about learning the hard way.
Author Tim Waggoner does a spectacular job of blending Norse mythology and scientific techno-babble into a nicely wrapped SG-1 adventure. He went back to the basics of what made Stargate SG-1 such a great show to begin with. The book takes place sometime in Season Seven, after Daniel rejoined the team and Jonas had went back to his home world Langara.
The only disappointing thing about the book is that the whole thing takes place from the perspectives of Sam and Jonas. It would have been nice to see short segments of the story from the others’ point of views, as most of the novels do.
It was also somewhat disappointing that Daniel doesn’t have a large part. Though he was with the team from beginning to end, Jackson didn’t have all that much to say in the story, and that’s just not like our resident archaeologist.
Even so, Valhalla is a great book and an interesting read. Waggoner delves into an interesting arena on both Valhalla and Langara. Readers get an in-depth look into Jonas’ life back on Langara and his feelings towards a certain lab assistant, as well as a classic example of good intentions paving the road to … a very hot place. And while Colonel O’Neill’s part in the book was also a little smaller than what I personally would have liked to seen, we were never lacking for a dose of his laconic humor — for example: “Sorry to break up the fun, but I gotta call a technical foul on that last play. Illegal use of a mythological figure.”
Teal’c also gives O’Neill a run for his money in the humor department when Surtr tells him, “You are but a child when compared to me.”
“That is no insult to me,” Teal’c said with a grim smile, “for you have not seen Jaffa children at play.”
And you have to add points for the incorporation of the World War I Air Force drinking song, “Stand to Your Glasses Steady.” I can’t think of a better comparison, all things considered.
In my opinion Tim Waggoner’s Valhalla, is a necessary read for any Stargate SG-1 lover. Even though we don’t always get to see as much as we’d like of certain main characters, everyone is still there as the team stumbles upon “fields of dreams” in a world full of lies.
Stargate SG-1: Valhalla
Author: Tim Waggoner
Paperback: 250 pages
ISBN: 978-1-905586-19-6
Publish Date: 2009
Publisher: Fandemonium, Ltd.
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visual media please. i dont care about the books.
sounds different than usual. But its sounds like a real book, which usually only take place from one perspective, or from an outside narrator type. So, I think I might order this one! Thanks for the review!
Anyone read Stargate SG-1: Barque of Heaven? I`m thinking abour buying it.
At least jonas is getting a mention.Still would have liked to have seem jonas in season 8, 9, and 10.Even if it was only a few episodes.
Valhalla was pretty good. Barque of Heaven however was great! I loved the story line. I would recomend both.
@Christian - I'm not much of a fan of the Fandemonium books, I find them very amateurish and I suspect most are just fanfiction adapted from some shipper fansite, most of the main perpetrators are well known Sam/Jack ship fanficcers. That said, Barque of Heaven was definitely one of the better ones - much more polished and professional, like an episode or even a feature film could have been of they'd had the budget. It's the only one by that author sadly but certainly a cracking read.
@Grif. Not trying to sound like a jerk but what visual media?
I just started reading the Fandemonium books on Kindle. I had considered myself too much of a reading snob to do that til recently. To my surprise, I'm finding them rather entertaining (so far just the SGA books). The quality varies quite a bit among the authors, but so far they have all proved to be worth a shot. It is pretty much satisfying my fix for Stargate now that the series are at an end. The trouble is, at the rate I'm going, I'll need to start pacing myself. Hopefully, the market will be sufficient for more entries in the series of books.
I have read several of the books - SG1's Roswell and Atlantis's Exogenesis are really good - the former could have been a DVD movie (better than CONT for the time travel stuff) the latter easily a good two parter in Atlantis's second season. That's how good the storylines and characterisation are. Not all of them are great, but that's true of the episodes of the series too. Personal taste I guess.
Re Visual media - good luck. After the recent news, even if there is new visual Stargate in the future, chances are it will not feature the characters we know from the existing series. The books may be all we have left. - Unless the audio novels continue.
I am curious about this book, it would be nice to have one that fills in some of the gaps from Jonas's past!
@bluewater1 - good on you! I recognize that - I too considered myself a reading snob an sneaked into bookshops to get my fix of Star Trek books... I will start reading Stargate books too - I consider these kind of books like a good Star Trek/Stargate episode. You already have the characters in your mind which is a plus so in that sense these books are a bit different from other (scifi) books... Oh dear, I'm talking like a book snob again... :)