Engaging the Enemy (Vatta's War)

by Elizabeth Moon

Hardcover, 2006

Status

Available

Publication

Del Rey (2006), Edition: 1st, 416 pages

Description

The brilliantly unorthodox Kylara Vatta--black-sheep scion of Vatta Transport Ltd., one of the galaxy's wealthiest merchant houses--is a heroine like no other, blessed with a killer instinct both for business and for battle. Now, in the aftermath of cold-blooded assassinations that have left her parents dead and the Vatta shipping empire shattered, Kylara faces her greatest challenge yet. There is a time for grief and a time for revenge. This is decidedly the latter. Placing her cousin Stella in command of the trading vessel Gary Tobai, Ky embarks aboard the captured pirate ship Fair Kaleen on a twofold mission: to salvage the family business and to punish those responsible for the killings...before they strike again.Since the network providing instantaneous communication between star systems has been sabotaged, news is hard to come by and available information impossible to trust. But as she travels from system to system, with Stella a step behind, Ky pieces together the clues and discovers a conspiracy of terrifying scope, breathtaking audacity, and utter ruthlessness. The only hope the independent systems and merchants have against this powerful enemy is to band together. Unfortunately, because she commands a ship known to belong to a notorious pirate--her own relative Osman Vatta, whom she killed for his part in her parents' deaths--Ky is met with suspicion, if not outright hostility. Rumors swirl about her intent and even her very identity. Soon, even Stella begins to question her cousin's decisions and her authority to make them. Meanwhile, the conspiracy Ky hunts is hunting her in turn, with agents insinuated into every space station, every planetary government, every arm of the military, and every merchant house--including her own. Before she can take the fight to the enemy, Kylara must survive a deadly minefield of deception and betrayal.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member conradrader
The series continues to develop with deeper plots. I find the interaction of certain characters to be deeply stilted, but somehow believable. Had trouble getting involved in the series, but and finding it more engaging as it develops. If you ever played Traveller, the scifi RPG, you will recognize
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some of the core elements
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LibraryThing member SimonW11
Third volume of this Space Opera Series about the Vatta Family's struggle to survive after they and their space shipping line are targeted by baddies.
In spite of the title this is a lot more about the struggle for control of the company than set piece battles, plot threads everywhere and very much
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part of a continuing story.
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LibraryThing member jimmaclachlan
A good space adventure with a likable heroine & some well developed characters. I'm a bit peeved because one character is STILL hiding & I think I know who it is. It's beginning to be more a point of wonderment & becoming ridiculous. Minor point though. The rest of the universe is well painted, the
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situation is believable & tense. It's an easy read, but not a dumb one. Better than just a candy book.
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LibraryThing member ladycato
In the third book of the Vatta's War series, Ky Vatta is up to her neck in intrigue. Now in possession of a pirate's warship, docking in space ports has become even more complicated. Communications are still down throughout many systems; while Ky is keenly aware that much of her family has been
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massacred, she'd not sure who is left, or when she'll be able to return to her homeworld. Meanwhile, her cousin takes charge of Ky's slower, older ship and deals with the aftermath of Ky's turbulent port visits--making Stella more and more resentful. On a planet where impoliteness means the death penalty, Ky's very identity is brought into question--just as the enemy moves in all too close.

Wow. This series only gets better. The suspense was so intense that I kept saying, "One more chapter, one more chapter..." and over a hundred pages flew by. I enjoyed Moon's Paksenarrion fantasy series, but the Vatta's War books truly show her evolution as a writer. The plot twists and technological details are impressive, and I'm amazed at how she mapped out everything from book to book.

I've already started the next in the series, Command Decision. It's just as addictive.
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LibraryThing member Karlstar
This is good, solid low-tech science fiction. More like Star Wars in terms of technological sophistication, but good action and excellent characters.
In the third part of this series, the Vatta family is starting to recover from the near death blow dealt to it by the pirates and their allies. Ky
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is slowly building a 'fleet' and Stella is rebuilding the business. There is some good action with the pirates, and some activity on the business side. As usual the characters are interesting and well rounded, though they lack relationships.
My biggest objection to this book is that with just one exception, the men in this book are generally useless or villains, or useless villains. There's no equality here at all, which doesn't make a lot of sense for a future society. I still enjoyed it, but that aspect certainly detracted from the book.
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LibraryThing member navelos
This book felt like it was all setup for the next books. I don't think it would be interesting read out of order. I got a little impatient with it, although I still really like the series and am looking forward to the last 2 books.
LibraryThing member jenreidreads
The third book in this series is the best so far, imho. It's hit its groove, the action and talk feel more balanced. We get POV from three very different, very kick-ass women: Ky, Stella and Grace. Moon's world-building is getting better, too; things seem to fit together more smoothly, somehow.
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(Could just be me, I suppose.) I've already started the next one!
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LibraryThing member buffalogr
Another Elizabeth Moon page turner. It has elements of identity theft, bureaucratic wrangling mixed with cultural differences, inept leadership, family relationships, ever present pirates and space combat. That humans haven't changed in the time it took to develop interstellar travel is a testament
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to the author's imagination. In the end, our heroine, Ky Vada, lives to see another adventure in the next book.
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LibraryThing member DinadansFriend
If you combine the seventh century privateering / bucaneering /merchanting societies, you have a good setting for Elizabeth Moon's revenge story. It moves along nicely, and the society is more workable than many Sci-fi realms. This is the middle book, so get the start of Vatta's war first.
LibraryThing member AltheaAnn
Vatta's War series
1 Trading in Danger
2 Marque and Reprisal
3 Engaging the Enemy
4 Command Decision
5 Victory Conditions

These 5 books are not so much a series as one long novel - there's one story arc, and you really need to read all five to get to the (satisfying) conclusion. (I somehow had the
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misapprehension that there were only 4 in the series - luckily the public library came through and got me #5 expediently!)
Due to a misjudgement, Kylara Vatta, scion of an interstellar shipping business, gets kicked out of military academy shortly before graduation. She's pretty crushed by the end of her hopes for a military career, but there's always the family business to fall back on... or is there? Someone's apparently got it out for her family, and before Ky knows it, she's catapulted into the midst of a space war, seeking justice and vengeance against an unsavory alliance of pirates.
These are first and foremost action-adventure books, with plenty of shoot-em-up scenes and an uncomplicated moral compass - you know who the 'bad guys' are, and although Ky is normally affected by the trauma of war (even seeking therapy at one point), she's always clearly on the side of right. The one thing I wished the story had was more exploration of the bad guys' motivations - OK, we know they're racist, and bigoted against 'modified' humans (people who've had either genetic or physical/technological augmentation), and of course they want power - but what's the story behind it all?
However, the characters of the 'good guys' are well-drawn, and the story's definitely recommended for those who like strong female characters: there's Ky, with her military and strategic brilliance, her cousin Stella, who has the financial and business acumen to bring Vatta Enterprises back from the brink - and there's their grandmother, Grace, who is far from being the harmless old lady people might assume. (Grace might be my favorite character - it's wonderful to see an older woman portrayed with such verve.)
As many have mentioned, there are some definite parallells here with Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan saga. I'm not sure these are *quite* as good, but if you like one, I'd guess you'll like the other.
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LibraryThing member Cheryl_in_CC_NV
Honestly, I'm confused by how much I like this series. Let me reiterate - I don't like intrigue, adventure, stories that are so long you need a whole series to tell them, military situations... but Moon just has a knack for charming me by explaining the intrigue and the battles instead of being
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elliptical, and of including so much more than just adventure.

I love all the new worlds and their different cultures. I love getting to know Rafe, Grace Lane and Stella a bit better and meeting the other characters. There's just enough humor to leaven the intensity of what is, after all, Vatta's War and to make it all feel authentic, plausible.

I love Ky's mix of vulnerability and arrogance:
You know how I feel about trusting him, Captain."
"Only half as far as I can throw him," Ky said. "But that's a tidy distance."

I also really want to go to the restaurant Melandra on Cascadia."
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LibraryThing member reading_fox
A great continuation of the series Ky has just about got herself settled as captain of her commandeered ship. She's quite confident she's the rightful owner having captured it from the disgraced Osman she out-fought. However as she repeatedly learns at every station she docks at, with the ansibles
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still down, there's no records and she has to prove it every time, including on some stations with very odd local customs .

Her acquisition of another ship has given her an idea. The pirates appear to be working together, maybe the defenders should do the same, at a galactic scale, a Space Defense force, although she knows the system governments are against the idea - but she now has a privateers marque and she begins the process of sounding out fellow captains. Meanwhile (and there's always a meanwhile) she still has to support Vatta's interests, and her cousin Stella, seems to have very different ideas about how that can be achieved.

There's s a little bit too much of both Ky and Stella being unsure of themselves in private and just moaning, rather than interacting with characters to show us alternatives they haven't thought of. I'm also less keen on the very short jumps back to the base at Slotter Key where the formidable Grace is organizing a house defense. I enjoy her as a character, but the author needs to do more with her, or cut her out completely because one or two pages now and then is just irritating. Given that the focus is otherwise entirely on Ky and Stella, who can't know what is going on there, it would be better not to have her feature at all until they can come home. As a bonus the cut scenes from the enemy no longer feature so we're spared those poor foreshadows.

Fun adventures in space, I'm not completely convinced the author has a complete plan of where this series is going, but it seems to be worth going along for the ride.
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LibraryThing member devilwrites
The premise: in the third book of the series, Ky Vatta's got two ships: one's old, slow, and simply for trade; the other is outfitted perfectly should she become a privateer. What she really wants is to use her marque to actually unite the privateers and take the fight to the people who killed her
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family. That's easier said than done: not only does the government not trust her, but neither does her remaining family or the other captains. Ky's got to do everything she can in order to accomplish what is right, but that's not going to be easy, especially when someone from her past shows up who could change everything. For the worst.

My Rating

Worth the Cash: pretty enjoyable, and again, if I'd actually spent money on this instead of borrowing it, I wouldn't have minded in hindsight. Moon is writing solid SF, both in military fiction and in space opera, and the characters really do stand out and develop nicely. And of course, I'm enjoying the world-building here and the details that go into it, though I feel like sometimes, the details slow the story down. Still, the series is moving a solid pace so far, with the ante being upped with each book, so I'm looking forward to the next installment.

Review style: Two sections, what I liked and what I didn't. Expect spoilers. :) However, if spoilers don't bother you, the full review is in my LJ. As always, comments and discussion are most welcome. :)

REVIEW: Elizabeth Moon's ENGAGING THE ENEMY

Happy Reading!
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LibraryThing member JohnFair
With Vatta no back on the map with two ships, even if one had an ill-earned reputation as a pirate, Ky and Stella find themselves at odds over the future direction of the company. Ky is all hot to go after the pirates they had determined had caused the damage to their family and most of the book
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has the cousins chasing each other throughout the galaxy. This is pretty much a standard middle series type of book with lots of running about not really getting any where, though Ky does begin to put together an interstellar navy. A bit of light relief was provided when Ky's other cousin Toby find the dog he'd taken care of was a potential goldmine in a system where dogs had almost died out
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Awards

Prometheus Award (Nominee — Novel — 2007)

Language

Original language

English

Barcode

9173
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