Review - Valor's Trial by Tanya Huff

Valor's Trial
(4th book in the Confederation series)
Author: Tanya Huff
Publisher: DAW
Copyright: 2009 (this release)
ISBN: 978-0756405571
Book Type: Science Fiction (Military, but shades of Romance)
Size: 416 page paperback
Amazon Link: Amazon Link

Review


Valor's Trial (and the entire Confederation series) is another example of military serial science fiction with a touch of the romance influence. This is the 4th book in the series after Valor's Choice, The Better Part of Valor, The Heart of Valor and there is already a 5th book, the Truth of Valor, scheduled for 2010. In 2006, there was an omnibus Confederation of Valor which repackaged Valor's Choice and The Better Part of Valor as well.

The protagonist is Torin Kerr, lately Confederation Marine Gunnery Sergeant Torin Kerr, aka the next best thing to God as far as the Marine Corps enlisted personel account such things. She's a tough, mission-focused character who has her own personal interests and aspirations, but who knows how to be a professional and subordinate those to the mission, which is primarily getting whatever job done as is required and keeping her Marines alive.

The Confederation setting sees a number of Elder Races who have come recruiting for the Humans and some other young races to fight their war with an alien multi-species polity called The Others (at least, that's what the Confederation calls them). The Elder Races are, predictably, running the show and keeping the younger races somewhat out of the loop for unspecified reasons.

The thing that caught my attention and drew me to the first book in the series was the examination of the challenges of integrating different races with different physical needs and capabilities into unified combat formations. The thing that kept me reading was a slowly evolving arc about the war with The Others and about the characters. Like most military fiction, non-Protagonist character turnover can sometimes be high, but that's part of the genre.

Another thing that kept me interested is the focus on the role of the senior NCO (Torrin, if I recall correctly, starts as a Sergeant in book one, moves through Staff Sergeant to Gunnery Sergeant in this book) in managing the squad, the platoon, and the company. Tanya seems to have a good grasp of the relationship of the NCO and the Officer. There is some very archetypal commentary about Officers and about the NCO's role as a shepherd. Beyond that, there is an appreciation of the Officer's role as the big picture manager of a unit, with the NCO being the details-focused leader whose decisions are mostly focused on keeping her people alive and prepared for whatever comes next. Both the Officer and the NCO play tactical decision making roles and the cooperation between both (at times) is shown as is the tension (if the officer is an idiot or martinet or a REMF).

The latest book, Valor's Trial, covers a POW situation. It is a truly unique POW situation insofar as the prison is on the interior of an alien world. I won't say much more about the plot because I certainly don't want to give away the good things you'll discover by reading it. I will say the overall series story arc moves ahead with a variety of new an interesting discoveries, one learns a bit more about the foes, and more is learned about another mysterious player in the big picture.

Throughout the book, the focus is on a psychological treatment of the effects of imprisonment without it becoming too much of a lead pipe to bludgeon the reader with. There is also a focus on the consequences of decisions - sometimes you make the right one, sometimes not and there is always a price of some sort. There is also a focus on the psychology of command, of (to some extent) the power of conviction, of patterns, and of the familiar bonds of unit and duty and how these things can guide soldier's behaviours in both good and bad ways.

The story flows along and is an easy read. The main character isn't prone to vast amounts of melodrama and the inclusion of some moderately challenging and irrascible characters in various spots in the book makes for a form of comic relief from the challenges and difficulties of the overall bleak scenario the protagonist is confronted with.

In the end, there is some change in the shape of things and there is at least one big cliffhanger point on which, no doubt, the next book or books will be focused.

I look forward to that next book, unlike some other series I'm getting distinctly tired of reading - Mr. Ringo, Mr. Weber, someone is calling your name.....

About the Author


Tanya (Sue) Huff was born in Halifax but left the Maritimes while very young. She lived in Kingston until graduation from High School and did a Radio and TV-related program at Ryerson. She spent 3 years in the Naval Reserve. She now lives with Fiona, her partner, and some cats in rural Ontario and makes her living entirely as a writer without taking government grants of any form. She reviews books for the Mop and Pail (Globe and Mail) from time to time. She wrote for Realms magazine in Toronto.

Rating

Readability: 8.9 / 10
Detail: 7.0 / 10
Plot: 8.0 / 10
Value: 9.0 / 10
Overall: 8.1 / 10