Book review - Trading in Danger

[watervole]

auntygillian recommended Elizabeth Moon to me, and I'm glad she did.

I'm already a fan of Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan novels and I've also enjoyed the only book that I've read so far in Dave Weber's Honor Harrington books. They're military SF of a kind that I enjoy with enough emphasis on character to counterbalance the military tactics (though I also enjoy the tactics).

Thinking about it, I enjoy Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe novels for exactly the same reasons, even though they're Napoleonic rather than futuristic.

'Trading in Danger' is the first novel in the Vatta's War series and Ky Vatta, the main character is the daughter of a major trading family who has broken with family tradition by enrolling in the military academy. However, her career plans come to an end when she is kicked out of the academy as the result of something she did to try and help a fellow student. Her family come to the rescue and find her a trading job with an old ship due to be scrapped.

In true SF heroine tradition, she instantly resolves to try and find a way of preventing the ship being scrapped, and also manages to get herself caught up in the middle of a local war where her military training enables her to behave with a lot of practical sense.

The book picks up as it goes along. The first few chapters didn't really feel like SF (the writer was a lieutenant in the US Marine Corps and uses that to create a good military feel), but as we get out into space, that changes.

My only real quibble is that one big piece of the plot is left unresolved. This is understandable as this is the first book of a series, but the characters act as though they know this and don't agnonise over the problem nearly enough. I felt there should have been a lot more speculation as to who destroyed the ansibles, even if it wasn't going to be resolved in this particular novel.

However, overall, this is a book I'd recommend. It was an enjoyable read and I finished it quickly and will certainly read more in the series.