The Valkyrie Protocol

The Gordian Protocol, Book 2

By: David Weber, Jacob Holo

Narrated by: Gabriel Vaughan

Time is running out!

Agent Raibert Kaminski and the crew of the Transtemporal Vehicle Kleio have stumbled across a temporal implosion that has claimed two whole universes, and neither Raibert nor his crew can ­ figure out what caused this calamity, or how to stop its spread. Meanwhile, old colleagues of Raibert’s from the Antiquities Rescue Trust, together with a version of Samuel Pepys transplanted from the 17th century into the 30th, have proposed an expedition into the past. The goal? To branch the timeline by preventing the Plague of Justinian, one of the worst pandemics in human history. And on a multidimensional level, governmental entity SysGov’s multiverse neighbor, the xenophobic Admin, is stirring. While their ambassadors put on a friendly show, the Admin is amassing a fleet of advanced, heavily armed time machines - with SysGov firmly in the crosshairs.

In the midst of the temporal turmoil, time is running out for Raibert and his team to save the rest of the known universes from ceasing to exist. Navigating the paradoxes of time can be a killer task - especially when dogged by those who seek your destruction at every turn. But this isn’t the ­ first Time Rodeo for the crew of the Kleio, and they won’t go down without a ­ fight - no matter where - or when - the threat to the multiverse arises!

©2020 Words of Weber, Inc. and Jacob Holo (P)2021 Audible, Inc.

Another great book

Weber and Holo have written another great book. I don't know if the story line is done. I'd love to read another one.

Great story

Easier to follow if you read/heard the Gordon Protocol, but not necessarily a must pre-read/listen for this story to be great.

book two is even better

well I thought the story was pretty good in book one but I was reasonably critical of the writing particularly the dialogue which was weak at times as well as the narration which seems stiff. Book two is a pretty significant improvement on both counts to the point I am hoping for a book three (after the next Safehold book)

Well performed

Story wanders and in my opinion did not live up to book one. Still worth a listen. Gabriel Vaughan does a fine job with his narration.

Narrator Choice Ultimately Ruined It

Well, outside of the religious nonsense that David Weber likes to inject in to his books (to each their own, but it gets old), I found parts of this book kind of clichéd and predictable. That being said, I feel that a narrator with a broader vocal range would have improved my opinion of this book (and series). On several occasions during the book I found myself internally narrating a passage with a different inflection or intonation and found that the tone of a scene improved. It honestly felt like the narrator was just straight reading the book and gave little thought to the emotion of the passage he was reading.

I will freely admit that the time travel and alternate time-line aspects were enjoyable. Multi-verse books can be a lot of fun. That being said, I had to give it a rest about 3/4ths of the way through. At this point I may or may not finish it.

Trite and depressing

I tried really hard to like this novel. I read book one and loved it and leaped right into book two.
Unfortunately half way through the most unlikeable character from the first book resumes a place of prominence and by the 60 percent mark is rampaging behind the scenes having now lived thousands of years and not learned anything about how his past arrogance caused disaster. Nothing worse than a character who becomes a sad joke, supposedly very intelligent but incapable of learning a single new thing no matter how much time passes. It is bad enough when a new character repeats mistakes as a replacement foil to the main character but to me it was so much worse reusing a now ancient but unchanging bad guy. I will not be continuing this series as this novel completely ruined the setting for me.
The narrator did a fine job of delivering the material as written, my dislike of the novel is not a reflection on their efforts to deliver the product as written.

inquisitive idiots with the memory of goldfish

twas a struggle to finish this one towards the end.

dialogue of a young adult fiction most of the time. combat that feels turn based.

and if the characters didnt beat around the Bush and be a bit more direct this book could have ended 8 hrs earlier with just as satisfying an ending and another universe still alive. basically the one interesting character in this book is killed 5 mins after we meet her.

the final battle suffers from all of the above. and would have been less bloody and more successful if they didnt beat around the Bush and just get it done.

this didnt feel like a weber book. and neither did the last one. if your reading this series purely cuz david weber ilis attached do yourself a favor and skip. if you are under 18 yrs old go ahead and have fun.

wow that audio was not good

although the story was good, but not up to David's normal quality, the audible should never have been released with this quality.

almost immediately I noticed that the audio appeared to be recorded in two different locations or using two different sets of hardware. often mid-sentence it would switch and you would hear a much more echoey version. The sound volume also went from very pleasant to incredibly loud and sharp. almost like he quickly recorded certain sections a second time to cover something up like a mispronounced name or something similar.

Disappointing continuation to the series

This book was a significant disappointment after the first book in the series. It starts well and ends well, but the middle third or so is neither especially compelling nor particularly important to the plot.

Frankly, that middle part feels almost entirely disconnected from the rest of the book and the book would be the better for reducing it by perhaps 90% of its wordcount.

Furthermore, the reader was weak, doing voices fairly well, but failing to inject any life into the story.