Moon, Elizabeth Books

Victory Conditions (Vatta's War)

Elizabeth Moon

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 24 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Elizabeth Moon’s thrilling Vatta’s War series, featuring the no-holds-barred space-faring heroine Kylara Vatta, has secured her reputation as a master of first-rate military science fiction. Now Commander Vatta is back–locked and loaded and ready to win the fight against the marauding forces of ruthless space pirate Gammis Turek.

For Ky, it’s not just about liberating the star systems subjugated by Turek and defending the rest of the galaxy’s freedom. There’s also a score to be settled and payback to be meted out for the obliteration of the Vatta Transport dynasty . . . and the slaughter of Ky’s family. But the enemy have their own escalation efforts under way–including the placement of covert agents among the allies with whom Ky and the surviving Vattas are collaborating in the war effort. And when a spy ring linked to a wealthy businessman is exposed, a cracked pirate code reveals a galaxywide conspiracy fueling the proliferation of Turek’s warship fleet.
Matching the invaders’ swelling firepower will mean marshaling an armada of battle-ready ships for Ky to lead into combat. But a violent skirmish leaves Ky reeling–and presumed dead by her enemies. Now, as Turek readies an all-out attack on the Nexus system–a key conquest that could seal the rest of the galaxy’s doom–Ky must rally to the challenge, draw upon every last reserve of her strategic skills, and reach deep if she is to tear from the ashes of tragedy her most decisive victory.

The Speed of Dark

Elizabeth Moon

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 88 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

A new look at "normal" 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Lou Arrendale is an autistic man who is living in the 21st. century at a time when research has enabled scientists to tinker with brain function. The ultimate question is, does he want to go through an experimental procedure which will take away his autism but cause him to face an uncertain future, or does he wish to remain as he is, an autistic man with a satisfactory lifestyle and many outstanding characteristics and abilities?

This brief outline does not do justice to the depth of the book or the insightful author who created the wonderful character of Lou Arrendale. He is at once simple in his social naivete, yet complex and gifted in his ability to see and react to patterns. His life revolves around his work, his hobbby of fencing, and his carefully ordered home life. The author uses Lou to ask some deep and probing questions about a fine balance between what is "normal" behavior and what is acceptable behavioral intevention by those in authority. Because we are able to intervene medically in people's lives, is it always ethical to do so? Elizabeth Moon poses these questions, which cause the reader to ponder the options. This is truly one of the best and most thought-provoking books I've read in a long time.

Editorial Review:

Corporate life in early 21st-century America is even more ruthless than it was at the turn of the millennium. Lou Arrendale, well compensated for his remarkable pattern-recognition skills, enjoys his job and expects never to lose it. But he has a new boss, a man who thinks Lou and the others in his building are a liability. Lou and his coworkers are autistic. And the new boss is going to fire Lou and all his coworkers--unless they agree to undergo an experimental new procedure to "cure" them.

In The Speed of Dark, Elizabeth Moon has created a powerful, complex, and believable portrayal of a man who varies radically from what is defined as "normal." The author insightfully explores the nature of "normality," identity, choice, responsibility, free will, illness and health, and good and evil. The Speed of Dark is a powerful, moving, illuminating novel in the tradition of Flowers for Algernon, Forrest Gump, and Rain Man . --Cynthia Ward

Command Decision (Vatta's War)

Elizabeth Moon

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 30 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

With the Vatta’s War series, award-winning author Elizabeth Moon has claimed a place alongside such preeminent writers of military science fiction as David Weber and Lois McMaster Bujold. Now Moon is back–and so is her butt-kicking, take-no-prisoners heroine, Kylara Vatta. Once the black-sheep scion of a prosperous merchant family, Kylara now leads a motley space force dedicated to the defeat of a rapacious pirate empire led by the mysterious Gammis Turek.

After orchestrating a galaxy-wide failure of the communications network owned and maintained by the powerful ISC corporation, Turek and his marauders strike swiftly and without mercy. First they shatter Vatta Transport. Then they overrun entire star systems, growing stronger and bolder. No one is safe from the pirate fleet. But while they continue to move forward with their diabolical plan, they have made two critical mistakes.

Their first mistake was killing Kylara Vatta’s family.
Their second mistake was leaving her alive.
Now Kylara is going to make them pay.

But with a “fleet” consisting of only three ships–including her flagship, the Vanguard, a souped-up merchant cruiser–Kylara needs allies, and fast. Because even though she possesses the same coveted communication technology as the enemy, she has nowhere near their numbers or firepower.

Meanwhile, as Kylara’s cousin Stella tries to bring together the shattered pieces of the family trading empire, new treachery is unfolding at ISC headquarters, where undercover agent Rafael Dunbarger, estranged son of the corporation’s CEO, is trying to learn why the damaged network is not being repaired. What he discovers will send shock waves across the galaxy and crashing into Kylara’s newly christened Space Defense Force at the worst possible moment.


From the Hardcover edition.

The Deed of Paksenarrion: A Novel

Elizabeth Moon

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 160 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Epic, yet unemotional 4 out of 5 stars.
1 of 2 people found this review helpful.

Another way to sum up my experience of this book would be to say that a neutral journalistic style was applied to a fantasy adventure story. For my part, it took some getting used to! Paks is not a female character such as I have known anywhere else -- if she has feelings, you have to deduce them for yourself from the narrative. Not that there is not intensity, triumph, tragedy, or any of that -- far from it. The story rolls along over years and experiences, and you live them all with her, from dirt to glory.

Bound here in one volume are the three books making up the tale, and they go together as well as any other epic fantasy I have read. But Moon does not write like any other fantasy writer. She writes more like a good journalist -- she gives you the story, with plenty of details, but the passion, the undercurrents, you have almost to create them yourself from the materials she gives you. (I say a "good" journalist, because we all know examples of non-neutral journalism.)

I did not like that at first. I think I was halfway through the production before I could be comfortable with this heroine who did not seem to have feelings or poetry. Later I could see how perhaps she did, but they are just not written in any sort of obvious manner. She is, you might say, a fish without a bicycle.

I think this book would appeal to a lot of people who like a more realistic narrative. I think also it would appeal to people who want to read something that isn't loaded with sex, or sexy vampires, or whatever the latest fetish might be. Also it isn't a Tolkien wannabe. It's different, it's not mawkish or sentimental, and it stands on its own. I recommend it highly!

On the other hand, if you want a series but do prefer a bit more wistfulness, or if you got halfway through this and it really isn't for you, I'd recommend Judith Tarr's _The Hound and the Falcon_, and Chelsea Quinn Yarbro's Count Saint-Germain chronicles, among others. Or even if you liked it, you might like them too. Other classics that come to mind include C.S. Friedman's Coldfire trilogy, McKillip's Riddle-Master of Hed books, and MacAvoy's Trilogy for Lute. If you want more of the same, well, I can't help you there. I tried reading one of the prequels, _Liar's Oath_, and it wasn't nearly as good -- I put it down before I was even halfway. I'm sure there are other solidly well-done prosaic fantasies out there, but I can't think of any offhand.

If any of this was helpful, please check the box. Thanks!

Editorial Review:

All three novels in the epic trilogy, Deed of Parksenarrion, appear in an omnibus edition that includes Sheepfarmer's Daughter, Divided Allegiance, and Oath of Gold. Reissue. AB.

Engaging the Enemy (Vatta's War)

Elizabeth Moon

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 31 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

For fans of fast-paced adventure and compelling characters, the military science fiction of Nebula Award—winning author Elizabeth Moon is the perfect choice.

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 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, 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.


From the Hardcover edition.

Marque and Reprisal (Vatta's War)

Elizabeth Moon

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 34 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Marque and Reprisal is Nebula Award winner Elizabeth Moon's second novel about Kylara Vatta, starship captain in her family's interstellar shipping business. Fresh from war, Ky is trying to resume a normal trading schedule when an unknown enemy attacks her prestigous family. Though her family is large, Ky may be its only surviving member. But she cannot confirm this, for sabotage has cut off communications between star systems. And Ky has other problems. She's been turned into a privateer against her will. Her family's mysterious foe knows where she is, and is trying to kill her. And she has a bloody secret of her own.

Packed with action and intrigue, Marque and Reprisal and its prequel, Trading in Danger, are as strong and interesting as Elizabeth Moon's popular Serrano Legacy series, which also successfully combines hard SF, military SF, and adventure SF with interstellar and familial politics. The Kylara Vatta novels will please fans of the Serrano Legacy, Lois McMaster Bujold's Miles Vorkosigan saga, David Weber's Honor Harrington series, and Robert A. Heinlein's juvenile novels. --Cynthia Ward

Moon Flights

Elizabeth Moon

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Some are repeats 4 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

As always, Moon excells at short fiction, however, buyers should be aware that two or three of the stories in this volume are repeated from an earlier compilation of short stories titles Phases.

Moon Flights 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

I am always buying short story collections by mistake. I buy the author and title without reading about the book and expecting a novel, and am generally disappointed. Even the really great authors have trouble pleasing me in this format. This book is the exception. Each story has what it takes to stand on its own. Many have relatives in emoon,s novels, and some, I would love to see novel versions of. A great combination of sensitive character development and humor. Plenty of action to keep you turning pages. She's on my list of "I read anything with her name on it" authors.

Editorial Review:

Elizabeth Moon is known best for her Vatta Series, a fast paced, intricate novels of interstellar mercantilism. Moon Flight is a collection of over 100,000 words of fiction and features an original Vatta story. It also collects the best of work from the breadth of her 15+ year career. Her fiction spans the gamut from military science fiction to cutting edge stories biotechnology, to heartfelt examinations of politics and social issues.

Hunting Party

Elizabeth Moon

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 26 Average rating: 3.0 of 5

A gem of a book. 5 out of 5 stars.
6 of 7 people found this review helpful.

Heris Serrano is making the best of a bad situation. Forced to resign her commission in the Regular Space Service, she goes to work as captain of an elderly lady's private yacht. That's a definite "come down" in the universe, for this woman whose family habitually produces admirals. Heris still has her professionalism, though. She's determined to bring the Sweet Delight and its crew up to standard. When that determination saves the yacht's owner and her guests - not to mention the crew, of course - from dying during their first passage together, she and Lady Cecelia discover that a champion horsewoman and an RSS captain have more in common than either might have thought. That establishes trust between them which they're going to need, once they reach the private estate (an entire planet!) where Lady Cecelia's bound. Where there's something going on that the owner of Siralis knows nothing about, which has everything to do with Heris Serrano and her former Space Service crew.

This is a gem of a book. We come to know Heris Serrano, Lady Cecelia, and the many secondary (I can't call them minor) characters by experiencing their lives with them. That's also how we become acquainted with their far-future part of the universe - its politics, technology, economy, and culture. The story gains complexity gradually, and we get backstory exactly when we need it. The characters learn, grow, and change, and - with the possible exception of the tale's villian - they are multi-dimensional people. Including the apparently quintessential "eccentric maiden aunt" Cecelia. Highly recommended!

Editorial Review:

After she is forced to resign her post in disgrace, Herris Serrano takes a job as ""captain"" of an interstellar luxury yacht and finds herself fighting a bunch of cutthroats, smugglers, and others.

Trading in Danger (Vatta's War)

Elizabeth Moon

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 47 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

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.

Sheepfarmer's Daughter (The Deed of Paksenarrion, Book 1)

Elizabeth Moon

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 38 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Interesting 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

I really enjoyed this book. It was a very exciting read and a series like it is "Song of The Lioness" by Tamora Pierce. I liked this book because not everything is always perfect, and it seems kinda realistic. I can see why people wouldn't like it, because it does have parts that are similar, but I think maybe those people need to read it better. If you don't really think much about what is happening it would seem repetitive.Things really aren't the same in each battle, and a lot happens in between. Don't expect to finish the book in a few days even if you do read really quickly. It takes a lot longer than it looks. Over all though, really good book!

Introducing the humble yet ferocious Paksenarrion 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

A friend of mine talked me into reading this book. I have read all of Elizabeth Moon's books except for the Paksenarrion series. (I highly recommend the Serrano series). Anyways, Paks surprised me. I couldn't wait for the next two books, Divided Allegiance and Oath of Gold, to arrive in the mail.

Paks learns that a warrior's life is different from what she expected. She is a humble, ferocious fighter. She experiences lots of turmoil and perseveres. Elizabeth Moon does an excellent job with characters and their inner struggles.

If you like swordplay and battle strategy, this book is a good read. There are some graphic scenes of torture which surprised me. Moon doesn't really write like that in her other series.

Amazon, please make these books available on Kindle.

Editorial Review:

Refusing to marry a pig farmer and joining the army even if it means never seeing her family again, Paksenarrion begins an adventure that enables her to restore an overthrown ruler. Reissue.