Vatta's War (series) — Elizabeth Moon

If a military life was long periods of boredom punctuated by moments of stark terror—as one of her instructors had said—then civilian life seemed to be long periods of boredom interrupted by moments of dismal reflection.

--Kylara Vatta, “Trading in Danger” (Vatta’s War #1)

A combination of sci-fi epic and space opera, Elizabeth Moon’s 5-book Vatta's War series follows the unlikely rise of Kylara Vatta from politically disgraced military cadet to rookie captain of a derelict merchant tub to Commander-in-chief of a multisystem military force which may someday (you guessed it) save the world.

The Basics:

Ky Vatta, expelled from her military training at Spaceforce Academy because of a public relations fiasco, is the only daughter of the wealthy CEO of a multisystem space shipping company. She’s also smart as a whip, extremely disciplined, and stubborn as all get out. As the main character of the Vatta’s War series, she’s initially too naïve and trusting, but she learns quickly from the times she is burned.

After Ky's family is assassinated and coordinated attacks around the galaxy result in the complete breakdown of the family company, Vatta Transport Ltd., Ky is faced with several hard questions

·       Who killed her family, ruined the company's reputation, and turned the government of their home planet against them?

·       Why would someone target Vatta Transport and the entire Vatta family?

·       And why does she find herself taking a strange and frightening pleasure in killing?

A trail of clues and corruption lead Ky, her crew, her cousins Stella and Toby, roguish acquaintance Rafe, and a rescued dog called Puddles closer and closer to the truth. It quickly becomes clear that there was more behind the attacks on the Vatta’s than someone’s personal vendetta against the family. Other planets are being attacked and communications between systems are becoming unreliable and often impossible. A mysterious enemy is preparing to wage war on the entire galaxy—and no one seems to have a clue what’s going on.

As events unfold, it becomes more and more clear that Ky, with her military training, talent for strategy, and unusual ability to command, may be the only one who can bring under-prepared, squabbling systems together in a fighting force capable of defending the galaxy.

The Opinions:

“But look at it this way. Anything is a commodity to someone. In a very large universe, your Aunt Gracie’s cannonballs may be someone else’s favorite underwear.” 

--Gerard Vatta, “Trading in Danger” (Vatta’s War #1)

I could go both ways about Vatta’s War. On the one hand, Moon is a genius world-builder. Sci-fi fans will probably enjoy the detail that went into constructing the world Ky Vatta inhabits. Ship operations, shipboard scan data, details of faster-than-light travel, and the way ansible communications work are all integral parts of the story. It’s a sci-fi enthusiast’s ideal situation. There are even aliens (actually, biologically modified humans, called humods) and the main character comes from a planet where wearing a mini-computer called an implant in your brain is 100% normal and even expected.

But the other side of the world-building coin is that the story moves very slowly. Moon included all kinds of background information and peripheral fluff in the story that didn’t really have much bearing on the plot. We get to read through all of Ky’s discussions with bankers, merchants, and fellow traders when she’s selling cargo or reloading—information that isn’t necessary to understand the story. You know what she ate at every restaurant she stopped at, every uniform she changes into, etc. You could argue that getting all the day-to-day details helps build the feeling of epic-ness and draws you into the nitty-gritty details of Ky’s life. But to me, knowing what all the different moving pieces were doing at any given time felt like fluff and extra words.

Setting and pacing weren’t the biggest factors for me in this series, however. Those were just the backdrop for a bigger theme—I’ve identified it as “war,” but I’ve seen people say it was about family and trust too. I’ll stick with war.

Apparently they didn’t realize that people who buy thousands of rounds of ammo are likely to know how to use it.
--Kylara Vatta, “Command Decision” (Vatta’s War #4)

Unlike many modern day war stories (or at least the ones I’m familiar with), Vatta’s War provides a view of war from the position of the commander of a military force that doesn’t engage in hand-to-hand combat. Ky isn’t one of the grunts, and although she gets physical with enemies a time or two (and has to deal with post-combat shock and rationalizing what she’s done), most of the combat action you see in the books involves nothing more than people sitting in chairs pushing buttons and analyzing scan data. Luckily, Moon is a brilliant writer in that respect. Her ship battles are highly visual and involved enough that you don’t realize that Ky is fighting a war from a big chair until you’re staring up at the ceiling at two in the morning.

More than that, Moon writes about the implications of war very honestly and thoughtfully. She has characters (good guys) who find they can kill a person without turning a hair. They strategize, gather intel, and lead forces like you would expect good guys to be able to do…but they also threaten to kill people in cold blood to get the job done—and at the end of the day, they’re still good people.

I don’t think you need to know any of Moon’s personal background to grasp the story she’s telling or understand the themes and characters she’s writing about. But once you find out she was a Marine and served 3 years active duty, a lot of things start to make sense. Ky in particular struck me as strongly based off Moon (as many of Moon’s heroines tend to be). Certainly some of the situations Ky ends up in must have been based off Moon’s experiences or those of people she met in the military.

They were threatened with annihilation or invasion; they needed to be focused on that very real threat and ways to prevent it. Yet they were fixated on the notion that young people must always be in a ferment of lust or something?
--Kylara Vatta, Victory Conditions (Vatta's War #5)

One final note on Vatta’s War: romance. With a label like space opera, I was concerned that it might turn into another sci-fi love story. But Moon has a very hands-off approach to writing about romance. It never ends up dominating the plot or character arcs, which is what normally happens when romance enters a book. So when I read the above quote, I knew I had to share it because Moon calls out 95% of popular YA fiction (and let’s be honest, 99% of adult fiction) where the story ends up being all about young people being in love/lust. (Can I just say how inaccurate that impression of young people is?)

For that reason, I appreciated Moon’s Vatta’s War series immensely. I FINALLY got a heroine who could get the job done without spending all her spare time fretting about her boyfriend—or rather, the guy who might be her boyfriend if she would get off her high horse and tell him she loved him…if she really loves him, which she hasn’t made up her mind about. (I’m looking at you, Katniss.)

The Verdict: 3.5 stars

Long story short, Vatta’s Moon was a good read. It was slow and sometimes laborious to slog through all the events that weren’t directly plot related, but the action scenes where everything you could want from a sci-fi epic and after the first 100 pages the techno-babble started to sound like actual English.

I’d recommend this book to readers ages 15 to adult (because no sex, no nudity, no swearing), and particularly to those avid sci-fi fans out there. It didn’t change my life, but there were some nuggets of awesome in there that I definitely enjoyed.

Author website: http://www.elizabethmoon.com/
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