Engaging the Enemy

Honestly, I'm confused by how much I like this series. Let me reiterate - I don't like intrigue, adventure, stories that are so long you need a whole series to tell them, military situations... but Moon just has a knack for charming me by explaining the intrigue and the battles instead of being elliptical, and of including so much more than just adventure.

I love all the new worlds and their different cultures. I love getting to know Rafe, Grace Lane and Stella a bit better and meeting the other characters. There's just enough humor to leaven the intensity of what is, after all, Vatta's War and to make it all feel authentic, plausible.

I love Ky's mix of vulnerability and arrogance:
You know how I feel about trusting him, Captain."
"Only show more half as far as I can throw him," Ky said. "But that's a tidy distance."

I also really want to go to the restaurant Melandra on Cascadia." show less

In the third book of the Vatta's War series, Ky Vatta is up to her neck in intrigue. Now in possession of a pirate's warship, docking in space ports has become even more complicated. Communications are still down throughout many systems; while Ky is keenly aware that much of her family has been massacred, she'd not sure who is left, or when she'll be able to return to her homeworld. Meanwhile, her cousin takes charge of Ky's slower, older ship and deals with the aftermath of Ky's turbulent port visits--making Stella more and more resentful. On a planet where impoliteness means the death penalty, Ky's very identity is brought into question--just as the enemy moves in all too close.

Wow. This series only gets better. The suspense was so show more intense that I kept saying, "One more chapter, one more chapter..." and over a hundred pages flew by. I enjoyed Moon's Paksenarrion fantasy series, but the Vatta's War books truly show her evolution as a writer. The plot twists and technological details are impressive, and I'm amazed at how she mapped out everything from book to book.

I've already started the next in the series, Command Decision. It's just as addictive. show less

The third book in the Vatta's War series has Ky trying to find some way to create a space navy from disparate groups of privateers in order to make the universe safe for trade and restore her family's shipping empire.

She is facing conflicts from her cousin Stella who believes that she should be focusing on her family more that planning to fight a war. She also has to deal with an established captain of a Vatta ship who is denying that she is really Ky Vatta with plans to take over his ship and perhaps start his own shipping firm.

Meanwhile, back on Slotters Key, Aunt Grace is doing her own part to find out why the government turned on the Vattas and resolve that situation to the Vattas' advantage.

This one is filled with political show more maneuvering and space battles. show less

Another Elizabeth Moon page turner. It has elements of identity theft, bureaucratic wrangling mixed with cultural differences, inept leadership, family relationships, ever present pirates and space combat. That humans haven't changed in the time it took to develop interstellar travel is a testament to the author's imagination. In the end, our heroine, Ky Vada, lives to see another adventure in the next book.

A great continuation of the series Ky has just about got herself settled as captain of her commandeered ship. She's quite confident she's the rightful owner having captured it from the disgraced Osman she out-fought. However as she repeatedly learns at every station she docks at, with the ansibles still down, there's no records and she has to prove it every time, including on some stations with very odd local customs .

Her acquisition of another ship has given her an idea. The pirates appear to be working together, maybe the defenders should do the same, at a galactic scale, a Space Defense force, although she knows the system governments are against the idea - but she now has a privateers marque and she begins the process of sounding show more out fellow captains. Meanwhile (and there's always a meanwhile) she still has to support Vatta's interests, and her cousin Stella, seems to have very different ideas about how that can be achieved.

There's s a little bit too much of both Ky and Stella being unsure of themselves in private and just moaning, rather than interacting with characters to show us alternatives they haven't thought of. I'm also less keen on the very short jumps back to the base at Slotter Key where the formidable Grace is organizing a house defense. I enjoy her as a character, but the author needs to do more with her, or cut her out completely because one or two pages now and then is just irritating. Given that the focus is otherwise entirely on Ky and Stella, who can't know what is going on there, it would be better not to have her feature at all until they can come home. As a bonus the cut scenes from the enemy no longer feature so we're spared those poor foreshadows.

Fun adventures in space, I'm not completely convinced the author has a complete plan of where this series is going, but it seems to be worth going along for the ride. show less

Still having fun with this series, but I might be reading them too close together for maximum enjoyment. Some of the things that are good refreshers when you have to wait for each book to come out are a little too frequent when you read them back to back to back.

A good space adventure with a likable heroine & some well developed characters. I'm a bit peeved because one character is STILL hiding & I think I know who it is. It's beginning to be more a point of wonderment & becoming ridiculous. Minor point though. The rest of the universe is well painted, the situation is believable & tense. It's an easy read, but not a dumb one. Better than just a candy book.