Reviews & Overviews by Rod Cameron
|
|
|
|
Elizabeth Moon has written a number of well-regarded series, such as The Serrano Legacy (7 novels) and The Deed of Paksenarrion (3 novels). Trading in Danger is the first in her Vatta’s War series. Ky(lara) Vatta is within weeks of graduating from the local spaceforce academy when she is disgraced and forced to resign. Being the daughter of a rich family, she ends up working inr her family business, a powerful trading company. They give her a job which throws her in at the deep end, as she is expected to captain an aged and failing ship. Her task is to command an experienced crew who will take the ship across three planetary systems where it can be scrapped. Of course, like all Vattas trading is in her blood and she can see ways to make enough money to have the ship repaired rather than scrapped, and sets about doing so. Everything goes along fine until her FTL engine fails in a system where a war is breaking out… Trading in Danger is set in a universe where the vast majority of star systems are peopled by a mixture of different human races. Some even enhance themselves with biological, mechanical and IT adaptations. Others believe that to do this is heretical. Star systems communicate using instantaneous ansibles provided by a single monopolistic company called ISC. The ansibles enable financial transactions to take place instantaneously across the galaxy. Some individual planetary systems have their own space navies, but there is no Force policing the area between star systems. As a result there are pirates and privateers out to make a profit from the weak and unwary. My excuse is that with ten minutes to spare, I went into a charity shop and found Trading in Danger lurking on the shelves. I was immediately attracted by a number of things – the “sexy” spacecraft on the front, the fact that despite it being in a series (book 1 of Vatta’s war series) at least it was the first one, it was in decent condition, and it was only £1.75! What a shock, Trading on Danger was very readable, and I enjoyed it so much that I had to track down the next one straight away. It has to be said that this is not a deep, complex, challenging read, it can best be described as a “comfort read” – like comfort food – rich, sickly if you have too much, not demanding in the least; but enough roughage to keep you interested and coming back for more. Thoroughly recommended for those occasions when you don’t want a demanding read – just pleasant escapism |
|
|
Publisher: Orbit |
 |