The first book in Tanya Huff’s action-packed military sci-fi adventure Confederation seriesStaff Sergeant Torin Kerr was a battle-hardened professional. So when she and her platoon were yanked from a well-deserved leave for what was supposed to be “easy” duty as the honor guard for a diplomatic mission to the non-Confederation world of the Silsviss, she was ready for anything. Sure, there’d been … Sure, there’d been rumors of the Others—the sworn enemies of the Confederation—being spotted in this sector of space. But there were always rumors. The key thing was to recruit the Silsviss into the Confederation before the Others attacked or claimed these lizardlike warriors for their side. And everything seemed to be going perfectly. Maybe too perfectly….
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Military Space Opera written by a woman who really knows what she’s writing about. Marvelous characters and alien races, extremely snappy dialogue, an endearing and tough heroine, and lots of fast action. Torin Kerr is one of my favorite main characters ever written, and I am a particular fan of this book (the first in the series) because it opens with a post sex pheromone hangover and ends with a battle based one of the early moments in the Zulu War (late 1870s).
Please, don’t make the mistake of comparing Tanya Huff’s different series to one another. She completely changes her author voice depending on the genre. A truly remarkable ability in an author.
The tone of Valor is entirely different from that of her UF stuff (Blood and Keeper) and both in turn different from her fantasies (Quarter). SO if you have read Tanya before and not liked her, I suggest giving Valor’s Choice a try.
Lots of fun! And the Sergeant’s-eye-view is refreshing.
This is a book I devoured in pretty much one sitting, which is rare for me. And I’m a slow reader so that was three days of sitting and reading.
In fact its power was so great over me I had to resist reading the rest of the series, because I had *stuff to do.*
It’s heartbreaking and hilarious at the same time, hitting that sweet spot of humanity in the middle (even if many of the characters aren’t, well, human).
And it’s got the feeling of military sci-fi that I love — the jokes I just sort of get, being a lover of the genre but not a military person myself, the camaraderie, the selflessness that isn’t, it’s just part of the job.
Highly recommended. And I’m guessing when I read the rest of them, those will be too (if they don’t whisk me away to another world, never to be heard from again).
A wonderful, classic space opera series with all the fun that implies. But the Confederation Series also has a realistic, and entertaining Marine Sargeant in Torin Kerr. She’s one of my all-time favorite characters–Torin is smart, sarcastic, clever, effective and efficient–if she was in the US Marines, she’d be handing her recruits boxes of crayons at chow time without cracking a smile.
I love this entire series and the follow-on series.
futuristic, realistic and i couldn’t put it down.
Oh, how I love these books. Tanya Huff is an excellent writer that really puts us in her world. I think that Torin is pretty much BAMF. Tanya Huff really got the whole mentality of a Marine, whether they are in space or not, which makes Torin an even better character, in my opinion. I can’t help but to read and reread this series a couple of times a year.