Book: Engaging the Enemy

Elizabeth Moon doesn’t fall into my top tier of gotta-read-everything authors, but she’s near the top of my second tier. I’ve been following the Vatta’s War series for some time, but as you can see, I’ve been following it a long ways off. There’s another book out that I haven’t read.

Having said all of that, I really do enjoy these books and generally get to them before too long. Kylara Vatta is a fairly convincing female lead character, and I’m a sucker for stories that involve decisive women. Kylara has plenty of doubts about herself, but when things get really tough, she does what needs to be done whether she’s sure of herself or not. Most of that uncertainty can be–and is–traced to her age and lack of experience.

In this book we see Kylara figuring out that there is a major attack going on, and that if the worlds don’t get together to deal with it, they will be at the mercy of the pirates. Somebody ought to do something, and whether that’s lucky for her or not, Kylara Vatta appears to be the one tagged with the mission.

There are plenty of surprises and some interesting new cultures in this one. I rate it a four on my numerical scale.