Geekspace for Women

Posted by ubergeeke on June 23rd, 2008 in blogpost

According to the cover, “Trading In Danger” by Elizabeth Moon is likely to appeal to folks who are fans of David Weber’s “Honor Harrington” series. Normally, I’d say that’s a terrible way to introduce a book, but in this case, it’s somewhat true.

“Trading In Danger” is the first book in Moon’s “Vatta’s War” series. Kylara Vatta is a young twenty-something woman who’s used to standing out. Vatta’s father is CFO of the family interstellar shipping company, but instead of taking her place in the family business, Ky Vatta joined a military academy and is headed for a career as an officer. A political scandal takes place at the academy, however, and Vatta is a casualty. Ousted from the academy and sent home in disgrace, Vatta is given a ship destined for the scrap heap and a months-long mission to a backwater planet in an attempt to get her out of the public eye. Naturally, nothing goes according to plan.

While this book and sequels do involve a captain who’s a woman, an argument can be made that this series is completely different from Weber’s Harrington novels. I’ll skip the comparison and just say this: I really liked this book. Moon is a great writer. I’ve enjoyed other works of hers - “The Deed of Paksenarrion” is one of the best - and I’m looking forward to more of Vatta’s adventures.

What’s good: The action and plot line. The pace of the book is steady; it doesn’t move so slowly that I start skipping pages, nor does it get too busy. Vatta isn’t really a hero, at least not in this book, so there isn’t much of the hero’s journey happening here, which I appreciated. Sometimes the Luke Skywalker business gets beyond old. (Hmmm, perhaps because it is.) Vatta does come into her own, but it’s because of her perceptions of her life, not necessarily as a result of the events she encounters.

What’s bad: not much. I will say that I don’t get much sense of the other characters in the book, and there’s not much in the way of character development for Vatta herself either. She doesn’t really change in these 300+ pages; she simply adapts and moves on. Perhaps Moon is setting the stage for later.

I do recommend this book highly. It’s fun, engaging, and has plenty of space tech for folks who are into that. Not much in the way of battles, but there’s a few scenes of fisticuffs. Grab it and get ready for a fun series. I’ll post about its sequel “Marque and Reprisal” soon.