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A review by otherwyrld
The Better Part of Valour by Tanya Huff
4.0
The second part of the Confederation series has our intrepid hero Staff Sergeant Torin Kerr sent off on a secret mission as revenge by the general she insulted and nearly killed in the last book. Tasked with learning the secrets of a mysterious alien ship, she has to contend with an annoying glory hogging commanding officer, an annoying group of scientists, an annoying reporter and an annoying civilian, who's only there because he found the ship. On top of that their enemies, the Others, have also found the ship and have soldiers on board. Oh, and the ship appears to be alive and is either testing them, or just trying to get them all killed...
This book has the same high octane action and heroics as the last one, and to a certain extent suffers from the same problems. Having just about learned who Sergeant Kerr's squad were by the end, we find that she is going on this mission with a completely different squad that we then have to learn about. At least we don't have to learn about the scientists as well, because. We maybe get to see a little chink in Sergeant Kerr's armour as she engages in a verbal sniping match with the civilian salvage contractor, and you just know it's going to lead to more.
The sentient ship testing them (to find out what, we never know)is a fairly obvious Science Fiction trope, but it's done well enough to make it interesting here. It's not done to the awe inspiring levels of a Rama or Ringworld, because this is still a military story at heart, so that part gets sidelined when they run into the enemy. I did feel like I was in a Tomb Raider game at times, but that is not necessarily a bad thing. There is a very well done rescue at the end, and there is quite a lot of side story focussing on the pilots who are trying to protect the marines as well.
The dirty politics that the general has to engage in also rears it's ugly head, and there may just be more negative consequences as a result of Sergeant Kerr's actions in this book. It will be intersting to see where the author takes this next.
This book has the same high octane action and heroics as the last one, and to a certain extent suffers from the same problems. Having just about learned who Sergeant Kerr's squad were by the end, we find that she is going on this mission with a completely different squad that we then have to learn about. At least we don't have to learn about the scientists as well, because
Spoiler
they nearly all get killed early on when part of the ship explodesThe sentient ship testing them (to find out what, we never know)is a fairly obvious Science Fiction trope, but it's done well enough to make it interesting here. It's not done to the awe inspiring levels of a Rama or Ringworld, because this is still a military story at heart, so that part gets sidelined when they run into the enemy. I did feel like I was in a Tomb Raider game at times, but that is not necessarily a bad thing. There is a very well done rescue at the end, and there is quite a lot of side story focussing on the pilots who are trying to protect the marines as well.
The dirty politics that the general has to engage in also rears it's ugly head, and there may just be more negative consequences as a result of Sergeant Kerr's actions in this book. It will be intersting to see where the author takes this next.