Command Decision

Vatta's War, Book 4

By: Elizabeth Moon

Narrated by: Cynthia Holloway

Length: 15 hrs and 3 mins

Publisher's Summary

After orchestrating a galaxy-wide failure of the communications network owned and maintained by the powerful ISC corporation, Gammis 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.

©2008 Elizabeth Moon (P)2008 Tantor

Critic Reviews

"Strong female leads, terrific action and complications aplenty: should grab existing fans and win new converts." ( Kirkus)

Good series

I must say I have become hooked on this series. Moon has this book broke up into section on Ky Vatta, Rafe and Aunt Grace and only a small amount about Stella. This one has more to do with Rafe than any other books in the series so far. Rafe went off to find out about his family and found they had been kidnapped. He rescues them and takes over as CEO of the communications company. Ky is still trying to get her fleet together. She did have some battle action. Book has suspense, action and humor as well as strong female characters. Looking forward to the next book in the series.

Good Series, Narrator needs better direction.

I have been enjoying Vatta's War. The characters are compelling and interesting with black, white and shades of gray. The story moves along well with also enough detail to give an idea of what life on a space freighter might well be. Just as with Moon's other books I've listened to, The Paks series, there is wonderful detail of day to day life that takes into account the little things in life. Some might find this tedious but I find it intriguing, giving fullness not only to the characters but the setting.

I have read reviews that mention the narrator and how grating her voice is. I personally don't find her voice that bad. Some of the voices she uses are more irritating than others but in general her voice is pleasant enough. The thing that is really getting to me is not entirely her fault. The editor or director (or what ever staff is responsible for that on a production like this) should be catching all of her mispronounced words. Query she pronounces to rhyme with worry as opposed to queer - ry. That word is used over and over again and it became quite annoying. Then there was "rev - a - lent." I wish I could have kept a log of all the mispronounced words but I'm driving when I listen and I just can't keep track. It starts to become comical and mars the overall experience of the book. Would I suggest one not to listen to these recordings? No. But I would suggest better direction for this actor in the future to correct this problem.

Better, but Narration Still Bad

This is the fourth volume in the five volume Vatta's War series, and if you've gotten this far, you already know that the narrator is frankly awful, and there's way too much angst and navel gazing in the story, and too little actual war. This book _is_ better on the level of action, with the ISC / Raef story line actually making some sense. Though, again, too much (stupid) discourse and too little actual action for this genre. Don't get me wrong, I actually like to follow the inner thoughts of our protagonists in a story, but these people can't seem to every do the right thing for the right reasons, and seem to be way more than normally obtuse about the people they interact with.

Overall, if you've decided to stick it out and finish the series, I can understand. I'm doing it. But only because I've already bought the 5 books.

It's Time to Hit Back

Okay, the plot elements I hated have become more numerous and prominent. The need to follow Stella’s former love to the world that serves as the heart of Interstellar Communications Corporation in order to discover the truth behind the conspiracy and the fate of his family is drawn out in an attempt to make him more respectable. The plotting of Aunt Grace Vatta on Slotter Key makes for an odd detour at times. But ultimately, the book delivers on its promise of a destiny realized as the Space Defense Force gets a name, a mission and ultimately a mandate.
Somewhat tempering this success however is the ultimate realization that combat in this universe and at this author’s hands will not be the intricate ballet of hard military scifi goodness that might have been possible given the restrictions that prevailed at the beginning. Like Honor Harrington, Ky Vatta soon gets her hands on FTL communications and with short range FTL jumping gets to real-time information gathering without the ponderous, and more steadily paced, technological development of David Weber’s heroine.
So there will be no dazzling tactical sweeps such as those that occupied the adventures of The Lost Fleet. Instead we get snapshots of destruction and drama that satisfy but do not engage.

Getting hooked

The series started slowly for me. I had to force myself to keep on through
the first part of Book 1. With book 3 and now this one, I find myself engrossed in the characters and the crafty plot which brings them together. I rated this book a 5 because it is an engrossing SF read with plenty of action. The space battles are marvelous faire. I am as engaged with Kyara Vatta as I was with Paksenarrion in Moon's first series The Deed Of Paksenarrion. What's better, other characters, like Raf, Stella, AuntGrace et al. are equally engrossing. This said, maybe the book is just too good to be real...none of the good main characters have been taken out (yet anyway), as one would find in George R.r. Martin's books, for example. But I really don't mind. There is a place for the good guys to win..and to keep on winning after taking some lumps. Moon's military background is especially useful in making the series plot realistic. There really is such a thing as the "fog" of war. The bonus in this book? The character Ransom, a rich and glorybound young man every bit as swashbuckling as Errol Flynn might have been. Ransom is not comic relief, but he does illustrate Kai's ability to weave an effective fighting force from "found" material. Only one notable flaw, and that maybe by design. Moon's universe is peopled only by humans, as different as they might be, but humans nonetheless. I find myself reading this book at lunch hour and every break I can find. Now, to me, that's a 5 by my most important measure...engagement with the book. .

Great book but narration distracting!

The fourth book was fantastic and met all of our expectations. However, the narrator appears unacquainted with science fiction or military vocabulary. The most glaring and distracting was the pronunciation of "ensign" as "en-sign". What the hell is an en-sign? I don't blame the narrator, it is the editors job to review and EDIT!

We look forward to the fifth book.

Excellent Military Space Opera

Ky's force grows in experience and size, while...oops! No spoilers...you will have to listen for yourself!

Pronunciation Fail

I've read the books in this series and I owned a previous audiobook production on cd's which eventually got scratched. Took a chance on ordering this version because I mostly enjoy Audible content, but had never heard of this narrator. Simple names for places, people, etc are willfully butchered beyond recognition for no apparent reason. The only saving grace is that once mispronounced, always mispronounced, so there is consistency.

The nuts and bolts of galactic war.

Elizabeth Moon continues to surprise with her knowledge of everything from psycologic rehab, structural ship failure due to war manouvers, to new battle tactics making the old text books obsolete due to new communication technology. This series is a feast the imagination.

A great continuation of the series

The fourth book in the Vatta’s War science fiction series.

Kylara is finally on the trail of the space pirates who’re responsible for killing most of her family and the family business. She’s in command of three vessels and she’s trying to get more people, and governments, to stand up for the powerful and ruthless pirates. However, her small force needs supplies and repairs. With ansibles down, many planets don’t have a way to communicate with one another. And some are taking advantage of the lack of info. Gretna Station’s people are pretty despicable to begin with; they’re raging racists who don’t have any respect for anyone whose appearance doesn’t match they very specific criteria. Now, they’re also slavers. When Ky arrives there she fortunately gets a quick warning about what could happen.

Meanwhile, Rafe, Rafael Dunbarger, is finally returning home in the hope of patching things up with his father, who just happens to be the CEO of ISC, the company who owns that ansibles and therefore has a monopoly on interstellar communication. They had a falling out when Rafe has just a child and he has rarely seen his family after that. But when Rafe arrives, working undercover as he’s used to doing for many years, he doesn’t find his family and any attempts to contact them are blocked. Slowly, he finds out that two of his three sisters are dead, and the rest of his family have been kidnapped. He’s able to hire a competent team to rescue them, but’s that’s only the beginning of his problems: he needs to get the person who is behind this and who wants to control ICS himself.

Kylara’s cousin Stella is reeling with the news she received at the end of the previous book, Engaging the Enemy. Stella isn’t sure she has any place in the Vatta family, but Ky assures her that she wants her to continue building the business back. We also see a little of Aunt Gracie in her new position in the Slotter Key government.

This was a fast-paced continuation to the series. We finally get to see just what is wrong with ISC and why. We also get to see the (monetary) reasons behind their draconian way of dealing with anyone else who tries to repair the ansibles, despite them having been down for many months. I loved seeing Aunt Grace again and Stella is really coming in to her own. Rafe become a much more complex character in this book. Both Rafe and Grace have to deal with government/big company bureaucracy idiocy.

While Ky is still the main character of the series, we saw a little less of her in this book than in the previous book. Moon seems to have a way of giving her characters what they want and but not in the way that the characters want them. Ky gets more allies but she’s quite skeptical about them (I thought they were great). Ky wants a warship and gets a merchant ship modified into a warship, but not without problems. Stella wants to be seen as competent adult and not just the family idiot.

A great continuation to the series and a lead-up to the final book.

Another great story in the Vatta Universe.

Elizabeth Moon has produced another great, realistic and wholly believable story based on the continuing adventures of Ky Vatta. The author, who served in the US military, paints a vivid, detailed and colourful story where the space-lanes are not as safe as they once were. Through the continuing adventures of the Vatta family, we explore the known univers, discovering new technologies that help (and hinder) Ky's mission to rid the universe of the evil pirate Torrek and his allies. The narrator, Cynthia Holloway, performs wonderfully, reallisticly expressing the drama involved in the story. The narration never takes anything from the story and help the listener become fully immersed in the action. Anyone who hasn't heard of the Vatta series is in for a wild ride with Command Decision. A must for all Elizabeth Moon fans!