Trading in Danger

Vatta's War, Book 1

By: Elizabeth Moon

Narrated by: Cynthia Holloway

Length: 13 hrs and 45 mins

Publisher's summary

The first of the acclaimed Vatta's War books, the exciting military science fiction series that features a swashbuckling spaceship-captain heroine who mixes commerce with combat.

©2004 Elizabeth Moon (P)2008 Tantor

Book's ok, but...

The narrator seems inexperienced with the English language, yet speaks with an American English accent. Perhaps she just hasn't graduated from middle school yet.

Appealing space opera

Originally posted at FanLit.

“Of course we didn’t do autopsies. We know exactly what killed them — I killed them!”

Kylara Vatta, daughter of the head of the most prestigious shipping empire in the universe, didn’t want to follow in her family’s footsteps — trading is boring and Ky wants adventure and her own life outside of her family’s control. So she opted for a military career. But with only a few months left in the officer’s academy, she was set-up, betrayed, kicked out, and publicly shamed. When she returns home in disgrace, Vatta Transport is happy to have her back in the fold. Her first assignment is to captain a derelict spaceship straight to the junkyard, but Ky has Vatta blood in her veins and can’t pass up an advantageous business opportunity that arises unexpectedly. When this leads her into various forms of danger, and when scammers and mutineers think they can take advantage of the young and inexperienced captain, Ky finds that her time spent in the military academy wasn’t wasted after all.

Trading in Danger is the first installment of Elizabeth Moon’s VATTA’S WAR military science fiction epic. I don’t think this series will appeal to everybody, but it happened to hit a sweet spot for me. I like Kylara Vatta, an intelligent ethical rules-bound military officer with a soft heart who, due to her new circumstances, is beginning to discover that she has a rebellious streak, not to mention a disconcerting appreciation for quickly solving problems with violence. Ky is a little passive and occasionally bewildered in this installment, but this is her first adventure. I’m assuming that Moon plans to show us some growth in this area as Ky begins to adapt to her new lifestyle. Kylara’s crew and family members are also likeable — especially elderly Aunt Grace who bakes unappetizing but invaluable fruitcakes.

The plot is engaging, unpredictable and mostly quick-moving though some of the dialog gets repetitive as Ky explains what’s going on to multiple characters who show up at different times. I enjoyed the focus on transportation, though this may be a personal thing. My husband runs a small freight logistics company, so there’s a lot of talk about contracts, cargo, carriers and consignees in my little world, and I was fascinated by how this might scale up to apply to an entire universe. Surprisingly, this was one of my favorite aspects of the story but, again, that’s just me. (It would be such an awful pun to say “your mileage may vary” so I won’t.)

Trading in Danger is “soft” science fiction, or “space opera” — it’s a little fluffy, focusing on drama and political intrigue, not physics. There’s talk about FTL drives and ansibles (there’s a nod to Ursula K. LeGuin), but no explanation of how they work. I love physics but have to admit that I get bored by long dry theoretical or technical discussions of astrophysics and quantum mechanics. Trading in Danger is a quick and easy read for when you’re in the mood for some non-challenging science fiction. It ends on an intriguing note — Ky has some difficult choices to make about her relationship to her family business. Should she stay with Vatta or go rogue? Whatever, I’m still on board and ready for the ride.

I’m listening to VATTA’S WAR in audio format. These were produced in 2008 by Tantor Audio and are read by Cynthia Holloway who does a nice job. I like her voice and she inflects the narrative perfectly (though she always mispronounces the word “peripheral”). I recommend the audio version.

Best read since I finished the Vorkosigan Saga!

I loved it! An adventure with a female protagonist!! The characters develop and evolve as the story unfolds!

Really needs a better narration

These are excellent stories. The narrator has a pleasant voice, speaks clearly, differentiates dialog sufficiently well, but misreads the written word constantly. I am glad the first 4 are currently available as Kindle edition plus narration for about the same price as a credit; this allows the listener to see what the author intended and understand that the misuse of adverbs, awkward names, and other errors are not the author's. The majority of the transpositions and alternate wordings are not noticeable unless reading along, but if you do read along you'll notice about one error per page. Nevertheless, the story is sufficiently excellent and the reader has enough good points that I still enjoyed the experience enough to spend a credit for the last one. As of March 2017, the first is a bargain price as Kindle plus narration, so I suggest that route to try it; Audible does refund their portion if you don't like it.

I’m addicted

I fell into the Vatta series backwards (I started with Cold Welcome) and then circled back to this one to fill in the blanks. With apologies to to Ms Holloway, I prefer the narrator for Cold Welcome, if pressed. I’ve already got all the other books in my Audible que.

Great book bad narrator.

What made the experience of listening to Trading in Danger the most enjoyable?

This is a great book and as I have read the whole series already I can say the same for the rest of the series.

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Cynthia Holloway?

The narrator had poor pronunciation, and over dramatized parts of the story. When it was not overly dramatic it lacked anything beyond a different inflection for various characters. If the narrator could overcome her poor pronunciation it would have been passable with the bland strait forward reading. Her pronunciation sticks out like a sore thumb and jars me out of the story.

Any additional comments?

Since I like this series of books so much I will probably still buy the rest of the series despite the same narrator being used throughout, but I must say it will be done grudgingly so.

Each book better than the last

The series continues and thankfully, each book is better than the last with characters I’ve come to respect!

Fun Story, Mediocre Narrator

The story is an entertaining, if a little bit underdeveloped, space opera, but the stilted performance hampers it and some words are outright mispronounced.

Great story in an interesting setting

This story is clearly written by an author with a military background. It demonstrates the difference between military and civilian reactions to stress and danger. Much thought went in to this book and it shows.

Worth listening to

This book gets you started with the 2nd and other books getting you hooked.