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May 12, 2008

Guy rated it:

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 p More...

1 comment like (8 people liked it)

Sep 07, 2011

Mike (the Paladin) rated it:

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 a More...

8 comments like (4 people liked it)

Feb 27, 2008

Trin rated it:

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...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

May 06, 2008

David rated it:

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 o More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 08, 2009

Jim rated it:

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, b More...

1 comment like (7 people liked it)

Dec 06, 2011

Carolyn F. rated it:

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, More...

0 comments like

Aug 28, 2011

Mardel rated it:

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 e More...

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Aug 15, 2011

Andreas rated it:

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...

0 comments like

May 13, 2011

Nick rated it:

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 More...

0 comments like

May 08, 2011

Mark rated it:

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 s More...

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Apr 04, 2011

Grace rated it:

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.
More...

0 comments like

Jun 15, 2010

Johnny rated it:

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 b More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 09, 2010

William rated it:

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 delici More...

0 comments like

Dec 02, 2009

Ceridwen rated it:

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...

31 comments like (15 people liked it)

Nov 25, 2009

Paul rated it:

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 famil More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 30, 2008

Punk rated it:

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 transpor More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 01, 2011

Kathryn rated it:

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 More...

0 comments like

Feb 11, 2011

Tom rated it:

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 More...

0 comments like

Dec 21, 2011

Shara (Calico Reaction) rated it:

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...

0 comments like

Jan 22, 2009

Dlora rated it:

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...

0 comments like

Mar 01, 2011

Victoria rated it:

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 mo More...

0 comments like

Jul 20, 2010

Michael rated it:

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 More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 09, 2010

Sbuchler rated it:

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 More...

0 comments like

Jan 12, 2011

Janine rated it:

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 c More...

0 comments like

Jul 19, 2010

Nancy rated it:

Kylara “Ky” Vatta has done the unexpected in choosing a military career over a position of power in her family's large shipping business. That is until she does someone a favor, and things go horribly wrong. After being kicked out of the military, Ky is sent home to her family. The next thing she knows, her father has set her up as Captain on a rickety old Vatta ship. Ky doesn't know if this is the life she wants to live, but she'll have little time to think about that when a planet she docks at More...

0 comments like

Feb 11, 2010

Kathy rated it:

I enjoyed this story most of the time, Moon has created a very detailed, believable futuristic society, but at times the story seemed to drag while we waited for something interesting to happen. I also thought some of the details and situations were a little too convenient or contrived, bumping me out of the reading experience.

Kylara Vatta made a relatively interesting main character, the amount of introspection in the story didn't thrill me, but I do look forward to reading at least More...

0 comments like

Jul 06, 2010

Angela rated it:

I've read four or five of Elizabeth Moon's previous books in the Serrano Legacy series and enjoyed them, but think I liked this particular book even more. I thought in this book, we got a good sense of the character's growth and insight into her. I read this book quickly while at the waterpark and then bought the second digitally and read it the next day, though it was not quite as good, it moved the series along nicely and continues to show well-developed plot, story and character growth. I'm o More...

0 comments like

Sep 04, 2008

Valerie rated it:

Space Opera at its best, a little politics, some ruthless characters, some honor, etc. I expected very little from this and I was pleasantly surprised.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 21, 2011

James rated it:

You know those books that are just comfortable, right? Books that are well written, with great plots and great characters that just feel right? This is one of them.

Ok, so the writing isn't amazing and up for awards, but its comfortable - I think that's the best word for it, it just seems right. The plot isn't amazing, and doesn't have twist after twist after twist, but once again it is a solid, comfortable tale.

The characters are brilliant though, I loved the depth and desc More...

0 comments like

Jul 01, 2010

Erika rated it:

Vatta Transport Ltd. is one of the most respected shipping and trading companies out of Slotter Key. When the daughter of CFO Gerard Vatta gets caught in the middle of a political upheaval and is kicked out of the Naval Academy, it could spell a PR disaster for the company. As soon as Kylara comes home, confused and upset, her father decides to send her on a simple run to scrap an old ship and get her out of the public eye for the next nine months. Ky doesn’t expect it to be anything more tha More...

4 comments like (2 people liked it)

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