Books - Cold Welcome (2017) and Into the Fire (2018) [+]
May 08 2023
Elizabeth Moon's Cold Welcome (2017) and Into the Fire (2018) comprise the two novels in Vatta's Peace, sequel to her five book series Vatta's War. This is a science fiction far future universe where mankind is spread amongst the galaxy and Earth is kind of a myth. Faster-than-light travel with FTL communications limited to on-planet facilities (Vatta's Peace introduces FTL communications that can be installed in starships which makes for a great combat multiplier, and in the end even FTL communications that can be mounted in your head though it's not always-on/needs external power to function).
Cold Welcome has Ky Vatta, head of the multi-nation Space Defense Force, return to her home planet of Slotter Key where she gets caught up in the assassination of the Slotter Key Academy Commandant. Her shuttles crashes into the bleak and arctic southern ocean and she helps the survivors get themselves organized and into rafts and they actually make it to Miksland, the forbidden continent.
Miksland has been uninhabited for hundreds of years but not really because the survivors find a military-style mining camp and that discovery puts them all in great danger from the conspiracy that has kept Miksland a forbidden zone...
Into the Fire starts a month or two after the survivors are rescued. Ky is dealing with some issues like the military wants to try her for a murder or two in Miksland and immigration wants to kick her off the planet because she is not a citizen and her visa expired while she was on Miksland. And then three of the Miksland survivors show up having recently escaped from confinement.
it seems the conspiracy took all the other survivors and locked them away with the excuse of carrying a dangerous pathogen from Miksland and they're all going to be eventually murdered to keep the Miksland secret. Ky takes it upon herself to rescue the others and meanwhile the conspirators are also out to silence Ky permanently...
I've read Moon's Herris Serrano trilogy (1993-5), Vatta's War series (2003-8) and now Vatta's Peace and all of them have kind of the same writing style so maybe that's how Moon writes. Lots of detail, sometimes going into minutia that doesn't really advance the plot, and sometimes plots are resolved very quickly with not too many consequences. It's great reading and I quite enjoyed her books but in the end there is still a nagging "could have used a stricter editor" feeling.
Cold Welcome has Ky Vatta, head of the multi-nation Space Defense Force, return to her home planet of Slotter Key where she gets caught up in the assassination of the Slotter Key Academy Commandant. Her shuttles crashes into the bleak and arctic southern ocean and she helps the survivors get themselves organized and into rafts and they actually make it to Miksland, the forbidden continent.
Miksland has been uninhabited for hundreds of years but not really because the survivors find a military-style mining camp and that discovery puts them all in great danger from the conspiracy that has kept Miksland a forbidden zone...
Into the Fire starts a month or two after the survivors are rescued. Ky is dealing with some issues like the military wants to try her for a murder or two in Miksland and immigration wants to kick her off the planet because she is not a citizen and her visa expired while she was on Miksland. And then three of the Miksland survivors show up having recently escaped from confinement.
it seems the conspiracy took all the other survivors and locked them away with the excuse of carrying a dangerous pathogen from Miksland and they're all going to be eventually murdered to keep the Miksland secret. Ky takes it upon herself to rescue the others and meanwhile the conspirators are also out to silence Ky permanently...
I've read Moon's Herris Serrano trilogy (1993-5), Vatta's War series (2003-8) and now Vatta's Peace and all of them have kind of the same writing style so maybe that's how Moon writes. Lots of detail, sometimes going into minutia that doesn't really advance the plot, and sometimes plots are resolved very quickly with not too many consequences. It's great reading and I quite enjoyed her books but in the end there is still a nagging "could have used a stricter editor" feeling.