Kylara Vatta's life as a trader ship captain gets more than a little "interesting" as her family is destroyed, and her own life and ship are attacked ..Show More »by powerful enemies. The overall plot moves forward at a quick pace as the violence against the Vattas escalates and intensifies. The interaction between Ky and Stella is not particularly healthy, and is, IMO, one of the weaker elements of this series.

The reader, Cynthia Holloway, is still by far not my favourite reader, but she does seem better in this and later books in the series. I've given the performance a 3 out of 5. It adds nothing to the series, but isn't an annoying distraction either. Overall, this book is a 4 out of 5, and with a better reader would be a 5 out of 5.

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The Vatta's War quintet continues with volume three in the series. The reader, Cynthia Holloway is never a pleasure to listen to, and the reading is l..Show More »ess than inspired. But the real problem is that this space opera just hasn't stood the test of time as well as one might have hoped. It's not _bad_, just not as good as it could be. WAY too much angst and anguish and just plain stupidity, and too little decisiveness from the main characters. The one good story arc, that of Grace and Mac Roberts, is too peripheral to carry the weakness of Stella and even Ky. Overall, I'll finish the books, since I bought them. But I can't imagine re-reading them, ever.

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Originally posted at FanLit.

Command Decision is the fourth installment in Elizabeth Moon’s VATTA’S WAR series. Things are starting to look u..Show More »p for Kylara Vatta, her cousin Stella, and their Aunt Grace. Ky, who has proven herself a skilled military commander and is gaining respect, still has to deal with a lot of bureaucratic silliness, but she sees more action in this book. Stella has (thankfully) rebounded from her pity party and is now the capable CEO of Vatta Enterprises. Young Toby turns out to be a genius with the on-board ansibles and is able to provide engineering skills. Grace has destroyed the corrupt Slotter Key government and put herself in a high-level position.

However, the pirates who destroyed the Vatta family are still a major threat to the entire universe — they’re knocking out ansibles and taking over planetary governments and nobody is doing anything about it. That’s because 1. There is no interstellar space navy to deal with the pirates and 2. ISC forbids planets to fix their own ansibles. Thus there is no communication between the different planetary systems, which means governments can’t get information about what’s happening on other planets and they can’t coordinate efforts to mount an effective defense.

Ky, realizing this problem, hopes to gather enough allies to destroy the pirates. They need to strategize and get themselves equipped with excellent weapons and communications systems, so in Command Decision expect the usual rounds of meetings, video conferences, equipment installations, etc. There are also a few exciting military engagements. Elizabeth Moon adds some levity by bringing Ky a rich flamboyant ship captain who’s living out his romantic dream of being a space hero even to the point of dressing and speaking the part. Kudos to Moon for not taking this subplot in the direction I thought she was going to take it.

Rafe, whose father is the head of ISC, is also worried about the broken ansibles. Why hasn’t ISC repaired them yet? And why hasn’t he heard from his family? When he goes to his home planet to find out what’s going on, he gets a really nasty surprise. This storyline is prominent in this book and most readers will appreciate getting to know Rafe better.

Command Decision delivers what I was expecting from this series. On the positive side that’s strong heroines, likeable secondary characters, unpredictable plot, ethical dilemmas and big things (the universe) at stake. Weaknesses are some contrived plot elements, weak world-building, and repetitive narrative and dialog. For example, it is common for us to witness a series of events and then to hear one of the characters tell the events to another character and possibly even a third character. (One time this came in handy when I realized my mind was wandering and I had missed something, but before I could rewind the audiobook one of the characters called another and recapped the events I missed.) Taking out this repetition could have made the series a book shorter and, therefore, better.

At the end of Command Decision we see things winding up for what I hope will be a spectacular finish. I’m moving on to the final episode, Victory Conditions, and expect to be entertained.

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This is the final book in the Vatta's War quintet, and I can honestly say I'm glad that there are no more. The reader is simply awful. Stilted, with n..Show More »o sense of dramatic flow and truly terrible voices for some characters. The final book should have been the most exciting and satisfying as Ky finally gets the fleet she needs and the battles happen. But instead, we get additional characters who add little to the story and yet we STILL have to hear their angst and stupidity play out. This entire series could have been quite good as a trilogy. But it simply hasn't stood the test of time. It's YA space opera, but it's not _good_ YA space opera.

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