Trading in Danger by Elizabeth Moon
(Vatta’s War #1)
My rating: ★★★★★

I loved this book when I first read it, and I still do now. I can’t remember now if it was the first of Elizabeth Moon’s sci-fi books I read, but I’m pretty sure it was one that made me keen to read the rest of her work.

I really like Ky – she doesn’t let anything outwardly phase her, but she admits it’s a learned tactic rather than a personality trait. She has plenty of self-doubts and frustrations – not surprising considering the shock of being booted from her military academy in chapter one. But she’s very determined to prove herself, and she’s shown to be good in a crisis. I think she grows through the book, and I’m looking forward to seeing where she goes next.

The supporting cast has some interesting characters who seem to have plenty of potential to develop more. The plot kept me interested through the whole thing, and the ending tied up the immediate story nicely with the reveal of the Chekhov’s Gun device that was dropped in early on. There are a lot of story threads left dangling, so it’s very clearly the first of a series. It definitely makes me keen to read on. (I maaaay have opened up the next sequel already – it picks up directly from the ending of this book.)

It’s been a while since I’ve read this, so of course I can’t remember all the details of the story. So I’m looking forward to seeing what will happen with Ky and the crew, with the rest of the family (including eccentric Aunt Grace), and with MMAC and the ISC – the events of TiD are bound to have an effect on Ky’s relationships with those organisations. Oh, and of course, will there be appearances from characters who’ve only been mentioned? Ky deserves the chance to clobber Hal at the very least!

In short, if you like space opera sci-fi with strong, likeable (but not “perfect”) female leads, I can definitely recommend this. I’m pretty sure I’ll be re-reading again in the future.

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