Trading in Danger

September 29, 2003
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.

August 1, 2003
Forced to resign from the Space Academy because of her involvement in an incident that endangered the school's reputation, Kylara Vatta returns home to her family in disgrace. Accepting a minor post in her father's interstellar transport business, she captains an obsolete ship bound for the junkyard on its last voyage, only to find herself caught up in a war between two space colonies that threatens her ship and crew. Moon (Change of Command) launches a new military sf series featuring a resilient heroine whose courage is equaled only by her personal integrity. Bound to appeal to fans of David Weber's "Honor Harrington" series, this sf adventure is filled with fast-paced action and well-conceived characters. A good addition to most libraries.

Copyright 2003 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 1, 2004
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 2003 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 1, 2003
Moon's latest begins a new series. The protagonist, young Kylara Vatta, is the daughter of a wealthy merchant family on the planet Slotter's Key. Unfortunately, her initial appearance in the book is inauspicious: she is being tossed out of the naval academy for embarrassing it. Her similarly embarrassed family then gives her a token civilian assignment, commanding an old ship on its final voyage to the scrapyard. Of course, that duty lands her in the middle of a war that, at various times, threatens her profits, her crew, her ship, her reputation, and her life. She finds unlikely allies, however, aboard her ship and among a fleet of high-powered mercenaries, and she learns more about giving her loyalty to those worthy of it. Those discoveries, plus her own formidable, entertaining combination of intelligence, creativity, and naval-academy training, turn a potential disaster into a profitable triumph for the whole Vatta family.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2003, American Library Association.)