The Heart of Valor by Tanya Huff - review

The Heart of Valor

*****

Tanya Huff

Military SciFi

Cover - This cover is pretty good for representing a little of what's going on in this novel. There is Torin, now a Gunny....oh, damn, what's that term? Gunnery Sargeant, aka Gunny has agreed to accompany a recovering major so he can see how well his new body is working - (totally scifi - love it) There's the snow, the attacking drones, the building.....

Excerpt Note - I finally found access to a print form of an excerpt, although I had a hard time figuring out how to use it. click on the cover, it'll take you to Books On Board - once there you can click on the cover and get a peek at the contents. With the previous books, I only noticed audio links for excerpts. If you click on the book title here, it'll take you to Kentucky Libaries Unbound where you can access an audio excerpt.

I love these books - by the time I was through with the first in the series, I knew I wanted to read all of them. By the time I was finished with book no 2, I was totally addicted to these. I've now finished all the books I currently have in the A Confederation novels (in my head, I call them the Valor novels) and I miss reading about Torin, her marine compatriots, and Craig - the man she met, the civilian that she's reluctantly attracted to. Well, not totally reluctant, but I get the feeling that this character was a little surprised to end up attracted to him.

In The Heart of Valor Torin Kerr has been promoted to Gunnery Sargeant. The novel starts out with her on station going through numerous meetings and question and answer sessions - something she's frustrated with, being a marine more suited to being on call rather than dealing with paperwork. She suddenly get's the chance to escape all this for 20 days (give or take) by being an aide (or attendant) to a Major Svensson who is going through a training session on a training planet - remember it's the future marines

See - there's this planet named Crucible....It's a planet where recruits go to hone their training. There are different weather systems and land types - swamp/tropical, winter with snow and below zero temperatures, etc. There are also different scenarios of war games, meant to be dangerous enough to really train a marine, but not so dangerous that a marine gets killed unless said marine is really stupid. Major Svensson is a Marine who has survived devastating injuries, being put in a regrowth tank and regrowing essentially his body. His injuries were the most severe ever seen, and his recovery the most dramatic, so the plan is to see if he can function in war - if his nerves work, muscle groups, etc. A doctor is going also - a civilian doctor.

Things begin to go horribly wrong - and not only is Gunny Sargeant Torin having to deal with protecting the Major, but the recruits are also suddenly under her care also (they were supposed to be the reponsibility of the training staff sargeants) due to the sudden health crisis of the staff sargeant normally in charge. The training scenarios have gone haywire, attacking the recruits outside the parameters that had been set. Now the recruits and Torin have to deal with an incapacitated leader and a Major that seems to be just a bit off - disappearing for long periods, spacing out....Things begin to seem just a bit too familiar to Torin - too much like her time on the alien spaceship she just escaped from, as well as the assignment she was previously on.

(There might be spoilers in the following paragraph for the previous book)

In the meantime, her new man - the salvage operator, Craig - and her have realized that no one remembers the escape pod that they used to escape from the alien spaceship. Seems Craig was wondering what happened to it, since he would be entitled to it, and when Torin asks questions about it, she's told "What escape pod" (this happens right before she ships off to Crucible), then is seriously warned off the subject. Turns out the only people who actually remember the escape pod is Craig, Torin and the reporter, Presit - the three that went through the floor of the spaceship (Big Yellow) ....even the navy personnel who helped to bring the escape pod into the ship's bay. The mystery continues...

(End of Spoilery)

A secondary plot involves the training staff sargeant who is from the Di'Taykan (hope I spelled that right- book is not in front of me). Staff Sargeant Beyn was Torin's staff sargeant when she went through Crucible training years before. Like all the other di'Taykans, SST Beyn wears a masker to mask his pheromones - this is necessary so recruits and officers don't suddenly jump each other's bones at inopportune moments. Torin notices that she doesn't even get a wisp of his pheremones, which is very odd - since even with the maskers, there's always a bit of a pull. This is related to why he becomes incapacitated later - leaving the recruits under Torin's responsibility. Actually, she now outranks him, but of course she was supposed to be concentrating on Major Svensson, and now she must find a balance between following the major's orders, "handling" the major and leading the recruits with the other two sargeants. Oh yes, AND make sure that the civilian doctor remains safe. SNAFU - isn't that a term originating from the militaries? It applies here - they all find themselves in a "SNAFU".

The Heart of Valor is the third in the Confederation series by Tanya Huff; continuing the adventures of now Gunnery Sargeant T Kerr. Kerr is a marine who would rather not advance too far up the officer food chain and would rather be with her own platoon. But Gunny Kerr is a soldier who is good at following orders and is good at what she does. She's smarter than some of the brass and yet smart enough not to rub it in their faces unless she has to. I loe her character. And the new character of Craig Ryder (introduced in The Better Part of Valor) is very interesting. A civilian salvage operator who has gotten to Torin, despite herself. He has some serious issues - doens't like to share his space on his salvage ship, yet he needs Torin. I enjoyed a few of the returning characters - such as the reporter Presit of the Katrien species. The Katriens are a species that other find difficult to take serious because they are cute, with soft silky fur, little, and people want to pet them. This can be a mistake. The recruits were great. There's the one that is gung-ho and so bright-eyed and eager - with a crush on Torin. She's the type that packs everything on the suggested list. The others rib her about it, but it seems the extra items do come in handy. There's the computer genious - a whiz at programming and hacking.

The narration and banterish dialogue is just as good in this third novel as I've come to expect from reading this series and a couple of Huff's other series. I stand on my soapbox here: One of the things that I really appreciate with Tanya Huff's writing is that when she writes characters who are gay or bi-sexual, she writes them in a matter-of-fact manner. It's just another part of regular life. This is, I think, important - it's the way that I wish all of us would attempt. Homosexuals have been part of the human race since forever (part of some animals' lives also-I'm pretty sure my young dog is in love with my older dog, both are males. He's not hung up on what should be - he just knows how he FEELS. LOL) and will always be a part of the human experience. In fact with her di'Taykan characters, the di'Taykan seem to be bisexual - sex is an intregal part of their society, their being and there are no biases or preferences towards one sex over the other. Which brings me to another point in her writing. Though she makes clear the sexual habits of the di'Taykan, and her characters begin relationships there is no real graphic scenes. Sex is also treated as matter of factly - in fact Torin possibly falling in love is written in a refreshingly NON-mushy manner. I enjoy this - I also occasionally like to read differing situations, but sometimes I just like to read a story tha may include relationships, love and sex, but not an exaggerated extent.

Of course, the minute I finished reading The Heart of Valor, I dived right into the fourth novel - Valor's Trial - and sadly, the last Valor novel that I currently own. I used to reread novels pretty frequently - back when I was way more poor than I am now (lol). Now, even though I have vague plans to save and reread many of the novels I've been reading, there aren't that many that I'm itching to reread SOON. But along with Suzanne McLeod, Devon Monk, Ilona Andrews, and a couple more - I am seriously tempted to just start at the beginning again with these novels. I enjoyed them that much. The right combination of danger, banter, narration and relationships - Tanya Huff has totally hit the mark for me. I'm so tempted to take some grocery money and go buy the hardback of Truth of Valor, the latest Confederation novel. LOL if I just hold on, have some patience, The Truth of Valor does come out in paperback September 6 of this year. I'm so tempted though - it's hard to wait.

Other series by Tanya Huff include Fantasy (The Summoning series), what I think is referred to as high fantasy (What Ho' Magic, etc), urban fantasy (Blood Price, Smoke and Mirrors) and more.

The Better Part of Valor by Tanya Huff - review

The Better Part of Valor
*****
Military SciFi
Tanya Huff

cover - okay, here is a little taste of what a couple of the species look like in the Valor novels. It's always nice to have an idea, because it's not always easy to picture what's described without a little artistic help (have I ever mentioned how much I appreciate artists - including painters, drawers, some sculptors - haha, singers, song writers and of course BOOK WRITERS?) what you see pictured on this cover is the inside of the alledgedly abandoned ship that Torin and her co. end up going to investigate.

Even though I read this about a month ago, taking a very long time to review, I enjoyed the hell out of this book. In fact, I went into a serious reading frenzy. Taking a chance, I had bought the first four novels in this series (two of them in the omnibus edition, giving me a two for the price of one deal). I'm usually not really into military type of anything - I appreciate armies that do their best to protect, hopefully as humanely as possible - but it's just not really my usual reading interests. However, I've found myself almost obsessed with this particular series. It must have something to do with the strong female figure, in charge even as she's subordinate to her superior officers combined with Tanya Huff's unique sense of humor, writing style and the way she writes her dialogue. In about three weeks I had read all the Valor novels, and it only took me that long because I had a few other obligations and grandchildren. As of now, there's only one more book in the series and it's in (sob - sob) H/B. I cannot afford hardback, but it is calling my name. What I need is a damn good coupon...

This series - Confederation series - It is far, far into the future. So far, in fact that there are many planets that have been colonised, terraformed, or discovered - all in different phases of advancement. It is so far advanced, that a lot of terms and phrases we take for granted don't make any sense because of technical advance, such as "rubber-stamp it". Nobody seems to know what an actual rubber stamp is, or what it was used for. One of the characters in the first two novels is full of these type of sayings. One of the fun quirks of Huff's writing. There are also entire universes (I might have the wrong term) at war with each other. The Marines are still the marines, but they do a lot of space travel, of course, to get back and forth. The Navy is the branch that runs the space ships - kind of like the navy has water ships now, just a different venue. The Navy and the Marines have, naturally, a kind of rivalry going on - I'm sure they do now in fact.

There is at least three main species of being in the Marines, one of them human. One is a tallish green tinted people who all have differently colored tenticles on their heads that look like hair, but move around according to mood/agitation - the colors are turquoise, green, fuschia, orange, etc. Their eyes are also pretty cool colors, and they can see much better than humans. They also emit a very strong pheromone that affects all other species, and sex is a strong part of their culture - they're known for making suggestive comments. If one doesn't make suggestive comments, then it's a clue that they're either sick or dead and they have to wear "maskers" to tone down the pheromones so others can function around them. Regardless of this, Tanya Huff doens't use this to write all kinds of sex scenes in her novels, it's just part of the personalities of this particular species. One of the other species live in trees, hate to wear shoes, are kind of small yet strong and can use their feet like hands. They also eat just about anything - making for interesting converstions between all three.

In the first book - Valor's Choice, Torin Kerr, a Staff Sargeant in the Marines was part of a diplomatic mission gone wrong. One of her final actions involved punching the general - it needed to be done- but she also made a comment referring to parentage. Apparently he has remembered this. In The Better Part of Valor, the General orders her away from her regular platoon into an investigation of an apparently abandoned huge spaceship. Either he's punishing her for her previous actions, or he's using her skills - trusting that she's the best person for the job, since they are going into an unknown situation. Never know with a general. Seems a salvage operator (space style salvage operators - keeping open space clean by recycling broken and destroyed spaceship pieces and detritus) left suzumi space (similar to FTL travel) finding this large vessel just floating. Scans revealed no life forms. A scientific team is going to take a look at it, study it with the marines in attendance for safety. Torin is assigned a group of marines who have all been hand selected from a wide variety of other platoons. Their's is a top-secret mission to keep scientists safe while they try to find out what exactly this huge bright yellow ship is. Because it doens't even scan as any metal or plastic that they've ever come across before. Unfortunately, complications arise almost immediately.

From the moment they enter the ship, strange things begin to happen. First an explosion occurs, caused by the scientists deciding to drill into the wall. It kills almost all the scientists. Then Torin and the salvage operator fall through the floor - slowly.

After this, they have to find their way to a new port, since the shuttle they came on and the airlock were destroyed in the initial blast. Their way seems to be complicated and yet when they most need it the most, they get a break in the form of a shortened passageway, or a sudden room. Creepily, the compartments and passageways start to feel familiar - they seem to have been taken right from their memories. Torin and the salvage operator finally get together with the remnants of their crew and they all, including a reporter who has invited herself along the expedition, continue to try to make their way to another airlock, with out the aid of any outside communications - they've been left without contact and with few supplies. It soon becomes apparent that there is another almost similar group going through the same thing - the confederation's eniemies called "the others".

Something fishy is going on. I enjoyed the dialogue between the characters very much. The twists and turns they went through along with the story of what was going on in the ship that they came on, the discovery of the enemies on the other side of the huge abandoned ship. It all added up to one hell of a novel. I've gone into more of the meat of the story than I usually do. I found it a very engaging and entertaining novel. As usual, I found all the characters fascinating - the irritating characters as well as the characters that were doing their best to get through their situation. There was a great variety of personalities. Loved it.

As soon as I finished The Better Part of Valor, I was grabbing The Heart Of Valor, #3 off my shelf. I am really looking forward to reading the fifth in the series and hope that Tany Huff has plans for more.

Valor's Choice by Tanya Huff - review

Valor's Choice *
Tanya Huff

*****
Science Fiction

I don't know what to say about this cover. I think this is the first cover, or at least it's the cover of the single novel. The novel I have was in a double book volume, two novels in one book - titled A Confederation of Valor. The cover of that one is .....blah. This one at least shows a bit of what the Silviss look like...sort of. it's hard to see. But poses of the humans just look off somehow. The uniforms are interesting...and they're supposed to be black to accommadate the different coloring of all the species in the Marines. Well, good thing I was LOOKIN' for the novel, had already made up my mind to get the space novels written by Tanya Huff. Judging this or the other edition by its cover, I wouldn't have picked the book up.

I've read fantasy by Tanya Huff - The Summoning, The Second Summoning and enjoyed her fantasy novels quite a bit. Until Valor's Choice though, I've never read science Fiction by Tanya Huff. I was pleased with how much I enjoyed her take on space travel, warring between species, etc.

The main character of Valor's Choice is a marine staff sargeant Toren Kerr. She's a career marine, not totally in charge, and not totally subordinate either. It's nice to read about a character who isn't at the top of her field. This character is very capable at her job, which seems to be keeping her direct superior alive (if he's a good superior officer) and her troops in line.

Toren's troop has just come in from a battle where they had heavy casualties and have been recuperating when they're sent (out of rotation) on a theoretically easy assignment. To be an honor guard for a group of diplomats, on a diplomatic mission to get a recently discovered planet's inhabitants to sign on as allies to the federation. The federation seems to be in a constant war with the "Others", a particularly bloodthirsty species of warring enemies. But of course, things don't go according to plan...

The diplomatic mission goes wrong when they're shot down, and they end up holing up in the middle of a preserve with attacking natives....

The narration of the novel is pure Tanya Huff. She has a dry wit and humor that's fun to read. I don't "get" all the though process's that her characters arrive at, but that never gets to me as a reader, I just keep reading figure I'll understand it later (vague enough for your?) Just like dealing with other people in real life, I don't always understand how people come to their conclusions, but that's not always necessary. All the characters have distinct personalities, and there are a wide variety of characters. Some have sarcastic humor, some are stiff individuals, and some are downright pains in the asses. Huff has a way of mimimcking real life with her character's personalities. I enjoy it. I like the banter between characters, and the situations they get into.

If you have any attraction to military, or enjoy reading battles and skirmishes, then you'll enjoy this book. And of course, there is a great futuristic feel to it, space ships, healing tanks, regeneration of limbs, etc, and yet there are also real consenquences. with all the futuristic gadgets available people still die in battle.

I had fun reading about Toren and her troop, the situation they found themselves in and the battle they fought. I'm looking forward to reading more of these characters. Tanya Huff's writing is as professional as they get - she's had years of writing experience, and it shows. She writes a strong novel, with great characters and dialog. A joy to read.

I have started reading the next in the series, The Better Part of Valor.
*audio excerpt available, click on title above