It started here.
"Shinshin-One to Mission Control, pod-ship interface is stable. I'm plugged in."
— Michiko Hoshimoto
VALKYRIE: Into the Heavens is an American Light Novel Series written by Paul Naughton, who also does the cover design. It's published through Amazon Kindle and Createspace.
VALKYRIE: Into the Heavens follows the story of Michiko Hoshimoto and Daniel Logan as they are pulled into a war between Earth and a race of alien beings known only as the Ixo. Daniel Logan is an orphaned teenage computer genius living in Seattle when he is visited by General Ari Solomon and conscripted into Project Valkyrie. Earth is losing the war against the Ixo thanks to the alien's technological superiority in space flight. He isn't alone, as three other teens from across the globe have been recruited into the program. Together they are among the first of a new type of soldier: The Pod Pilot.
The principal cast includes:
- Daniel Logan, an American war orphan that has made a living as a computer programmer and hiding from the government, at least until General Ari Solomon came knocking. He pilots the Lockheed YSI-1 Starfire.
- Hoshimoto Michiko, a Japanese teen with a high IQ that is recruited into Project Valkyrie with a highly competitive nature. She flies the Mitsubishi NIS-X Shinshin.
- Rosa Lowe, a German teen whose parents are psychologists. She flies the ADS Astrium F.1.
- Svetlana Gurevich, a Russian mechanic genius and tinkerer. Her ship is the Sukhoi Su-191 NPI.
Provides Examples Of:
- Accidental Misnaming: Daniel Logan is hard to pronounce with a Japanese accent, as a result Michiko ends up calling him Danii... The name sticks.
- Ace Custom: The Lockheed YSI-1 Starfire, Mitsubishi NIS-X Shinshin, Sukhoi Corporation Su-191 NPI, and ADS Astrium F.1 are all prototypes given to the pilots for field testing.
- Ace Pilot: Daniel, Michiko, Rosa, and Svetlana, particularly the first two.
- Action Girl: Michiko quickly takes the title in Volume #1, but both Rosa and Lana prove to be quite capable under fire.
- Asian and Nerdy: Subverted with Michiko. Despite having a high IQ and being very studious, she's the most athletic member of the main cast, and the most competitive.
- Attack Drone: Favored weapon of both Humanity and the Ixo, until the Ixo started drowning the radiowaves with jamming. Ixo drones are immune since they use different technology.
- Badass Israeli: General Ari Solomon, formerly of the Israeli Defense Force. When he shows up to 'recruit' Daniel, he breaks into his apartment and waits for him with a pistol.
- Battle Discretion Shot: The first space battle in the series is shown from the ground where only flashes are visible in the sky, at least until the EMP makes the lights go out.
- The Battlestar: The Nagato, the battleship introduced in Volume #2 and has Michiko's brother Takeshi as one of its gunners.
- Beam Spam: The Ixo seem to just use particle beam weapons and nothing else.
- Belligerent Sexual Tension: Daniel and Michiko.
- Bizarre Alien Biology: Humans can't decide what the Ixo are most like, as they have an insectoid appearance, use extensive cybernetics, and seem to be somewhat aquatic.
- Brain/Computer Interface: An unusual example in that the interface isn't an implant but a skin tight suit riddled with neural receptors. Neural feedback is actually a danger to the pilot.
- Bug War: The Ixo are insectoid... kind of obvious.
- Child Soldiers: Every single pilot hooked up to the Neural Interface for the ships is under 18 years old, and they have to be to adapt to the interface as an adult mind can't cope.
- Combat Medic: Ensign Max Jenson. She used to be part of the 10th Mountain Division as a field medic, and she's the first to reach for a gun when the Ixo come knocking.
- Cool Starship: Prototype antimatter powered starships that you pilot with your mind? Check.
- Death Glare: Michiko gives Daniel one when he makes some comments about her not wearing a bra.
- Death of a Child: During Danny's memory of the Ixo invasion, the Ixo vaporize a little girl.
- Death Ray: Ixo particle beams produce enough radiation that you can get lethal radiation just by being in the same room with it. Just ask Daniel Logan.
- Energy Weapon: Human ships always have at least two point-defense lasers, unfortunately they're not the most efficient weapons in universe.
- Escape Pod: The 'Pod' that contains the pilot and neural interface system is eject-able.
- Faster-Than-Light Travel: The triggering event for the Ixo invasion is human discovery of the Quantum Jump Drive, a device that allows a ship to transport instantaneously from point A to point B by changing the ship into a probability wave. Unfortunately the Ixo don't like having neighbors with this tech.
- First-Name Basis: Relatively common between the candidates, but Sylvia specifically asks Michiko to call her by her first name.
- Friendless Background: Daniel didn't have any friends while he was in the orphanage, because of his status as "the sick bald kid."
- Gatling Good: Despite everything saying they're obsolete and useless the Russian ships still feature gatling guns on their ships for point defense.
- Gratuitous Foreign Language: Michiko sometimes slips into Japanese, Rosa into German, and Svetlana Gurevich into Russian.
- Handicapped Badass: While Daniel Logan is an exceptional pilot, his health has never completely recovered from the radiation exposure he received as a child, especially his auto-immune system.
- Improbably High I.Q.: Daniel Logan has an IQ of 185. It's often brought up as a joke when Danny does something less than intelligent.
- In-Series Nickname: Svetlana is almost always called Lana, Daniel is either Danii or Danny depending on the speaker or point of view, and Michiko's older brother calls her Michi.
- Insectoid Aliens: The name Ixo is derived from the order Ixodida in biology, which includes ticks.
- Japanese Ranguage: Played with in Volume #1, Michiko has difficulty with Daniel Logan's name... Ultimately she settles on calling him Danii, a name that sticks even after her English improves.
- Kinetic Weapons Are Just Better: Daniel Logan seems to think so, considering his complaints about his ship's particle beam weapons.
- Macross Missile Massacre: The NIS-X Shinshin has 144 Micro-Missiles, and Michiko uses them. Most other Japanese designed ships seem to feature this type of weaponry as well.
- The Medic: Ensign Max Jenson, ship's nurse aboard the Samuel B. Roberts and a former combat medic. When the Samuel B. Roberts is assigned to the 1st Interceptor Frigate squadron as a command ship, she ends up being in charge of the pilots' health.
- Mental Fusion: Michiko and Daniel accidentally do this during a training accident, and while not permanent it dramatically changes their relationship.
- Military Science Fiction
- Mindlink Mates: Toyed with, Michiko and Daniel have a training accident that gives each of them the other's memories. While it doesn't make them friends or lovers, it does reset what was a very antagonistic relationship back to square one.
- Multinational Team: The pilots are assembled by the United Nations, led by an Israeli General and have four members from four different nations. There is friction because of this.
- Old-School Dogfight: Partially averted, the Interceptor Frigates used by the pod pilots have weapons that fire in all directions, and are just as likely to burn down ships with their aft thrusters as they are to turn and fight.
- Paintball Episode: In zero-G with maneuvering packs, no less. Later they use laser tag gear and paintballs... at the same time.
- Parental Substitute: Max Jenson is this for Daniel Logan.
- Promotion, Not Punishment: After the first book's climax, when Daniel goes out to fight the Ixo and save Michiko, Solomon chews Daniel out for disobeying orders, then promotes him to light Officer.
- Rouge Angles of Satin: The author frequently confuses "to" and "too".
- Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: Danny defies orders and arrives in the YS-1 to save Michiko when she's under attack near the end of the first volume.
- She Is Not My Girlfriend: Danny says this regarding Michiko.Danny: "She's my best friend, Max. She's been inside my head... that doesn't mean she's my girlfriend or something!"
- Shout-Out: Most of the series seems to be a huge shout out to EVE Online and Ender's Game.
- Space Fighter: Subverted, at first glance it appears that the ships the characters are piloting are a form of space fighter... until you realize they're the size of an airliner.
- Space Marine: The United Nations Marine Corps, to be exact.
- Standard Sci-Fi Fleet: Aside for carriers and starfighters not being present. Ixo ships are usually referred to as 'analogs' for ships of similar size in the Human inventory even.
- Standard Starship Scuffle: Inevitable when the main characters pilot combat spacecraft.
- Team Mom: Ensign Max Jenson, even if she isn't the senior most member of the Valkyrie's medical staff.
- Teen Genius: Almost every member of the Valkyrie Project is one, though some like Daniel and Michiko stand out more than others.
- United Nations Is a Superpower: The story begins after years of alien attacks, so it's little wonder that the United Nations now has the United Nations Space Defense Force. Of course uniting everyone hasn't been smooth sailing.
- Wing Man: Michiko is Daniel's wing mate, Rosa is Lana's, and vice versa.
- Weaponized Exhaust: When nothing else works, the pilots can always rely on their antimatter-fueled thrusters to cut through the enemy ships.
