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Trading in Danger (Vatta's War #1)

3.92 of 5 stars 3.92 · rating details · 3,798 ratings · 185 reviews

Kylara Vatta is the only daughter in a family full of sons, and her father’s only child to buck tradition by choosing a military career instead of joining the family business. For Ky, it’s no contest: Even running the prestigious Vatta Transport Ltd. shipping concern can’t hold a candle to shipping out as an officer aboard an interstellar cruiser. It’s adventure, not comme...more Kylara Vatta is the only daughter in a family full of sons, and her father’s only child to buck tradition by choosing a military career instead of joining the family business. For Ky, it’s no contest: Even running the prestigious Vatta Transport Ltd. shipping concern can’t hold a candle to shipping out as an officer aboard an interstellar cruiser. It’s adventure, not commerce, that stirs her soul. And despite her family’s misgivings, there can be no doubt that a Vatta in the service will prove a valuable asset. But with a single error in judgment, it all comes crumbling down.

Expelled from the Academy in disgrace–and returning home to her humiliated family, a storm of high-profile media coverage, and the gaping void of her own future–Ky is ready to face the inevitable onslaught of anger, disappointment, even pity. But soon after opportunity’s door slams shut, Ky finds herself with a ticket to ride– and a shot at redemption–as captain of a Vatta Transport ship.

It’s a simple assignment: escorting one of the Vatta fleet’s oldest ships on its final voyage . . . to the scrapyard. But keeping it simple has never been Ky’s style. And even though her father has provided a crew of seasoned veterans to baby-sit the fledgling captain on her maiden milk run, they can’t stop Ky from turning the routine mission into a risky venture–in the name of turning a profit for Vatta Transport, of course.

By snapping up a lucrative delivery contract defaulted on by a rival company, and using part of the proceeds to upgrade her condemned vehicle, Ky aims to prove she’s got more going for her than just her family’s famous name. But business will soon have to take a backseat to bravery, when Ky’s change of plans sails her and the crew straight into the middle of a colonial war. For all her commercial savvy, it’s her military training and born-soldier’s instincts that Ky will need to call on in the face of deadly combat, dangerous mercenaries, and violent mutiny. . . .

From the Hardcover edition.(less)

Paperback, 357 pages

Published August 31st 2004 by Del Rey (first published 2003)

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Sep 16, 2012 Mike (the Paladin) rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction

Well, this is a "space opera" type of novel told from the point of view of a young captain on her first voyage as the captain of a merchant vessel. Direct from a shattering disappointment and possible scandal Kylara Vatta takes command of a small, obsolete trading vessel in her wealthy family's fleet. Sent to sell the ship for scrap she has other potentially more profitable ideas.

But then does anything ever go as planned?

Not if you want an exciting novel. It's almost as if someone had said, "wel...more

6 likes · like · see review

May 12, 2008 Guy rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: science-fiction-and-fantasy

OK, I'll admit it: I'm a sucker for space opera. Have been ever since my grandfather gave me a copy of E.E. "Doc" Smith's "Galactic Patrol" to read back when I was 9 years old. Always will be. And "Trading in Danger" is space opera....

I cracked the book shortly before midnight last night and finished it around 4AM. I'm a fast reader, but I'm not that fast. Frankly, there's a fair amount of fluff... lots and lots of details that neither advance the plot nor provide significant additional insight...more

9 likes · like · see review

Feb 27, 2008 Trin rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: sci-fi, american-lit

Military space actiony stuff, which sadly pales in comparison to Lois McMaster Bujold, who (besides stuff like Star Wars, I guess) provided my first exposure to that genre. The problem, I think, is that there are really no (developed, memorable) characters in Trading in Danger besides the protagonist, Kylara Vatta, which means there’s no one for her to bounce off of. It made the whole story seem very narrow. I also found the denouement rather clunky and dull. I wouldn’t be adverse to reading th...more

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May 06, 2008 David rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: completed

This book was a pretty average Space Opera. There was nothing earth-shattering about it, but it did feature some things that reminded me of an old "Traveller RPG" campaign. In our universe, someone had built MCI communication ships that helped provide communication between sectors. A similar type arrangement helps propel the plot along the way in this story-- interesting--

Anyway, the story was over several chapters before the book was completed. Moon took a great deal of time and effort in the m...more

2 likes · like · see review

Mar 08, 2009 Jim rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: science-fiction

I really liked Weber's 'Honor Harrington' series & the main reason this almost got 3 stars is that it is too close to that. It was a very enjoyable read & well written. The universe is well thought out & the characters well done, but there isn't anything new about any of it. Still, if you want a quick, relaxing read with an excellent heroine, this is a good book to sit down with.

One thing I really liked was that it was very self-contained. Sure, there are other books following, but t...more

8 likes · like · see review

Apr 10, 2012 Beth Cato rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: in, 2010, science, fiction, vatta-s-war

Kylara Vatta is nice, perhaps too nice. Her top status at the Academy is sacrificed for public relations reasons after her efforts to help a fellow student fall awry. Her family's powerful connections and vast trading conglomerate come in useful, and within a week Ky finds herself as the captain of an old rust bucket, headed to the far reaches of space. What should have been a simple milk run becomes something much more dangerous when Ky takes on an additional contract, leaving them stranded nea...more

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Dec 29, 2012 Michael rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, science-fiction, coming-of-age, space-opera

Having read a later one in this 5-part space opera series several years back (Vatta’s War), I pursued this one to get at the beginnings of the story on its tough, no-nonsense character, Ky Vatta. She gets unfairly booted out of the space academy and takes on a job in her father’s trading company transporting an old ship on its last shipping run on the way to sale for scrap. On the way, she takes the initiative on an additional shipping contract for agricultural equipment and finds herself strapp...more

7 likes · like · see review

Jun 15, 2012 Lorena rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: science-fiction

I may need to make a new shelf for "space opera"...!

I liked these books. I can't even tell you how many times I've read and re-read the "Deeds of Paksenarrion" books, but for some reason I was reluctant to pick these up. (As an aside, while waiting for the next book I've ordered, I picked up Sassinak, which I had read many years ago -- and my slight disappointment with that book makes me realize why I might have been reluctant to pick up Vatta's War.) I needn't have worried, however; I've now b...more

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May 14, 2012 Sara rated it 3 of 5 stars

MY TAKE:
Surprisingly, I really enjoyed this book. I say surprisingly because this isn’t the type of science fiction that I generally gravitate towards. There were a few sections regarding the ship systems and protocols that were difficult, but they weren’t overly complicated, and I managed to get through them. The story line was fast paced and engaging, and completely unpredictable – possibly because this isn’t usually my genre, but highly entertaining. I loved that the main character was female...more

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Dec 06, 2011 Carolyn F. rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: sci-fi, library-book

I'm giving this book a 3.5 because I almost gave up on it several times. It was so extremely slow in the beginning. I had my library's due date looming which is the only reason I kept at it (well that and a bunch of people said the books were good). It is a good book but it took half the book to get there.

Ky is kicked out of the military academy for going around school officials to help an underclassman she was assigned to help through the academy process. He accused the school, military, etc....more

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Aug 28, 2011 Mardel rated it 4 of 5 stars

First off, I enjoyed this book - very much. So much that I pretty much read it cover to cover without my usual switching back and forth between books.

I liked this book in spite of....lots of dialog that seemed repetitive. Kylara (Ky) seemed to be making the same explanations over and over, and as a reader I got to read it over and over...

There were also a lot of what I describe as obvious characters - stuffy older captains, bigoted people, etc.

Many, many explanations in dialog and narration of...more

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Aug 15, 2011 Andreas rated it 3 of 5 stars

This is the first book in the “Vatta’s War” series. Kylara Vatta is a scion of the Vatta shipping dynasty. Despite this, she decides to make a career in the military. The book sstarts with her being thrown out of the academy after ill-advisedly helping a fellow cadet with a personal matter. Her father and uncle then send her off as Captain of an old ship on its last journey, to the scrapheap. But of course she can’t just do that. She decides to prove that she can be a successful trader. Exciting...more

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May 13, 2011 Nick rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction, military

I started listening to this book simply because I wanted something light and space-opera'y to listen to while I worked, that wasn't going to be too distracting. That's not what I got, but I wasn't at all disappointed!

This, the first book in the Vatta's War series, tells the story of Kylara Vatta, a young scion of the famous Vatta Trading House and disgraced space-force military cadet. Robbed of her dreams of the military life, Kylara accepts a position as captain aboard a small family trade vess...more

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May 08, 2011 Mark Schulman rated it 5 of 5 stars

Trading in Danger is the first of a five-book military science fiction series by Elizabeth Moon. I'd bought the entire series during Border's going-out-of-business sale, with some reservations -- I'd tried to get into Elizabeth Moon's "Deed of Paksenarrion" series, and just couldn't get into it. I'm just starting the third book in the series -- Engaging the Enemy -- and can't put it down.

Kylara Vatta is the daughter of the head of the Vatta space transport empire. As the series opens, she's a fo...more

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Fayley Hi, can you recommend any other good authors of space opera / space military ? I loved everything by Elizabeth Moon, Lois Mcmaster Bujold, and the ear...more
Mar 24, 2012 05:15am

Mark Schulman Fayley wrote: "Hi, can you recommend any other good authors of space opera / space military ? I loved everything by Elizabeth Moon, Lois Mcmaster Bujo...more
Mar 24, 2012 07:29am

Cath I'm hunting for the same
Jun 07, 2012 11:34pm

Apr 04, 2011 Grace rated it 3 of 5 stars

This is for the entire 5-book series, as I can't particularly say there's that much variation from book to book.

They're good, they're escapist... but they are also basically books about shipping and logistics. This isn't actually a bad thing - I sometimes like getting into the weeds with that sort of plot, and Moon writes it well. I like all three Vatta women who prove to be pivotal characters; they all have distinct personalities and skills. And Moon handles gender issues well, too.

Unfortunate...more

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Jun 15, 2010 Johnny rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: science-fiction

Back in the late '70s, I discovered Marc Miller's wonderful role-playing game, Traveller. After Game Designers Workshop published the fourth book Citizens of the Imperium, my very favorite character class became the Merchant. Where most players seemed to want the big guns of the space navy or the straightforward combat/exploration adventures of the space marines, I liked the idea of adventure and exploration tied to "trade and profit."

So, I suppose that playful, imaginary background predisposed...more Back in the late '70s, I discovered Marc Miller's wonderful role-playing game, Traveller. After Game Designers Workshop published the fourth book Citizens of the Imperium, my very favorite character class became the Merchant. Where most players seemed to want the big guns of the space navy or the straightforward combat/exploration adventures of the space marines, I liked the idea of adventure and exploration tied to "trade and profit."

So, I suppose that playful, imaginary background predisposed me to like Trading in Danger, once I discovered where the narrative was going. You see, the initial pages aren't clear that deep space trading is where Kylara Vatta is headed. You know, right away, that her family is involved in space trade. You know that she has rejected this career and, you know that she has reached a crisis, a crossroad in her life.

To be sure, there are enough hints that you might figure she is about to transition from formal military service into mercenary service or you might consider that she is going to move from overt service to covert service as some kind of interstellar spy using a merchant assignment as cover. You might expect her to get drawn back into the family business because of family tragedy.

All I can tell you is that the human motivation behind the plot, the plot itself, and the characterization of Kylara and the rest of the "cast" are deftly handled. You understand why events have conspired against Ky to put her against the odds in various situations, yet the end of the novel (as adroitly wrapped up as a beautifully presented gift) leaves Ky at enough of a crossroad that, while you no longer feel she is in danger of disgrace, death, or failure, you aren't certain where her future is headed. Some will want her to continue on with the independent charter she seems to have created for herself and others will want her to plunge through some of the open air locks of opportunity that have been left open for her. Merchant, mercenary, or spy? Which will it be? Family and fortune or adventure and adversity?

The only indication I can give a reader without spoiling the story is that Moon has created a strong protagonist with enough courage, common sense, curiosity, and capability to go several different directions. She is a space-faring Richard Bolitho or Horatio Hornblower without being locked into suffering with a hidebound and recalcitrant Admiralty. Merchant, mercenary, or spy? One senses that the results will be fascinating and stirring in any or all directions.(less)

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Jan 09, 2010 William Bentrim rated it 5 of 5 stars

Trading in Danger by Elizabeth Moon

Once again Moon has captivated me with her characters and her plots. This author has the ability to create a character that is like the girl next door but with super powers. Kylara Vatta is no super hero but she has grit and determination that overpowers all obstacles. Her dismissal from her life’s dream and her resultant resurrection in another direction provides the focus of the story. The trials, tribulations and action are icing on a delicious cake.

Kylara’...more

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Dec 02, 2009 Ceridwen rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: sci-fi, the-future-is-now, space-the-final-frontier

When I first started reading, my husband asked me about this book, and my response was “It's like reading about the Ferengi.” This is not altogether fair, as the later plot of the book roughs up my sense of the overly mercantile vibe that wafts off the earlier sections, but it's never entirely dispelled. The protagonist, Ky Vatta, is the girl-scion of a large, intergalactic FedEx. She has chosen to go into some Star Fleet-proxy, and then gets her ass kicked out due to some political wankery that...more When I first started reading, my husband asked me about this book, and my response was “It's like reading about the Ferengi.” This is not altogether fair, as the later plot of the book roughs up my sense of the overly mercantile vibe that wafts off the earlier sections, but it's never entirely dispelled. The protagonist, Ky Vatta, is the girl-scion of a large, intergalactic FedEx. She has chosen to go into some Star Fleet-proxy, and then gets her ass kicked out due to some political wankery that never really makes a ton of sense. Her family sends her to scrap an old ship, a commission which is more or less designed to make her man up, and come of age and all that. She gets embroiled in one of those Kobayashi Maru things that sf authors are so fond of, only this time with farm machinery. (Sorry about all the geek checks.) (No, not really.)

Despite the recent darker glosses on space opera, like the freaking incredibly stellar (pun intended) Battlestar Galactica, space opera has at its heart a sort of gee whizzy ideas-over-characters frontier sensibility. It has been a while since I was in my Asimov phase, during which time I read maybe 10 of his books (which constitutes roughly .05% of his published books). His characters can usually generously be called characters, his novels relying more on spring-loaded plots and clever ideas. The pleasures of reading derive from an almost schematic sense of the order of things, the events drawing lines between this idea and that, and the people moving the action along are almost secondary beings, satellites to the inexorable mass of concepts.

This is probably where the smears of scifi's inherently juvenile nature sneak in. I think of my step-bother (now a lovely young man) and the sign we had to hang around him when he was young to remind him to be less of a jerk: people are more important than things. Because of the ideas-over-character sensibility of lots of space opera, sometimes authors engage in some of the most vicious, horrible, nihilistic acts for the sake of the plot, for the sake of the idea, and I'm sometimes surprised at how little comment this sociopathy receives. The most obvious example I can think of is Darth Vader blowing up Leia's home world right in front of her, presumably along with all of her friends and family, her childhood haunts, the place where she had her first kiss, everything. So now we've established that Vader is a world-destroying maniac, and Leia, while sad, will never knowingly betray the rebellion, but I've always been bothered by this. If Leia were an actual person, this would be game over, she would be hollowed out, destroyed. After going through the motions of the dork awards that conclude the action, she would go alone to her room, on a planet that will never be home, and howl and scream from this great and terrible loss.

I'm being pretty hard on a simple coming-of-age quest tale that reduces Eastern philosophies to magical plot points, but I'm not the one who called Joseph Campbell in the first place. (I'm probably also feeling betrayed by Episodes 1-3, and have been taking out my aggression on movies I otherwise love.) So, anyway, what does this all have the do with Trading in Danger? I feel like this book really tried to overcome the characterless plot-drive of space opera, tried to invoke meaning in the otherwise meaningless deaths of characters, but it did so by sacrificing a snicking plot that would have been totally awesome, had it come together. When you put a gun on the table in act one, I want to see that sucker fired in act three, or a damn good reason why it's still sitting there unfired. This is not existentialism, after all, this is frakking space opera. There were so many unfired guns. So many.

Ky Vatta felt relatively real, but I was consistently bothered by lost opportunities. Why is it that everyone else thinks she's got a thing for the lost boys, but it's made clear again and again that she really doesn't? I think having a thing for lost boys is just fine, and might humanize the fact that every single decision she makes is the right and prudent one. And while she felt relatively human, albeit slightly too perfect, everyone else was 2d cardboard all the way. Tough but loving sarge? Check. Jackass misogynist other captains? Check. Falstaffy chief of something? Check.

I don't know. I don't want to throw this book under the bus too hard. I have a feeling some of my problems might stem from the fact that this book is the first in a series, and the author left way too much for the next book. I don't like this, but if I did, in fact, get off on series, I would be pumped for the next round of Ky's adventures in space.
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Nov 25, 2009 Paul rated it 4 of 5 stars

Although I am a fan of space opera, I've improbably managed to avoid reading the novels of Elizabeth Moon until now.A friend finally convinced me to take the plunge, and begin here, with her first Vatta novel.

I am glad that I did.

Set in a space opera universe of FTL travel, ansibles for FTL communication, and a balkinized polity of trading planets, pirates, mercenary companies and more, Trading in Danger is the story of Kylara (Ky) Vatta. Unlike her trading oriented family, she's more interested...more Although I am a fan of space opera, I've improbably managed to avoid reading the novels of Elizabeth Moon until now.A friend finally convinced me to take the plunge, and begin here, with her first Vatta novel.

I am glad that I did.

Set in a space opera universe of FTL travel, ansibles for FTL communication, and a balkinized polity of trading planets, pirates, mercenary companies and more, Trading in Danger is the story of Kylara (Ky) Vatta. Unlike her trading oriented family, she's more interested in a military career. This career path goes off the rails in the first chapter of the book, as she is cashiered out of the military academy for what seemed to be an innocent attempt to help a fellow classmate.

Scandalous! Her family decides that a change of scenery and away from the media lights of her home planet of Slotter's Key. The Glennys Jones is one of the oldest ships in the Vatta trading fleet and due for scrap. Send Ky to captain the falling-apart ship for one last mission, with the end point of the mission having the ship being scrapped on a distant planet, and have her charter transportation back home for her and her crew. In the meantime, the scandal will have been forgotten

Simple, right?

Although she assiduously avoided joining the family business to this point, Ky cannot resist the chance to make some "trade and profit." And in the quest for that, winds up in an unfamiliar solar system that is just about ready to break out into civil war...

Moon is the sort of space opera writer that reminds me of Bujold in many ways. The technical details are plot oriented and relatively general in their details. Readers looking for lovingly thought out technical details of an FTL drive are going to be disappointed here. The technological details here serve character development and plot. And it is there, especially the character development, that Moon shines. Ky is a fully formed and envisioned three dimensional character, who has strengths, weaknesses, personality and who grows and changes in the course of the novel. Even when she does the wrong thing (for the right reasons), she is a sympathetic viewpoint character and Moon makes her the hard core of the novel. Her secondary characters are also well drawn as well, and contrast well against Ky, ranging from her family, to her crew, to those she tangles with in the course of her story.

The pacing is a bit slow as far as the action goes, its clear Moon is more interested in character development and starting the building of her world here than anything else. I was never precisely bored, but there are stretches that are less action packed than others. I also suspect that there might have been a larger book here that Moon decided to trim. Some subplots and ideas are mentioned and dropped in, but not fully explored. This may be a case of Chekov's Law, as applied to subsequent novels.

Speaking of subsequent novels, despite the relatively minor detractions, I definitely be looking to continue to read Ky's story in the subsequent novels in this series.(less)

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Dec 30, 2008 Punk rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction, spaceships

SF. After getting kicked out of the space naval academy, Kylara Vatta has no choice but to start working for the family space shipping business.

This held my attention well, even if it comes off as mechanical at times, reading like a treatise on space economics complete with the cost/benefit analysis of buying combines new or used, or getting the ship repaired here or there. This is very much a ~~plot-~~ money-driven story, with a lot of attention paid to the details of the space transport industry....more

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Jun 01, 2011 Kathryn rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Fans of Elizabeth Moon, David Weber and L.E. Modesitt, Jr.

I was rather reluctant to start this book, mostly because of my past experiences with Elizabeth Moon and her work. I'd tried The Deed of Paksenarrion and found it to be not-so-well written and have an unrealistic protagonist. Anyway, I digress.

Trading in Danger is the first Ky Vatta book, a space opera series with a military influence, and it revolves around the titular protagonist and her attempts to prove herself. As a character, Ky is genuinely flawed and in a believable way, yet it never mak...more

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Feb 11, 2011 Tom Rowe rated it 3 of 5 stars

This book started off as great space opera. The climax appeared to happend about 3/4 of the way through the book leaving 25% of the book for the denoument. This seemed excessive especially since in mostly involved the protagonist telling everyone what happened in the first 3/4 of the story. This book needed to have a tighter ending.

Also, there was a bit about a model having a piece of important equipment in it that did not make any sense.

What did I like? I liked the main character. I cared abou...more

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Dec 21, 2011 Shara (Calico Reaction) rated it 4 of 5 stars

For a reader, male or female, who's looking for a good SF adventure yarn, this fits the bill. Bonus points for having a well-developed heroine who evolves over the course of the book, and I suspect will develop more over the course of the series. I'm not chomping at the bit to read the rest of the series though, because while this was written well with a solid character, nothing about the world really stood out to me and had me begging for more. Oh, there are little things that caught my interes...more

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Jan 22, 2009 Dlora rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: scifi

Trading in Danger, the first book in the Vatta's War trilogy, is a regular old space opera. This is a coming-of-age story, as Ky Vatta takes command of a commercial ship headed to the scrap heap--or at least that was the plan. She ends up in the middle of a planetary war with hard decisions to make and people to protect. I enjoyed it a lot, and discovered again that yep, I really do like science fiction better than fantasy. My teen reading was science fiction and I have only sort of begun enjoyi...more

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Jun 25, 2012 David rated it 4 of 5 stars

Many years ago, as I bemoaned the loss of Firefly for the millionth time, a friend (I can't remember who) recommended that I read Trading in Danger, the first in Elizabeth Moon's "Vatta's War" series. I added it to my ever-growing list of books to read, and then forgot about it. Recently, I had a hankering for a hunk o' space opera, and Moon's book came to mind, so I picked it up.

I'm so glad I did.

The comparisons to Firefly are quickly evident. The story begins with Kylara "Ky" Vatta at the Spac...more

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Feb 02, 2013 Shauna rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: sci-fi

This is a commerce/trading themed space opera with a strong female protagonist. It reminded me of David Weber's Honor Harrington series, but maybe I just read them too close together. They both have dry technical details and long distance space battle. Sometimes I felt like I was reading adventures in contracts and management, except it was supposed to be exciting because it was in space. But I think Elizabeth Moon makes it way more compelling than David Weber. This book would be great for fans...more

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Mar 01, 2011 Victoria Pond rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: science-fiction, series, space-opera

Yay! More space opera! Kylara Vatta, daughter of interstellar shipping magnate Gerard Vatta, is forced to resign from the equivalent of Starfleet Academy. Drat! All that's left is to go into the family business. Trying to get her out of the local limelight, the family sends her on a shipping run to the middle of nowhere which is supposed to culminate in scrapping the ship.

Scrap her first command? No way!

Kylara does her best to be a perfect trader and sets out to gather more contracts on her way,...more

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Jul 20, 2010 Michael rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-in-2010, science-fiction, summer-of-series

The only daughter of the powerful Gerald Vatta, young Kylara (Ky as she is known to most of her family and friends), dreamed of being the first military officer from her family. That dream is shattered when her good intentions at helping a fellow cadet turn into a public relations nightmare and a political incident. Ky chooses to resign her commission and returns home to her family.

Her father decides it would be best for Ky to be out of contact for a while and gives her command of her own ship....more The only daughter of the powerful Gerald Vatta, young Kylara (Ky as she is known to most of her family and friends), dreamed of being the first military officer from her family. That dream is shattered when her good intentions at helping a fellow cadet turn into a public relations nightmare and a political incident. Ky chooses to resign her commission and returns home to her family.

Her father decides it would be best for Ky to be out of contact for a while and gives her command of her own ship. The ship is an older one, on its final run to the salvage yard because the costs of upgrades outweigh the benefits for her father's shipping company. Ky isn't convinced and decides she'll look for opportunities to possibly pay for the repairs and purchase the ship from her family as her own command vessel. This leads to Ky taking on a contract to deliver some agricultural equipment to a colony and, once again, being inadvertently drawn into a political situation that could lead to a public relations nightmare.

On the surface, all of that sounds like a fairly entertaining and exciting space opera story, but "Trading in Danger" isn't necessarily always entertaining or exciting. Part of the problem is the character of Ky herself, who doesn't necessarily seem to learn from her mistakes of the past and keeps making the same blunders over and over again. Early on the story establishes that Ky is a leader who leads with her heart, though that often has disastrous and unforeseen consequences for Ky and those around her. Also, Ky sits back and allows things to come to her instead of being a more active protagonist, especially in the early stages of the story.

At times the story here reminded me of the Miles stories by Lois McMaster Bujold with Miles at the center of galactic doings and surviving by his wits and instincts. Elizabeth Moon is clearly drawing from the same well that gave us Miles, but "Trading in Danger" isn't quite as successful as the Verokosigan series--at least not in this first installment. At times, it feels like Miles and Ky are similar characters, trying to overcome the odds stacked against them, but Miles seems to do it in a most interesting, dynamic way than what we see from Ky.

Both have issues that make them feel inferior and over their heads in certain situations, but the reaction of the two characters is entirely different. Whereas Miles will take and run with an issue, barreling forward and either making things better or worse, Ky seems to spent a lot of time reflecting on her shortcomings but not really actively working to overcome them. (This may be an unfair comparison because I've known Miles and his style for more books than I do Ky. I did try to cast my mind back to the earliest Miles novels to try and recall my feelings about the character then).

After reading "Speed of Dark" by Moon earlier this year and hearing several friends rave about the Vatta's War series, I was fully expecting a more enjoyable reading experience than I got here. There are some interesting moments, times when Moon truly had me engaged and actively interested in what would happen next. But there are also large portions of the story where I was less involved in Ky's dilemma--whether it's due to repetition of a similar issue or that we weren't learning anything new about Ky or seeing any growth from her as a character. I realize this is the opening segment of a five-book series and I'm assuming that Moon has a greater plan for Ky and the novels to follow. I'm hoping this is like the first season of "Babylon Five" and it takes on a deeper significance to the series because its sewing some seeds that will blossom down the road.

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Feb 09, 2010 Sbuchler rated it 4 of 5 stars

Recommended to Sbuchler by: Amazon

Shelves: scifi-fantasy, read-in-2010

Genre: Military SciFi/Space Opera

This reminded me a lot of Lois McMaster Bujold's _The Warrior's Apprentice_ and _The Vor Game_, in that the main character, Kylara Evangeline Dominique Vatta (a.k.a. Ky), wants very much to be a military officer. Unfortunately for her ambitions, the book starts with her being kicked out of the Space Academy. She goes back home and is promptly sent off by her wealthy family as the Captain of one of the family's trading ships on what's supposed to be an easy run. O...more

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Jan 12, 2011 Janine Southard rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: science-fiction, series, space-opera, ya

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About Elizabeth Moon

Elizabeth Moon was born March 7, 1945, and grew up in McAllen, Texas, graduating from McAllen High School in 1963. She has a B.A. in History from Rice University (1968) and another in Biology from the University of Texas at Austin (1975) with graduate work in Biology at the University of Texas, San Antonio.

She served in the USMC from 1968 to 1971, first at MCB Quantico and then at HQMC. She marrie...more

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BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/284658.Trading_in_Danger?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1320466945l/284658.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/284658.Trading_in_Danger?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]Trading in Danger by Elizabeth Moon[/url]

Trading in Danger (Vatta's War #1)

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