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Book review: The Heart of Valor
Aug. 20th, 2007 08:52 pmToday's book review is The Heart of Valor by Tanya Huff.
This is the third book in Huff's Confederation series starring Torin Kerr. This story is mostly self-contained, but some background that the reader needs to really understand isn't covered in much detail, such as the general nature of the non-human races, as well as the origin of the situation in the current novel. (And, in fact, I wished for a better memory of some of the previous events myself, though my failure to remember details from The Better Part of Valor was just personal frustration, not a source of real confusion.)
This is a military novel, so it does have a lot of things and people blowing up. But not so much that it's really the story. There's mystery (although, as presented, it's more a mystery to the characters than the reader), and examination of alienness on several levels. There's personal development, and a good deal of succeeding in military situations by clever thinking rather than simple brute force. Mainly, it's engaging writing that makes the characters live enough that I wish I could be part of the group when they were on leave at a spaceport bar, even though I don't really have any desire to be a space marine (or any delusions that I'd make it through the rigors of training). Oh, and some in-jokes that kicked up my enjoyment of the novel at least another notch. I think Dr. Sloan's catalogs would be funny even to people who don't know about the real Dr. Sloan and her relationship with catalogs, but they were side-splittingly funny for me.
On a briefly serious note, much of why this universe appeals so much is my belief that humanity would end up being a lot saner if we were in close contact with some other species. (And life would be more fun, as well as a lot less mentally screwed up, if one of them were the Taykan. But I probably shouldn't dwell on that.)
Not a book that the ages are likely to hold in reverence, but that's the ages' loss, because it's quite a fun read. 9 out of 10.
( plot summary )
This is the third book in Huff's Confederation series starring Torin Kerr. This story is mostly self-contained, but some background that the reader needs to really understand isn't covered in much detail, such as the general nature of the non-human races, as well as the origin of the situation in the current novel. (And, in fact, I wished for a better memory of some of the previous events myself, though my failure to remember details from The Better Part of Valor was just personal frustration, not a source of real confusion.)
This is a military novel, so it does have a lot of things and people blowing up. But not so much that it's really the story. There's mystery (although, as presented, it's more a mystery to the characters than the reader), and examination of alienness on several levels. There's personal development, and a good deal of succeeding in military situations by clever thinking rather than simple brute force. Mainly, it's engaging writing that makes the characters live enough that I wish I could be part of the group when they were on leave at a spaceport bar, even though I don't really have any desire to be a space marine (or any delusions that I'd make it through the rigors of training). Oh, and some in-jokes that kicked up my enjoyment of the novel at least another notch. I think Dr. Sloan's catalogs would be funny even to people who don't know about the real Dr. Sloan and her relationship with catalogs, but they were side-splittingly funny for me.
On a briefly serious note, much of why this universe appeals so much is my belief that humanity would end up being a lot saner if we were in close contact with some other species. (And life would be more fun, as well as a lot less mentally screwed up, if one of them were the Taykan. But I probably shouldn't dwell on that.)
Not a book that the ages are likely to hold in reverence, but that's the ages' loss, because it's quite a fun read. 9 out of 10.
( plot summary )