The Better Part of Valor (Valor Novel) [Mass Market Paperback]

Tanya Huff (Author)

Book Description

Series: Valor Novel | Publication Date: March 1, 2002

Best known for her Quarters series and vampire novels, Tanya Huff stunned critics and fans with Valor's Choice, her first military science fiction novel. This thrilling sequel follows the Confederation's investigation of a seemingly abandoned alien spaceship.

"Solid...entertaining...rousing military adventure." (Locus)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

When Staff Sergeant Torin Kerr makes the mistake of speaking her mind to a superior officer, she finds herself tagged for a special mission for the interplanetary Confederation to act as protector to a scientific exploratory team assigned to investigate an enormous derelict spaceship. Along with her crew and her charges, Kerr soon finds herself in the midst of danger and faced with a mystery that takes all her courage and ingenuity to solve. This sequel to Valor's Choice, featuring a gutsy, fast-thinking female space-marine protagonist, establishes veteran fantasy author Huff as an accomplished spinner of high-tech military-sf adventure. For most sf collections.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

Tanya Huff spent three years in the Canadian Naval Reserve, then earned a degree in radio and television arts from Ryerson Polytechnical Institute. She is the author of numerous short stories and more than twenty novels, including the bestselling Blood books, the Smoke series, and the Keeper's Chronicles. She has been the guest of honor at numerous American and Canadian conventions, and her work has been nominated for several awards. She lives in Ontario, Canada. Marguerite Gavin has recorded over two hundred audiobooks in nearly every genre and has earned a Publishers Weekly Listen-Up Award for her reading of Every Which Way but Dead by Kim Harrison. AudioFile magazine says "Marguerite Gavin has a sonorous voice, rich and full of emotion.... She easily delivers wry humor [and] moves smoothly from accent to accent without hesitation, recalling multiple characters perfectly."

--This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 411 pages
• Publisher: DAW (March 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0756400627
• ISBN-13: 978-0756400620
• Product Dimensions: 6.5 x 4.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #192,204 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars greta military SF, March 3, 2002

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Better Part of Valor (Valor Novel) (Mass Market Paperback)

In the distant future, Earth has joined the Confederation in return for becoming a fighting arm of the empire along with other sentient species. Staff Sergeant Torin Kerr is proud to be a marine fighting the Others, a race that covets confederation territory while refusing to negotiate with the delegates of the Confederation. In a life or death battle with the Others, she has come to the attention of General Morris.

The General assigns her a top-secret mission to investigate a spaceship that is neither Confederation nor Other in a far corner of the galaxy. When Kerr boards the alien ship, she learns the hard way that it is sentient and doesn't like anyone shooting it. Trapped on board the ship with a group of the Others, Torin must find a way to escape or die trying.

Fans of military science fiction will want to read THE BETTER PART OF VALOR, a thriller that is every bit as exciting as STAR WARS. Tanya Huff's latest work is so action packed and colorful it would make a great movie. Torin is a great heroine while the realistic species provide an authentic spin to this vigorous fantastic futuristic tale.

Harriet Klausner

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book is amazing!!, March 12, 2002

By 

Kubbye Villarreal (Arizona, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Better Part of Valor (Valor Novel) (Mass Market Paperback)

Tanya Huff has written a lot of great books, but her "Valor" series is turning out to be my favorite. Torin Kerr, her main character is everything you want a believable hero (rather heroine) to be during war. I've read reviews that compare "Valor" to the Aliens movies, but these are better. I also liked the fact that you don't have to read "Valor's Choice" to understand "The Better Part of Valor", they are two seperate stories about one character. I do however highly recommend that people read both books. They are both very well written, and the reader can clearly see the incredible world Tanya Huff has created. Humor, drama, and ACTION...what more could a reader want? I hope Tanya Huff decides to write more in this series, because it's a promise that I'll buy more books about Staff Sergeant Torin Kerr.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Torin strikes again, December 3, 2004

By 

Alex Frantz (San Leandro, ca USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Better Part of Valor (Valor Novel) (Mass Market Paperback)

Tanya Huff returns to the galaxy of the Confederation and super-competent Marine Staff Sergeant Torin Kerr in this military SF sequel to "Valor's Price".

The set-up is that humans, along with two other species, the di'Taykan and the Krai, are recruited into the Confederation, a union of highly advanced species, in order to provide it with the ability to defend itself against the violent Others, who are invading Confederation space. Other Confederation species have either never practiced warfare or have developed to the point where it is a part of their ancient history, so they need some less-advanced races to help out when they are faced with the requirement to resist military aggression.

Kerr's latest mission is to protect scientists while they examine an extremely large space ship which has been located, apparently drifting as a derelict, in Confederation space. In this I don't think Huff has really thought out her premise. The Confederation is supposed to be an ultra-advanced society of ancient races, but their technology, excepting SF-standard FTL space ships and artificial gravity, isn't really that impressive - there's very little that humans couldn't easily develop on their own by the date of this story, roughly early 23rd Century. Much of it seems downright primitive for a galaxy-spanning culture. They have no AI, no nanotechnology, and apparently no robotics - they seem to have no clue about sending unmanned scouts into potentially hazardous situations, for which they just use Marines. When they encounter this ship, which it soon becomes clear is truly advanced, the Confederation scientists are pretty much useless.

Apart from this conceptual problem, I liked nearly everything about this book. The plot is interesting, with unpredictable twists, and, unlike the prequel, Torin wasn't the only character who was properly developed. There's a sexual tension between Torin and the salvage operator who discovered the ship to keep a romantic subplot running. And there are political subplots in Torin's conflicts with General Morris, returned from the prequel, and the incompetent CO he has assigned to her unit, who is more familiar with - and more interested in - media relations than the mission.

Although I liked most of the story, I do agree with reviewers who said that there isn't much payoff at the end. But this novel is a diverting story and a pleasure to read.