Moving Target (Vattas War 2) [Paperback]

Elizabeth Moon (Author)

Book Description

Series: Vattas War 2 | Publication Date: November 4, 2004

Ky Vatta was a military cadet destined for great things, until an act of kindness incurred her Academy's wrath and ended her career. Instead of the expected disgrace, her rich trader family gave her captaincy of a small ship, to sell for scrap. In flagrant disregard of orders, she saw the opportunity to make a profit and save the ship. Several upgrades later, Ky is determined to retain the ship and her independence in the cut-throat world of interplanetary trading. But a threat emerges that challenges even her sharp wits and, if she survives, could leave the military forever in her debt ...

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Noted for her strong heroines and interstellar naval adventures, Moon (Against the Odds) stumbles in the first of a new series featuring Kylara Vatta, whose "generous impulses" often get her into trouble. Ky, a favored daughter of a wealthy, interstellar shipping family, gets thrown ignominiously out of the Space Academy because she aided a fellow cadet who used her gullibility to dishonor the service. In consolation, her father gives her an antiquated cargo ship, the Glennys Jones, to command. He assumes she'll find a way to make enough profit to keep from having to junk the old tub. But after Ky figures out an angle on buying and selling some tractors, she inadvertently ends up running afoul of an interplanetary civil war. Following another generous impulse, Ky takes some stranded crewmen aboard. They return the favor by nearly getting her killed when mercenaries board her ship. Everyone, from her ship's seasoned crew to random strangers, annoyingly remarks on 21-year-old Kylara's youth and "exceptional" poise. With unusually slow pacing for a space adventure (lacking either the drama or the romance of opera), Moon presents several tableaux that are summarily dropped-such as polo that never gets played, a ship's model with secret instructions that Kylara refuses to decipher and an absentee boyfriend-any of which might have added some spice to this bland adventure.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From School Library Journal

Adult/High School-Ky Vatta has been groomed for a career in her family's interstellar shipping empire, but yearns for the life of a military officer. Sadly, in her senior year at the Space Academy, she is accused of an indiscretion and forced to resign. When she returns home in disgrace, her father hands her what she feels to be a demeaning assignment, though it does make her a captain: to take an obsolete ship to the scrap yard. But before long, the family talent for commerce emerges, and Ky negotiates an independent contract to supply a struggling colony with agricultural equipment from a nearby planet, hoping to realize sufficient profit to buy and refit her ship. The young woman finds herself in the midst of an interplanetary crisis and must prove her mettle. In this human future, commerce is the common ground where a believable variety of peoples, societies, and religions interact, and integrity and intelligence are essential factors in leadership. Entertainingly, Moon creates suspense and reveals character as much through contractual negotiations as through military action. Some readers might not approve of the author's use of shorthand sci-fi conventions to sidestep scientific issues, but for most others, the human interest, well-wrought story, humor, and rich world-building will more than satisfy. The publisher bills this first in a series as military science fiction. It could equally be described as space opera … la Robert Heinlein, or a family yarn that can please fans of Anne McCaffrey's "Rowan" saga (Ace).
Christine C. Menefee, Fairfax County Public Library, VA
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.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 448 pages
• Publisher: Orbit (November 4, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1841491691
• ISBN-13: 978-1841491691
• Product Dimensions: 4.4 x 7 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (62 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,618,553 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Elizabeth Moon grew up on the Texas-Mexico border, a voracious reader and early writer. She spent much of her early years in a hardware store where nothing was in shrink-wrap or little plastic containers, and mule collars still hung on the back wall. She has a history degree from Rice University and a biology degree from the University of Texas at Austin, plus some graduate work in biology at the University of Texas at San Antonio; between the first two, she spent three years on active duty in the USMC. Her bibliography includes 20+ novels and 30+ short fiction works, nearly all in science fiction or fantasy. REMNANT POPULATION was a Hugo finalist in 1997; THE SPEED OF DARK won the Nebula Award in 2003.

When not writing, she likes to wander around taking pictures of wildlife and native plants, bake bread, eat chocolate, sing with a choir, and laugh.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good start to a new series, July 26, 2004

By 

Barb Caffrey "writer-for-hire" (In a Midwest State (of mind), USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Trading in Danger (Hardcover)

TRADING IN DANGER is a very good read; it's compelling, it's interesting, has many plot elements, and has a likable protagonist. Ms. Moon did an excellent job with the military elements, as I've come to expect over the years of reading her books; she was a military officer, and her analysis and understanding of military matters is spot on.

Thing is, Kylara Vatta's character definitely is that of a maverick wunderkind, which reminds me a bit of the Moon-Anne McCaffrey collaboration SASSINAK, at least of the stuff while Sassinak is young. That's not bad, mind; I enjoyed SASSINAK, and I enjoyed this, too (and the characters really aren't much alike, except for being smart women who've found a way to survive). Nor is this the female version of Miles Vorkosigan, either; Kylara Vatta is not a cell-damaged man stuck in a military society, and I didn't think much about the possible parallels to Lois McMaster Bujold's THE WARRIOR'S APPRENTICE until the book was over.

Trust me; the books aren't that much alike, and I don't think TRADING IN DANGER is a copy of anything.

The only current book I can think of that's anything like this one is Steve Miller and Sharon Lee's BALANCE OF TRADE, although that's not very close, either; still, both TRADING IN DANGER and BALANCE OF TRADE show people making a living by trade and enjoying it. I do think if you liked BALANCE OF TRADE, you should like TRADING IN DANGER as well.

The pluses of this book? It has a very strong female heroine who is self-willed and highly motivated, even if she does get down on herself reasonably often (as young adults often do; sometimes even us older ones). I liked the trade, and the military action, and most of the minor characters (especially the woman from the ISC; her line about "not apologizing for not meeting your prejudices" -- paraphrase mine -- because she was a military vet who dressed in a feminine way really tickled me). And it really was a page-turner.

The minuses? Some of the sub-plots were started and stopped, some for comic effect, some perhaps because there was no room for them here. And I'd have preferred to see a few less people saying how wonderful Kylara was/is; yes, I expect it from her father and some of the others, but a little goes a long way. I'd rather intuit that sort of thing by Kylara's actions, and I'd already made up my mind that she was, in the parlance of this book, "a good'un."

So is this a perfect book? No. Is it Ms. Moon's best book? Probably not. Does it measure up to other space adventures Ms. Moon has written? Yes.

Four stars. Recommended.

Barb Caffrey

22 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Below her usual, still above most everyone else, February 20, 2004

By 

A. Trotter (New Hampshire) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Trading in Danger (Hardcover)

Having read Moon's "Deed of Paksenarion" trilogy, "Remnant Population", "The Speed of Dark" and some of her short stories, this was - something of a disapointment.

The main character is irritating, in some ways; the actions and thoughts of everyone around her are overly focused on her. This may be an author's way of emphasizing what an extrordinarry person she is not through her own words but through the thoughts of others; if this is so then it's overkill and boggs down what it's supposed to help.

She's yet another adventuresome girl with military training from a rich family who has "destined for great adventure" written all over her, in size 72 bold font. This isn't so much a story in it's own right as it is a prelude to the story of this girl's life, off in space with her own ship to adventure.

Still, it's Elizabeth Moon, and I'll read the next books and follow her adventures. It's bound to get better, and I've certainly read many worse.

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent new space opera from Elizabeth Moon, October 12, 2003

By 

R. Creed - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Trading in Danger (Hardcover)

This the first book of the Vatta space opera series. Kylara Vatta is a young woman from a rich shipping family who gets booted out a military academy, so her father assigns her the captancy of an old space freighter that needs to be piloted to a distant scrap yard. Naturally, things don't go according to plan....

Yes, there are a lot of simlarities between this book and the author's Serrano/Esmay books, but there are also enough differences to keep it interesting. I would say that the tone of this book is slightly more realistic and less warm/fuzzy than the Esmay books. I really like some of the unique personal issues that Kylara struggles with, and it's clear that Kylara is pursuing a very different course than the one Esmay Suiza took.

I also like the fact that this book has a solid ending that doesn't leave you hanging. No series cliff-hangers here!