Kara's Reviews > Trading in Danger

“Trading in Danger (Vatta’s War #1)” is an amazing, and very enjoyable, military scifi story with strong women as many of the lead characters. The story isn’t lesfic, and there is very little time spent on hetero romances.

There is though, lots and lots of time spent building a believable universe, with believable characters that are individually crafted, and lots of time spend on action. The action is very personal; the spacecraft and futuristic weaponry take backseats to the motivations, hopes, fears and actions of the many characters.

The amount of detail presented is amazing. First published in 2003, the book often sounds like it was written knowing how corporations communicate with customers today, 15 years later:

“Due to conditions beyond our control, public access to channels is restricted until further notice. We apologize for any inconvenience. ”

At other times, the book presents details that are nearly mundane as individual items, but that together succeed in turning an adventure story into a rich tapestry of the lives of people living the adventures.

“Trading in Danger” is book #1 of the five-part “Vatta’s War” series. All five books are narrated by Cynthia Holloway, whom I grew to like as narrator of the early “Chicagoland Vampire” books by Chloe Neill. Her voice and cadence work terrifically for the book and the characters. At nearly 14 hours long, there is lots of material in “Trading in Danger”, and yet it’s so fast paced and enjoyable that it ends before you know it. Highly recommended with a 5* rating.