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A review by nuevecuervos
Trading in Danger by Elizabeth Moon
4.0
Oh man. I wanted space opera, and I got a fantastic one. I loved Captain Ky's moxie and poise; there's not more than a trace of mention of romantic interest here; instead she gets a metric crapload of agency and beautiful, screwed up issues. It's a fun action adventure with a lot crammed in here, including my personal favorite thing in sci-fi: freedom from pages upon pages of pseudo-science wankery (a phrase that my son finds HILARIOUS as well as vaguely offensive, since he's a fan of authors spending ten pages telling you about how their fake science works, but too bad). FTL drives? Yep! In a sealed box. No one cares how they work. Interstellar Ansibles? Yes. Period. Good times. I have to deal with enough in the way of complicated science in the real world.
In all seriousness though, I really did enjoy quite a lot of the characters, and there's some excellent introspection on Ky's part as to why she still feels the sting of being labeled "a sucker for lost puppies" when in retrospect, she's really not a softie at all; she kind of enjoys and excels at a good fight, and frankly is a little concerned about whether spending the rest of her life as a sober-suited matron... err, as a space trader is going to make her insane. Equally frankly, all of the (completely believable) bureaucracy and paper-pushing bullshit she ends up having to deal with sort of makes that assessment not far from the realm of possibility.
No problem though, I'm pretty sure she's going to find ways to keep kicking ass. Totally looking forward to the next installment, popcorn in hand.
In all seriousness though, I really did enjoy quite a lot of the characters, and there's some excellent introspection on Ky's part as to why she still feels the sting of being labeled "a sucker for lost puppies" when in retrospect, she's really not a softie at all; she kind of enjoys and excels at a good fight, and frankly is a little concerned about whether spending the rest of her life as a sober-suited matron... err, as a space trader is going to make her insane. Equally frankly, all of the (completely believable) bureaucracy and paper-pushing bullshit she ends up having to deal with sort of makes that assessment not far from the realm of possibility.
No problem though, I'm pretty sure she's going to find ways to keep kicking ass. Totally looking forward to the next installment, popcorn in hand.