The Heart of Valor: A Confederation Novel (Valor Novel) [Mass Market Paperback]

Tanya Huff (Author)

Book Description

Series: Valor Novel | Publication Date: November 1, 2011

Gunnery Sergeant Torin Kerr was a Confederation Marine's marine. She'd survived more deadly encounters-and kept more of her officers and enlistees alive-than anyone in the Corps, and she was determined to keep that record intact. But since her last mission, she'd been sidelined into endless briefings and debriefings with no end in sight. So, of course, she'd jumped at the chance to go to Crucible-the Marine Corps training planet-as a temporary aide to Major Svensson. The major had been reduced to little more than a brain and a spinal cord in his last combat, and he and his doctor were anxious to field-test his newly regrown body.It should have been an easy twenty-day run. After all, Crucible was only set up to simulate battle situations so that recruits could be trained safely. But they were barely on-planet when someone started blasting the training scenarios to smithereens. Suddenly, Kerr found herself not only responsible for the major and his doctor but caught in a desperate fight to keep a platoon of Marine recruits alive until someone could discover what was happening on Crucible.

--This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The fast-paced third military SF novel in Huff's Confederation series (after Valor's Choice and The Better Part of Valor) examines how an interplanetary confederation might unite several distinctive species into an effective military organization despite widely differing physiologies, customs and mores. Marine Gunnery Sgt. Torin Kerr, recovering from injuries suffered in a first contact situation, accompanies a recruit platoon into the Crucible, a training planet where they apply their lessons in a realistic live-fire exercise against robotic drones. While the exercise is underway, the drones begin acting aggressively, without regard to fail-safes or their programming. Has the platoon come under attack by the mysterious Others, or is this related to the alien escape pod that everybody has forgotten exists except for Torin, her lover and an obnoxious reporter? The intriguing and well-designed aliens and intricate plotting keep the reader guessing. (June)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Gunner Sergeant Torin Kerr, newly promoted because of her handling of combined diplomatic and combat duties in The Better Part of Valor (2002), discovers that her lover has made off with a life pod from a captured alien ship. Suddenly Torin and her convalescent commander, Major Svensson, are shipped out to a training planet with a company of recruits. Crucible turns out to be aptly named when the life pod shows up in the hands of hostile forces, including unknown alien races and some marines. Interstellar peace and Gunny Kerr survive—just. Expect more of this military sf saga, which is a vast improvement over Huff's earlier, mostly fantasy, fiction. Green, Roland --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Mass Market Paperback: 432 pages
• Publisher: DAW (November 1, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0756404819
• ISBN-13: 978-0756404819
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #197,104 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #34 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Literature & Fiction > World Literature > Canadian > General
  • #60 in Books > Literature & Fiction > World Literature > Canadian

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good book, but not up to Miss Huff's previous works, July 23, 2007

By 

Cynical Guy (Marathon, FL USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Heart of Valor (Valor Novel) (Hardcover)

I thoroughly enjoyed the first two books of the Confederation series by Tanya Huff. After happening upon the first one seven years ago in a bookstore, I've been hooked, periodically checking to see when the next ones would come out. I therefore splurged and bought this book on it's publishing date. It's a good book, don't get me wrong, but I think it's a little formulaic now. Miss Huff has great talent- if she kept going with the character and this universe she's created, I would keep reading, it's rich and vibrant, obviously well thought out. But a different storyline than an "against all odds, barely scraping through" would be great.

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Torin Kerr Returns, July 15, 2007

By 

D. G. Hulan "DavidNOE" (Naperville, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Heart of Valor (Valor Novel) (Hardcover)

The first two books in this series about a Space Marine NCO, Torin Kerr, Valor's Choice and The Better Part of Valor, were really excellent, which is why I sprang for this one in publisher's HC as soon as it came out. This one was still quite enjoyable, but not as good as the first two, imho, and if I'd known that I'd probably have waited for the PB in a year or so. Torin has been promoted from Staff Sergeant to Gunnery Sergeant and is giving a course on the Silsviss to various Marines at a training base on a space station. A Major she'd worked under in the first book, who'd been so badly injured that his life had barely been saved and he'd spent two years in a regrowth tank and had just recently been decanted, has persuaded the brass to send him with a recruit platoon to Crucible, where recruit classes are sent for a 2-week tactical problem as the last part of their basic training. But under the condition that his attending physician goes with him, and that Torin accompanies them for added protection. Then when they get there the senior DI on the mission goes into a change peculiar to his species, and he's the only one who can abort the mission--and the various drones that act as enemy on the missions, with tight restrictions on how much damage they're allowed to do, start seriously attacking the platoon. And the orbital platform that has the capability of turning them off is destroyed by a SAM. And then things start to really get interesting. Meanwhile, Torin and her sometime lover, Craig Ryder, have discovered that they are apparently the only ones who were on Big Yellow, the alien spaceship, who remember that an escape pod from that ship was picked up by the Confederation ship they were on, and while Torin is on Crucible Craig investigates that, with surprising results. It's a good story, with an interesting mystery to go along with the battle action; it's just not up to the level of the first two books (which, if you missed, are now out in an omnibus titled Confederation of Valor).

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent World-Building, August 16, 2007

By 

Wantz Upon A Time Reviews (Chicago) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Heart of Valor (Valor Novel) (Hardcover)

Newly-promoted Gunnery Sergeant Torin Kerr is one tough Marine who prefers action to talk. She's tired of the endless briefings she is forced to participate in on Ventris Station since returning from a first contact with the Silsviss. So she is delighted when the newly regenerated Major Svensson asks her to accompany him to Crucible, the Marine training planet.

Crucible is the last step in a Marine's training--a twenty-day live-fire exercise pitting human and alien Marines against robot drones. Kerr is just there to observe what is supposed be a milk run, but the drones start to act more aggressive than their programming should allow. The only Marine who can shut the exercise down is incapacitated, leaving Kerr outmanned and outgunned. Now she has to train these "baby Marines" fast. It will take all her ingenuity and significant combat skills to get them out alive.

As a tough Marine who can still let her guard down with her lover, Craig Ryder, Kerr is a compelling heroine. Ryder plays a key role in this book, as he investigates the mystery of why only Kerr, himself and a reporter can remember a significant event.

THE HEART OF VALOR is the third novel in Huff's Confederation series, with layers of back story throughout the book. This approach means that readers new to the series may struggle for a few chapters to figure out motivations of all the different constituents in this universe.

Huff does an excellent job of world building, putting the reader in the middle of the action without losing them in military jargon. Readers stay tuned: there is a revelation near the end that sets up an interesting premise for the next book in the series.

Reviewed by Deb Gross
on 08/16/2007

3.5-Books on WUAT = 4-Stars on Amazon