27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A "middle" book in a fun series, May 5, 2006
Engaging the Enemy is the third in Moon's current series collectively called Vatta's War. I really liked Moon's first Mil-SF series, the Heris Serrano/Esmay Suiza books that eventually ran to 7 volumes. And I am really enjoying this series as well. That said, this book is pretty clearly a middle book, a chapter in a serial, and it doesn't really stand alone very well. Hence the 3 star rating -- the series as a whole is a 4 star series.
Ky Vatta is one of a few survivors of the successful interstellar trading company Vatta Transports. The bulk of that company was murdered in a coordinated attack by pirates in league with the government of their home planet, Slotter Key. Now it is clear that the pirates are attempting to control all of human space: they have destroyed much of the ansible network that connects various systems (all of which independent countries, basically), and they have taken over at least a couple star systems. Ky has managed to escape a couple of attempts on her life, and to defeat the pirates in a couple of small encounters. She has captured one pirate ship, the Fair Kaleen, which was captained by the slimy Osman Vatta, a cousin who was booted out of the family due to his nasty ways. Ky has also linked up with her beautiful cousin Stella, another survivor, and she assigns Stella to be captain of her original ship. And it wouldn't be a Moon space opera without Aunts in Space[tm], so back on Slotter Key, Aunt Grace, who is assumed to be a half-mad old bat, is working against the corrupt parts of the Slotter Key government.
The bulk of this book concerns Ky's attempts to organize resistance to the pirates, mainly by recruiting other privateers (Ky has a letter of marque from Slotter Key) to join her in forming an impromptu space navy. She is hindered in this by stupid governments who think the pirates will leave them alone if they just ignore things, and too by the individual crotchets and bloody-mindedness of the privateers. Stella is mad at her for various reasons as well, and then she runs into an old captain for Vatta who shockingly claims that she must be an imposter -- possibly a daughter of Osman Vatta who is impersonating the real Ky Vatta. The resolution to this last thread is a nice twist on what we expect. The other thread about the privateer navy leads to a nice concluding space battle. And back on Slotter Key Grace has made some progress in her attempts to root out the bad guys in local government and to begin rebuilding Vatta's position on planet.
I liked it because I like these books and this story and I root for Ky and Stella and Grace. That said this isn't the place to start -- begin at the beginning, with Trading in Danger. This latest book is mostly setting things in place for future books, which I imagine will involve bigger and better space battles, and interesting revelations about the bad guys (who are as usual for Moon pretty evull).
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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Best of the Vatta's War series -- compulsively readable, October 1, 2006
Elizabeth Moon's new space-opera series is really hitting its stride in this outing, which kept me up until the wee hours. Protagonist Ky Vatta is starting to get a handle on the bad guys who massacred most of her family on their homeworld, Slotter's Key. She's also getting comfortable with commanding the armed merchantman she recaptured from a rogue Vatta cousin -- the rogue leads her to the apparent mastermind behind the attack, and the newly-unified pirate fleet that's starting to attack and annex isolated worlds [1]. Ky is trying to organize a privateer response, but the privateers get off to a very rough start. To be continued....
Back home on Slotter's Key, Crazy Aunt Grace is hot on the trail of the bent politicians who let the raiders slip through the planet's space-defense net, and the trail is leading right to the top of the planetary government....
Moon's writing just keeps getting better -- in this book, the quality of writing, world-building and characterization are getting into the Bujold zone, high praise indeed. The catch for new readers is that _Engaging the Enemy_ definitely isn't a standalone -- in fact, the opening follows so hard on the heels of 2004's _Marque and Reprisal_ that these two books could be considered a single novel. While the first two books of Vatta's War were decent and worth reading, they never quite clicked for me. With _Engaging the Enemy_, Moon is back to writing something closer to pure mil-SF, her home comfort-zone, and the next volume is likely to be even purer. Newcomers may want to quickly breeze through the first two books to catch up to the Good Stuff. And, if you've already read the first two Vatta's War books, you're in for a real treat.
___________
Note 1) -- the first of which was the planet Bissonet, named after a street near the Rice University campus, where Moon & I both studied in the late Pleistocene....
Happy reading,
Peter D. Tillman
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14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Picking Up Steam, July 30, 2006
Engaging the Enemy (2006) is the third SF novel in the Vatta's War series, following Marque and Reprisal. In the previous volume, Kylara blows the Fair Kaleen's airlock with an EMP mine and then kills Osman Vatta. The Mackensee ships take out two pirate ships and capture some prisoners. Then they board the Fair Kaleen, take more prisoners, and turn over control of Osman's ship to Kylara.
Kylara takes command of the Fair Kaleen and appoints Stella as captain of the Gary Tobai. They split the crew between them, leaving Quincy with Stella to help her learn to command a ship. Kylara takes the more adventurous members of the crew, including young Toby and the terrier Rascal.
The mercenaries are suspicious of Rafe because of the timing of the Fair Kaleen incident. Kylara suspects that a shipboard ansible was responsible for the synchronization, but they ignore her suggestion. They still want to invade his implant for any evidence of his complicity. Kylara convinces them to let her query the implant. They interconnect the devices and Kylara scans the implant database; during this process, unfortunately, his implant downloads its ansible functionality to hers.
In this novel, Kylara Vatta struggles to control her father's implant. It is giving her nightmares about the destruction of their home and the death of her mother. Rafe suggests looking for a sleep cycle enabler and Ky finds that it gives her eight hours of uninterrupted sleep. By the second night, she is finally able to start thinking about their future actions.
At Garth-Lindheimer, Ky reports to Port Security and they demand that she appear before a court to determine the legality of her actions. Ky declines their invitation, delegates authority to Stella to collect their convoy fees and to pay the accompanying mercenaries, and takes the Fair Kaleen on to Rosvirein.
At Rosvirein, Ky hires a full crew, including gunners as well as trade positions. She also arranges for Rafe to report his intelligence to the local ISC manager. Shopping for minor items at a chandlery, she come across some old crockery with Vatta Line logos and pays extra to have them delivered immediately to her ship.
Unfortunately, a local criminal organization replaces the messenger who accompanies this shipment; the false messenger is tasked with passing a note to the sleeper agent among her new crew. Two of the new gunners notice the false messenger sticking microdots in goods destined for their ship, so they follow him back to the ship and warn ship security.
The false messenger asks the dockside crew to page his contact. When the sleeper comes down to the dock, the crew tries to arrest both men. This sleeper is killed outright, but the false messenger prefers to surrender to them. The crew chemically interrogates their prisoner and learns the name of his big boss, but that name triggers a suicide circuit in the prisoner's implant.
Ky arranges an earlier liftoff and barely clears the planet before three pirate ships drop into the system. As they are departing the system, Stella brings the Gary Tobai into the system. Once again, Ky leaves Stella to follow behind her. Stella is beginning to get mad.
At Sallyon, Ky visits the Sharra's Gift, another ship from Slotter Key. She finds that this ship is also a privateer and exchanges information with the captain. Then she waits for Stella to get to the system. But the Princess Philomena arrives first announcing that pirates had taken Bissonet.
At the Captain's Guild, Ky suggests that the privateers combine and take down the pirates. The Stationmaster hears of this proposal and kicks the Fair Kaleen out of the system. Once again, Ky is outbound as Stella is entering the system. Stella is thoroughly irritated.
This novel does not have any ship-to-ship actions until the very end. Most of the story is gathering intelligence and making contacts. Ky does have another encounter with Josiah Furman, Captain of the Katrine Lamont; he is even more irritating than in their earlier meetings.
This story also relates the activities of Great-Aunt Gracie, the only survivor of her generation. Gracie has initiated a psyop against the Slotter Key President, who had allowed the pirates to attack the Vatta personnel and properties. She spends her spare time tormenting the watcher on the ridge line above their house; she spreads blue-ticks at the most likely observation points and he barely gets to a hospital in time to prevent his death from the infection.
Ky continues to make mistakes and to ignore wise counsel. But she is learning to overcome her naivete and enthusiasm. The way things are going, however, she will either learn or die.
Highly recommended for Moon fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of naval SF and learning by doing.
-Arthur W. Jordin
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