Kylara Vatta has finally made it to Lastaway, safely delivered her original cargo, and is on her way to her next trading port when she suddenly finds herself in charge of much more than the command of Fair Kaleen and her crew. There is little doubt someone or someones are out to get Vatta Transport, Ltd, but now other trading companies are under attack as well. Ky’s novice Captain skills are put to the test again as she tries to avoid trouble and postpone her grief. Corleigh has been hit hard and her childhood home is destroyed. With ansibles still down and communication at a stand still, the only question is: is her family safe or have they become victims of the explosion?At this point, Ky’s proven she has the ability, not just the potential, to be a great captain. When she’s approached by her cousin Stella, Ky automatically takes command, unafraid for the consequences but more likely: willing and able to deal when the time comes. She’s independent and pragmatic, nothing at all like Stella; the contrast (both physical and personality-wise) between the two makes for an interesting dynamic which Moon does not fail to take advantage of. Although I did feel Stella’s characterization was a bit different from how she acted in Marque and Reprisal.Stella is, almost from her first appearance here, bitter and resentful of Ky. She devolved very quickly into jealousy and her anger is too apparent not to notice. This, in light of the misunderstood, competent young woman whose current actions and abilities spoke volumes against past indiscretions did wonders for her character. Stella in action was quite different from the second hand descriptions of her. Others had low expectations of her. Her personal restraint and quiet confidence proved otherwise. Even Aunt Gracie thought more highly of her strongest abilities than other family members did of her, family that could not get past her weakest moments.This woman was not the same Stella present in Engaging the Enemy. In fact, she came across as more emotionally unstable and petulant than anything else. To be fair, she also did a very impressive job at whatever Ky assigned or essentially left her to deal with. Stella was in a difficult situation in this book at every moment. My only complaint is she did not handle it well when confronting Stella. How could she? How would anyone react in private, personal conversations with so much pent up irritation? I caution that I may be too harsh on Stella; she ran the gamut of emotion and not everyone can shoulder as many burdens without breaking at some point. I still consider her to be one of my favorite characters, second only to Aunt Gracie.We saw some of Grace Vatta’s secrets at the beginning of Marque and Reprisal. Her cunning spy work and covert deliveries belong to a woman with much more experience than the average “dotty” old woman. And she does not fail to disappoint readers looking for more of a peek into her character. Without spoiling the plot I can’t reveal too much more, but trust me that I hope we get to learn more about her in the final two books. She is, much like a Transformer, more than meets the eye.There was one other character I was more interested in: Zavala. From a planet named Ciudad in the Loma Linda group and with a ship called Dona Florenzia, I began to suspect Moon drew heavily from existing Earth cultures to develop this man. With the additional distrust of women in power and a ridiculous sense of honor, I began to get a bad taste in my mouth at the choice of culture chosen being represented a bit negatively. Clearly, Zavala is drawn from Spanish-speaking cultures, but I found this curious since I haven’t found any other characters with as strong (I should say: obvious) real-world influence as he had (there are probably more that I haven’t recognized!). His customs are ridiculed and not considered feasible and in this way completely disrespected. But of course, I couldn’t be too critical here since the source of the incredulity was mostly from an incompetent Admiral and not entirely likable character. Ultimately, Zavala proved his worth and I’m grateful Moon included such diversity in honestly, a realistic way. And to be fair: the Cascadians were the best example of culture clash in this book.Engaging the Enemy has the misfortune to be the middle novel in a five book series. It has to sustain the plot up until this point and carry it forth into the last two books. This gives middle books a large disadvantage. It cannot have the exciting novelty of the first, nor the satisfaction of the last. The middle book inhabits the fictional landscape between these two sides: somewhere beyond discovery, but before journey’s end. Of course, the middle book also holds great potential, especially in its position to entertain us when the adrenaline has begun to seep out of the protagonist’s system and the end is still too far away to reach in a day, but close enough to see.With a series of five books, the middle can so easily plateau with action. Engaging the Enemy felt a little like that for me, much to my disappointment. While I did enjoy some of the deeper characterization of Grace and Stella, very little happened plot-wise that didn’t involve an inordinate amount of procedure that I honestly felt should have happened “off-screen.” The majority of the book suffered from the tedium of red tape and shopping assignments (toilets, textiles, canine sperm) that included selling as well as buying for ownership and trade. Kylara may be the captain of a trading vessel, she may be acting as a privateer to reestablish Vatta Transport, Ltd, but I wasn’t as engaged in the narrative as much when I was drawn through the dull routine of Vatta’s world. The world-building was a bit too much for me in this book, especially when Ky’s world revolves around very uninteresting trade cargo.I feel very conflicted about this series, having now finished the first three books. Elizabeth Moon’s writing can be extremely compelling. I don’t argue that any difficulties I find are there. On the contrary, her writing is part of what has kept me reading this long. With a lesser author, I feel I would have given up a long time ago. I just wish most of the action in Engaging the Enemy wasn’t confined to the last 50 pages, especially when the rest of the book didn’t encourage it.There was more suspicion and mystery here, more revelatory plot information that’s extremely relevant to the series as whole, but not too conducive to the type of heart-pounding excitement of the first two books. There’s something mellow in this book, something of a respite before the real fighting begins. I can only hope the next will deliver on the promises of it’s predecessors.
Originally posted at FanLit. http://www.fantasyliterature.com/“I do not intend survival. I intend victory.”Engaging the Enemy is the third book in Elizabeth Moon’s VATTA’S WAR saga. Young captain Kylara Vatta, her beautiful cousin Stella Vatta, and their elderly Aunt Grace continue their quest for revenge on the people who destroyed the Vatta shipping empire and most of the Vatta family. They are just beginning to realize the extent of the vast conspiracy which brought the Vattas down — it involves space pirates, a disgruntled renegade cousin, a traitorous ship captain, and the government of their home planet, Slotter Key.While Ky and Stella are out in space dodging assassination attempts and looking for allies, they have to deal with mercenaries, ship captains from different cultures, and more than one planet’s ridiculous system of government. Finally Moon begins to show us the cultural distinctions between the different planets we visit. Some of this is pretty amusing and reminds me a little of Jack Vance’s ability to highlight silly human behaviors by emphasizing a particular inane behavior in one of his created cultures. Elizabeth Moon does something similar here. Mostly she’s making fun of bureaucracy and it adds a nice bit of levity to her story.Ky is getting stronger and growing into her role as the commander of an interplanetary military force. She’s still worried about her discovery that she enjoys killing bad guys and we, along with her cousin Stella, are starting to worry a little, too. There are some moral dilemmas for Ky — on more than one occasion she has to decide whether it’s ethical to kill or torture one person for the greater good. Ky doesn’t think about this for very long before making her decisions — does that make her morally inferior or superior?Aunt Gracie is probably Elizabeth Moon’s best character in this series. Because the enemies have brought down the ansibles that allow for interplanetary communications, she’s out of touch with Ky and Stella. Here we see her scheming in the background, targeting the president of Slotter Key. Her story takes less space than Ky’s but it’s always exciting. Elderly Aunt Grace may not be involved in space battles, but she kicks butt nonetheless.Stella, on the other hand, is weak in this installment. She has so much potential to be a great strong character, but so far Moon doesn’t seem to be sure what Stella’s purpose is. In the previous books she seemed to be a hero in her own right, but this time Moon seems to be using her to make Ky look better in contrast. Too bad. Why can’t Stella be awesome, too? I hope she’ll be back on track in the next book.Most of the plot of Engaging the Enemy focuses on Ky meeting and strategizing with potential allies, equipping her ships, hiring crew, worrying about her relationship to her home planet, and trying to decide what her role is in the struggle for revenge. Too much of this is tedious and repetitive. I’ve mentioned in a review of an earlier book in this series that I enjoy the focus on trading and transportation logistics, so I feel a little forgiving about this, but many readers will think it’s just plain boring. There’s not much action from Ky’s storyline until the very end of the book when there’s a trial, a surprising revelation about the Vatta family, and a major military engagement.Despite the deceptive title of the book, there isn’t a lot of action in Engaging the Enemy. However, the story advances and there are welcome revelations and some good character development. I’m rating Engaging the Enemy a little lower than the previous installments just because there’s less action, some of the plot elements feel like they’re there just to add drama, and there’s too much boring red tape. Still, somehow Elizabeth Moon keeps me reading and there’s no way I’m giving up on the Vatta family now. Go Vatta!
What do You think about Engaging The Enemy (2007)?
This has been my least favorite of the series so far. I disliked that Stella was set up, as a character, to be so unlikeable and seemingly unreasonable and anti-Ky. In other words, what could have been another strong female character in this book to provide a foil to Ky's character is instead set up as her opposition and somewhat of an antagonist. It's almost as if the author didn't want to provide Ky with any strong primary character competition, which is a shame, because it results in her seeming a weaker character instead of stronger. I was also not in love with how Stella's objections and objectives suddenly seemed to disappear with a surprise revelation. It again seemed as if the author was undermining a character who would otherwise have great potential. I struggled with finishing this book in ways that I didn't with the first two, and I hope it's a "mid-series" syndrome rather than an indication of how the last two books will go.
—Angela James
"Engaging the Enemy" is book #3 of Vatta's War. It is good but I found some of the plot elements tiresome. I might read this book again but only if I was reading the entire series again.The Story: There are now 2 Captain Vattas as Ky Vatta takes the captured ship, Fair Kaleen, and her cousin, Stella, takes command of the old ship, Gary Tobai. Since Ky's ship is faster and armed, she moves ahead, while Stella follows in her wake and she is feeling resentful.Any problems with the novel? Yes, but it seems like a spoiler so I'll cover it in the spoiler section. (view spoiler)[Stella is acting out of character. She was portrayed in book 2 as a very capable woman who had worked through most of her emotional problems... including her problems with infatuation. Now she is resentful for being left behind (understandable) in a position as captain for which is is unqualified (also understandable) but after being told that her whining is causing distension in the ranks and after examples of her attitude messing things up, she continues to be an ass, and an unlovely character. This is totally different from what I would have expected. Perhaps it would seem normal for women and they would welcome this sort of conflict. In Elizabeth Moon's series "Once a Hero," I found the woman hero acting in a manner I found very different, but it was interesting and welcome. At no time did I dislike the hero. (hide spoiler)]
—Alex
Okay, so I am on this major Elizabeth Moon debauch; I have read three of the novels in the last week, they are so engaging.I don't want to reveal too much, esp. since I already read the last book in the series (which, like a doofus, I read first), but the first three novels in the series trace Kylara "Ky" Vatta from a disgraced, washed out Academy cadet to her job taking a ship to the scrapyard, her decision not to scrap the ship but to buy it and become a trader, to the attack that wipes out most of her family due to piracy, and to the growth of piracy, to her efforts to get other ship captains to band together with her to combat piracy and protect trade.This most recent book, Engaging the Enemy, is the first book in the series in which Ky actually engages the pirates in a military encounter. It's interesting to watch her develop--her growing competence, punctuated by her self-doubt, and her growing sense of how to handle a ship and lead others. As I said about another of the novels featuring Ky, if you like great action and kick-butt women protagonists, you'll love this.This novel also charts the growth of two other characters, Stella Vatta, who is forced to grow from the family ne'er do well into a competent business leader to rebuild the Vatta family interests after pirates leave them in shambles. She has different skills that Ky--she's a business person, and the navy Ky's building needs a profitable company to sustain it as much as the Vatta business needs a navy to protect its shipping.The wild card in all this is Aunt Grace Vatta, an elderly woman who affects a dopey exterior but who, in her youth, was a spy. Old ladies can kick butt, too.Great plot, great stores, great read.
—Chuck
