A Confederation of Valor ~Tanya Huff

–published 2006
–DAW Books
–619 pages

An omnibus edition featuring:

Valor’s Choice

–published 2000
–282 pages
–4.25/5 stars

The Better Part of Valor

–published 2002
–308 pages
–4/5 stars

Tough-as-nails Staff Sergeant Torin Kerr is the heroine of the Valor series, written by author Tanya Huff. The recently released fifth book in this series, The Truth of Valor, caught my eye the other day on a gift-hunting expedition to Barnes and Noble. “Military Science Fiction” is a sub-genre of science fiction that I avoided, though not with forethought, for most of my reading life. That all changed a few years ago when John Scalzi became a (geek) household name with his much lauded Old Man’s War series. That series not only rekindled that old feeling I used to get from reading science fiction as a kid, it also made me cognizant of many classic and contemporary military science fiction books that my eyes used to pass quickly over when perusing bookstore shelves, including one of the most well known, Robert A. Heinlein’s award-winning novel, Starship Troopers. I read Starship Troopers earlier this year and was very impressed by it. As I gazed at the covers for Huff’s Valor series I was struck with a desire to step back into the kind of science fictional universe that I enjoyed in both Heinlein’s and Scalzi’s novels.

Without anything to go on other than a hunch, I decided to take advantage of the two-for-one nature of A Confederation of Valor.

Once I picked it up, I couldn’t put it down.

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Asimov’s Science Fiction: January 2011

–published by Dell Magazines
–112 pages
–4/5 stars

The magazine industry has always baffled me. It is the second week in November, and I spent the day reading the January 2011 issue of Asimov’s. The February issue hits newsstands on December 21st. I am sure there is a reason for this, though it may be an oxymoron to call it a logical reason. Magazine time travel aside, my reason for purchasing this issue boiled down to three words: “Kristine Kathryn Rusch”. And those three words did not disappoint. However, let us take things in an orderly manner. Rusch’s novella, Killer Advice, closed this issue, so we will come back to it later.

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The Currents of Space ~Isaac Asimov

–published 1952, first Tor trade edition, 2010
–Tor Books
–238 pages
–4.25/5 stars

In a region of space not-yet entirely swallowed by galactic empire, the independent world of Sark holds dominion over the planet Florina, whose peasant class citizenry work the fields of kryt, a cellulose-based fiber craved all over the universe. When a lone spatio-analyst arrives feverishly predicted the planet’s destruction, his mind is wiped clean and he is found later by members of the laboring class, naked and enfeebled on the side of a road. This stranger, thereafter named Rik, is taken in by a peasant woman, Valona March, who nurses him back to health and finds work for him in the mill. After a year of child-like existence, Rik suddenly begins to recover snatches of memory. He knows what he used to be, and he knows that they are all in great danger.

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Star Trek Typhon Pact: Zero Sum Game ~David Mack

–published 2010
–Pocket Books
–336 pages
–4/5 stars

You know how it is–a friend comes over and starts telling you about a book they started reading, their excitement becomes infectious, and before you have had time to weigh the consequences you find yourself at the bookstore counter, exchanging cash for adventure between the covers of a brand new book. The consequences being that said adventure could be grand, or could be a complete bust. In this case it was nearly a foregone conclusion that I would have a good time, especially given the fact that a few days prior I had been contemplating revisiting Deep Space Nine beginning with episode one.

Zero Sum Game is the first book in a four book series that will be released the last week of four consecutive months, October 2010 through January 2011. I am given to understand that this series picks up after the events of the last Borg conflict, a series of books that brought the Deep Space Nine storyline up to the current storyline with Next Generation and Voyager. A group of races hostile to the Federation has formed the Typhon Pact. One of those races,the Breen–featured on the DS9 television series–has stolen the plans for Starfleet’s latest technological advantage, the slipstream drive. Dr. Bashir and his fellow genetically engineered “one that got away”, Sarina Douglas, are tapped by Starfleet Intelligence to conduct a covert search and destroy mission in Breen space. It is a race against the clock, and impossible odds, to stop the Breen before they develop their own slipstream drive and tip the balance of power.

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