An Ancient Peace

An Ancient Peace is billed as the first book in the Peacekeeper series, but we fans can consider it as book six in the Confederation series because it's the continuing adventures of ex-Gunnery Sergeant Torin Kerr.

It's been a year since the events of book five, The Truth of Valor. The Confederation Justice Department is still using Torin and her team for covert operations. Besides Torin herself, the team consists of her sexy Craig Ryder (still most determinedly a civilian), three other ex-Marines: Binti Mashona, and bonded Krai pair Ressk and Werst; and Alamber di'Cikeys, the emotionally damaged young di'Taykan rescued from a pirate space station. (Binti is of African descent, in case you were wondering if all of the humans on the team show more were white. Binti and Torin may be the only females, but Torin is the boss and Binti the sniper.)

The book opens with the team against what would be a white supremacist organization if it were set on Earth in the present day. Instead it's a humans supremacist organization. Their rants are going to sound very familiar. We also get a couple of snippets about an earlier job Torin's team did against a furrier. This being science fiction, pat yourself on the back if you've already guessed that those furs were being made out of a sentient species.

If that's not bad enough, the team's next assignment is to try to stop unknown persons from finding and retrieving H'san weapons from the cemetery planet where they were buried. Throughout the earlier books there were a lot of expressions involving the H'san. They were the first sentient species to turn away from war. They founded the Confederation, which consists of the Elder Races, the Mid Races, and the Younger Races.

Now that the war with the Primacy is winding down, there are members of Parliament who think that the Younger Races need to be contained since they're no longer needed to protect the Confederation. (Humans, di'Taykans, and Krai make up the Younger Races. The Silsviss who were being courted in book one, Valor's Choice, had not yet become full members in book five. I'm betting their chances have dropped to almost nothing.) Military Intelligence fears that if Parliament finds out that someone is trying to retrieve those H'san weapons, it would be the excuse needed to enforce that threatened containment. The location of that H'san cemetery planet is not known to members of the Younger Races. How the grave robbers found it is unknown. Only because one or more of them sold some H'san artifacts has the attempt come to light.

In short, Torin's team has to find the planet and stop the attempt with almost no information and no overt help. If caught, they will be disavowed. (Cue the 'Mission Impossible' theme.) Good thing Alamber worked for a crime lord -- he can advise the ex-marines and Craig about dealing with persons engaged in illegal commerce.

NOTES (Where to find information from previous books and facts learned in this one):

Chapter 1:

a. We get hate monger Richard Varga's background.

b. A Lieutenant Cole lectured on trigger discipline.

c. Tsk. Craig's eyes are described as pale gray here. In chapter two of book two, Torin noticed that they were very blue.

d. See chapter 11 of book five for that shuttle bay fight on Vrijheid Station.

e. We get a brief rundown on the truth versus the legends about Torin Kerr in this chapter. (See book two, The Better Part of Valor, for the sentient space ship; book three, The Heart of Valor, for what happened on Crucible; and book four, Valor's Trial, for the escape from an alien prison.)

f. We met Major Alie in book three. (Say, when did Werst become a Master Corporal? Before he left the Corps?)

g. Look here for why Torin & team work for the Justice Department instead of the Special Forces branch.

h. See why Binti is Torin's only team member the military police haven't hauled in.

i. See books one through three for why General Morris has been a pain to Torin and she's glad he's not on Ventris Station.

Chapter 2:

a. Intell takes up sections 23 - 25 of level 9 of Ventris Station.

b. See chapter two, book two, for Torin's first meeting with Lieutenant/Captain Stedrin.

c. 'Per' is the prefix for a civilian.

d. That the Intelligence Chief of Staff is a Krai and a Colonel suggests that the Krai got some satisfaction despite the fate of Captain Travik in book two.

e. The presumed H'san biscuit warmer will be called that or a biscuit maker through the book. It's probably neither.

f. The H'san had or has a Bertan'sh Dynasty. Three grave goods from that dynasty, dating from roughly 100 to 210 years after the founding of the Confederation, were sold on three different planets. We're told a little about H'san history, including the fact that their cemetery planet was originally a colony planet turned smoking ruin in the centuries of war before their enlightenment.

g. I like the joke about rogue archaeologists.

h. There's a brief description of the upgrades to Craig's ship, the Promise, since book five.

i. Sergeant Adrian Hollice and one of his old Earth sayings are mentioned. We met him in chapter two of book one.

j. See book four for the massacre on planet ST7/45T2. (Werst of Bravo Company and Craig Ryder were both introduced in book two.)

k See book three for why Torin had to regrow her jaw.

l. Rubber stamps were brought up in chapter of book.

m. Apparently, di'Taykan for grandmother is yasha and Krai for grandfather (?) is jernine.

n. Two of the grave robbers who have already died in traps on the H'san cemetery world are Katherine McKenna and Lieutenant Timin di' Geirah.

o. We get a bit of Craig's and Alamber's personal demons.

p. We learn just how seriously Major Sujuno takes her vows.

q. See chapter 14 of book one for Sergeant Mike Glicksohn and the Mictok.

r. The Kerrs' reaction to Torin visiting them without Craig is mentioned.

s. This trip dirtside to Abalae is the first time in Torin's life she's gone down to a new planet without a weapon.

Chapter 3:

a. This is Torin's first ride in a tether (which are spun by Mictok).

b. There's some information about the Trun, one of the Elder Races.

c. Werst's preferred reading is Krai romances.

d. Three members of the Confederation are water breathers, among them the Yeen. Water breathers rejected Paradise's offer to let them colonize her seas. Paradise has 2.8 billion humans on it.

e. Alamber has never killed anyone.

f. Trun pronouns are 'zi' and 'zir'.

g. Krai get neither motion nor space sick.

h. Torin and a Trun child converse about the war. I believe the scene Torin is remembering came from chapter 14 of book 4. (I own only books one and two and have already returned 3-5 to the library.)

i. Trun police are called facilitators. Their batons are stun guns.

j. Captain Rose was introduced in chapter one of book one.

k. That conversation with Major Svenson's arm was in book three.

l. Werst ate the fake fruit in chapter 12 of book two.

m. Pedro Buckner and family were introduced in chapter one of book five. See chapter six of that book for why he and Craig probably aren't friends anymore. CSO = civilian salvage operator

n. Katrien and Niln are Mid Races. (This is where Torin reacts to some Trun, Katrien, and Niln complaining about the cost of the war.)

Chapter 4:

a. This is where Torin and Craig see a slate that was too costly for them, but is being used by a Trun storekeeper in a secondhand shop.

b. There's a scene involving Binti and Alamber in a low dive.

c. Werst is from the lower branches. His Ressk is a diplomat's son, top of the tree. Werst doesn't believe in Turrist (Krai deity?). Some Trun try to take them on.

d. We're back to the grave robbers. Ms. Huff again demonstrates the difference between Major Sujuno and Torin as leaders. (I see 'jarhead' is still a nickname for marines.)

e. Here's where Torin remarks that they (the Younger Races), have been getting Granddad's hand-me-downs (tech).

f. There's a 'Marine Corps News'.

Chapter 5:

a. Three red stars are named.

b. Werst is not the best cook among them.

c. Alyx died in chapter of book one.

d. There's a Katrien space ship named Tinartin Hur Tain registered to the Valinstrisy family (I admire the way Ms. Huff found to bring reporter Presit a Tur durValintrisy into this story of an extremely secret mission.)

e. See chapter 12 of book five for how Presit saved them all.

f. The Promise can now throw visuals on the glass of the front port.

g. Judging from something Presit says to Torin, Katrien children are called 'kits'. It seems that Katrien clans/houses, which are matriarchal, are ruled by strectasin. The armenai might be a Katrien mother or, more probably, grandmother. Presit is a direct blood descendant of her house's strectasin. The fenYenstrakin are a dependent of Presit's family within her clan.

h. Presit followed ships through susumi space in chapter four of book two, and chapter 9 or 10 of book four.

i. A strectasin personally thanked Torin's team after they took down the furriers.

j. Craig groomed Presit in book four.

k. I suspect byz is Katrien for 'butt'.

l. Private Haysole died in chapter 15 of book one. Private First Class Guimond died in chapter 13 of book two. Captain Rose and Lieutenant Jarret died in the planet ST7/45T2 massacre in book four. Technical Sergeant Gucciard died in chapter 12 of book four. The dedication to book four should illuminate why so many of the Confederation novels have a marine whose last name begins with a 'G' die heroically in them.

Chapter 6:

a. The grave robbers find some very pure water.

b. The Krai word for inedible is revenk.

c. Major Sujuno was in the war for 18 years.

d. There's a translated H'san line that's very ominous.

e. Sujuno's name is spelled 'Sojuno' at one point.

f. Dion translates the line on the plinths holding a desiccated corpse each of other races as well as the one under the H'san corpse plinth. (Sujuno doubts Dion is entitled to be called 'Professor' as he insists.)

g. Wen had to leave to Corps because of his fondness for demo charges.

h. Two Taykan foods are mentioned.

i. Sujuno carries a cylinder of ash on a leather braid under her clothes.

j. The Major is Sujuno di'Kail, as we learn when she remembers something she was told.

k. The grave robbers make a discovery about the pool.

l. Sujuno has put up with Dion for almost seven tendays (seven tendays = 10 weeks).

Chapter 7:

a. Torin's team has found the H'san cemetery planet. Landing without triggering security will be hard.

b. Torin's DNA is needed to open the weapons drawer on the Promise.

c. We learn why Torin won't use Alamber's contacts for info the Justice Department can't give them.

d. Agro se terker tesergerr ih is Krai for 'There is a life between us,' ( a debt).

e. Werst jokes about zombie H'san.

f. Resk asks why a tomb would have a bell. No, no one mentions 19th century Earth attempts to prevent premature burial.

h. Binti has a pithy observation about the ancient H'san that will be repeated. She has a point.

i. Torin's team finds Jamers.

j. The Krai phrase Garen chreen ta dirin avirrk! roughly translates to 'fukking inedible testes'.

k. There's mention of one of Torin's brothers and a game biscuit.

Chapter 8:

a. Ciptran makes fight to the death for the right to mate. The loser gets to have eggs laid in his thorax.

b. Werst recalls a di'Taykan corporal who had the hair on the back of her hair burned off.

c. See books two and four for the times enough of the plastic aliens combined to form a ship.

d. West sits a pit lined with bones.

e. Salvage Station 24 is still the station to Craig.

f. According to Sujuno, she was at that briefing Torin gave on the Silsviss in book three.

Chapter 9:

a. Sujuno briefs Torin on what they're up against.

b. Torin recalls something about di'Taykan gracefulness she was told during one of her stays in Med-op.

c. There's a joke about Viridian Interval (apparently a band).

d. The scene switches to what Craig and Alamber are doing.

e. See book four (chapter 8?) for Craig seeing a Ciptran keeping up with a skimmer.

f. Torin and Werst can '... roll a blade sharp enough to cut air in and out of their fingers...'

g. See chapter 14 of book four for when Firiv'vrak the Artek, (Primacy bug, like a giant ant/cockroach) piloted the alien shuttle.

h. Torin has admitted something about her sessions with Dr. Ito to Craig..

i. Torin finds out why Sujuno hates her.

Chapter 10:

a.. BFG = big fukking gun

b. I loved what Lieutenant Verr told Major Sujuno about who was in charge.

c. We get the first names of Toporov and Keo.

d. Sujuno refers to Werst as Torin's alsLan.

Chapter 11:

a. Here CDC stands for 'Confederation Disease Control'.

b. Torin explains her reasoning to her team.

c. Alamber's rinchas in the armee roughly translates as ducks in the pudding.

d. The other scene with Presit is here.

e. Torin uses an expression involving horseshoes and hand grenades.

f. There are three other special operations teams the Justice Department uses. (Torin's is the best.)

g. Warden Ng's assistant is a Niln.

h. The teams' new quarters are briefly described. Yes, Torin's Silsviss skull is up in hers and Craig's sitting room.

i. Zegazt is a H'san title. (The H'san liaison to the Justice Department doesn't use it.)

j. The H'san prefer to be surrounded by living things (plants, apparently).

k. Loved Alamber and Craig's exchange about what kind of outfit Torin should wear for meeting the Zegazt (and what Werst helped her to do with the scarf she'd bought on Abalae).

l. Torin does ask why the H'san haven't destroyed their old weapons. (I'd have also asked if they'd consider disassembling them and putting the pieces in separate places far from each other.)

m. Torin tells her team what H'san smell like.

I've read An Ancient Peace twice now and I definitely want my own copy. Issues between veterans and civilians today are played out between veterans of the Younger Races and some ungrateful members of the Elder and Mid Races they fought (and their comrades died) to protect. Racism (well, between different species) is alive and well, alas, in the Confederation.

The contrast between Torin's team and Major Sujuno's is established well. The traps set in the H'san necropolis are frightening. I particularly liked the way that Torin couldn't help taking care of even persons whom she dislikes. Pity no one is likely to tell the Taykan authorities what one of their laws nearly cost them. The last half-page is ominous, indeed. I look forward to reading more! show less

An Ancient Peace
"An Ancient Peace" is the sixth book in the "Confederation" series. It follows straight on from "The Truth of Valor". Despite this, the publishers have decided to list it as "Peacekeeper #1". Don't start here, you'll miss all the fun. Start at "Valor's Choice".

"An Ancient Peace" is an entertaining mix of SF (ex-)Military and treasure hunt thriller, that steps beyond either genre by having a very non-martial view of the world ("kill the enemy" is replaced by "get the job done and get my people out alive") and an unfailing ability to surprise.

The book bursts into action from the first page, with Torin and her team taking down a para-military hate group called "Human's First". It's a nice action piece made better by Torin's show more disdain for a group that thinks "Human's First" needs an apostrophe.

One of the things I enjoy most about Tanya Huff's books is her ability to produce a fresh version of a familiar trope. In "An Ancient Peace" she does this at least twice.

The early part of the book is a potential "Rambo" situation - ex-soliders in peace time being viewed as too violent and uncivilised to be in the company of those they fought and died to protect - except, in Tanya Huff's version, the soldiers out-manouver the local authorities, the unprovoked violence doesn't escalate and yet you're still left with the certain knowledge that ex-Staff Sergeant Torin Kerr's small team are significantly more dangerous than Rambo. The situation also raises interesting possible future threads about how the allegedly n0n-violent "Elder Races" will treat the races they recruited to fight on their behalf, now the war is over.

The next trope is a sort of Lara Croft Tomb Raider theme - exploring the booby-trapped tomb of an ancient race in search of treasure, except in Tanya Huff's version, the searchers are either desperate or mercenary or both and the race that set the traps is depicted as insane.

Once again, Torin Kerr faces hard decisions that have become more morally ambiguous and more personal now that she no longer has the weight of the Corp behind her. The results are quite surprising and kept me guessing right up to the end of the book. show less

I didn't bother waiting for the library to get me a copy, I bought it in hardcover, something I pretty much only do with Huff these days. :-) Gunnery Sgt Torin Kerr is back, uncomfortably settling into "civilian" life after the war has officially ended. She's put together a team built up from people she's bonded with throughout the Confederation series and they're going after targets that the government needs some plausible deniability about. The group dynamics are awesome, as always, and dialogue and fight scenes are giggle enducing, but there's some darker stuff as PTSD and racism/speciesism is addressed. I'm so happy she's back in a new series, though I do still want a sequel to The Silvered as well. :-) I love how we get to learn a show more bit more about the H'san when a group starts stealing grave goods on their way to finding hidden weapons from pre-Confederation days. Before this we only heard sayings about the H'san and their love of cheese, we learn a bit more about what they look like from the necropolis, but a lot is still left to your imagination. The Katrien play a slightly larger role as well, it's neat learning more about the various aliens. I ended up going back and re-reading the end of the previous book for an emotional refresher, but just barely resisted starting this one again from page 1. show less

I love Huff's Valor series, and while this it supposedly the start of a new series, it's a direct continuation of the older one. Keep that in mind if you want to start here; you'd be better advised to read through the Valor books first, since much of this one is based on things that happened previously.

Premise: upon maturing past violence as a species, the H'san chose to bury their old- and very functional- weaponry in an underground labyrinth complete with all kinds of booby traps. This was probably not a savvy move, because the rumors of this hoard have spread, and someone sends a crew to retrieve them.

Torrin and the rest of her comrades are sent off, subrosa, to prevent that crew from succeeding, since its success may lead to a civil show more war right when a perilous peace has mostly been achieved.

Huff is one of my favorite space opera writers, especially of the military sort. She manages to make individuals of various species both consistent with their species characteristics, AND quirky and identifiable individuals in their own rights- in Torrin's party, and the mercenary crew, and various others encountered along the way. Even the unlikable sorts were interesting to spend time with.

The plot and pacing were excellently done, and definitely kept me turning the pages!

I am very much looking forward to "Peacekeeper #2"! show less

Now that the war is over, Torin and her team are working for the Wardens solving smaller problems. However, when she is called in by the Justice Department to do a covert job, the problem isn't small. Someone is selling H'san grave goods on the black market. Since the cemetery planet is supposed to have been lost in the mists of time and since an ancient cache of H'san weapons is also supposed to be there, it is necessary to find the planet, find the grave robbers, and prevent them from selling those weapons which could begin another war and cost millions of lives.

Torin is also told by her Justice Department boss that the Parliament is considering sequestering the Younger Races - Humans among them - now that the war is done and the show more Younger Races are considered uncivilized. Traveling to the Core to search for the missing planet does let Torin see what the attitudes are like toward the Younger Races by those who were never threatened by the war.

The story is an exciting chase as Torin and company follow the trail of the grave robbers into the crypts of the H'san running into traps of many kinds and zombie H'san guardians too. I liked that each of the team has their skills and that, despite their different species, all manage to get along. I especially like Torin who though retired still is a Gunnery Sergeant with the goal of making sure all of her people make it home. I like that she is still dealing with the aftermath of the war and knows it.

I liked that we also had a secondary viewpoint as we followed the grave robbers on their explorations. They also had varying motivations for their actions from simple greed to the desire to recreate the family they lost during the war.

Fans of space opera will enjoy this series and will enjoy the characters and world building. show less

Nice - glad to see what Torin's up to now, and her next steps by the end of the book. The bad guys are a little too determinedly bad - some are simply nuts, one way or another (literally - the boss is insanely obsessed with restarting the family she's lost, for one thing), some are casually evil (in the sense of not caring about anyone who isn't them), none of them have much in the way of redeeming value. Though Torin excuses the Marines a lot more than the civilians, as usual. Very interesting setting...and yet more interesting revelations about how the Younger Races are viewed by the Mid and Elder Races. And Torin's obsession with the plastic alien plays a part several times - minor, but definitely present. Too tidy...I don't know, show more maybe it just happened. Or not. It's a minor trouble-shooter intervention that, because it's Torin, is going to lead to major changes in society, eventually. Love it, eagerly awaiting the next. show less

Well, I really enjoyed it, peeps, but don't make the same mistake as me, don't read this spin off of Confederation series as a standalone. You'll be missing out on a thousand nuances.


This was my introduction to Tanya Huff as a sci-fi author, and I can definitely say I will go back and start her previous series from the beginning. The character cast is solid, and as it's well established by now, I was reading the banter and the mentions of numerous past events with regret. I wanted to be part of their previous adventures to understand it fully.


Apparently Torin Kerr is a big deal, a celebrity soldier who stopped the war. Now she and her crew (which reminded me of Firefly by the way) do miscellaneous work for The Justice Department, and show more one of the jobs coming their way has to be accomplished on the quiet.


Someone is attempting to discover H'San's ancient weaponry and restart another war, blaming it on Younger Races (which includes humans). H'San buried their weapons on a planet-size grave site a millenia ago, and when Torin and the crew finally discover which planet it is, they have to get through various inventive traps and deathly pits to catch up to the grave robbers and arrest them.


The plot is split between robbers' point of view and Torin's crew adventures. It's explosive, snarky and full of interesting details which I'd have appreciated much more if I knew what the book was talking about. All An Ancient Peace did for me was to wet my appetite for more. I'll be starting Confederation series from the first instalment, and strongly advise you to do the same. Otherwise, it's a solid, strong read. show less