James Review -- Vatta’s Peace: Into the Fire

This week I decided to review Into the Fire by Elizabeth Moon.

Determined to find and rescue any other imprisoned survivors, Ky contacts her great-aunt Grace Vatta who is Rector of Defense for the planet of Slotter’s Key. Grace launches an investigation, but is soon critically injured by a poison gas attack in her home. And Ky soon finds herself, and her fiancée, and allies who traveled from off planet to join the search when Ky was missing, wanted by Slotter’s Key Immigration because new laws mean her citizenship has lapsed and because their visas have expired. Forced to stay in the home of Stella Vatta to avoid detainment, they continue seeking the locations of the other imprisoned Miksland survivors.

Stella is approached by Benny Quindlan baring a message from the head of his family swearing to kill Grace, Ky, Stella , and Stella’s young niece and nephew as vengeance for Grace’s actions during the planetary civil war that unified Slotter’s Key under one government, with signs that the incident on Miksland is tied to still active remnants of the old Separatist movement. Eventually, Ky and her allies launch a multi-front operation to liberate the remaining Miksland survivors, but Stella, unaware that her guests have left, finds herself facing assassins in her home while they are gone.

In the aftermath of the rescue, the new commandant of the Slotter’s Key Military Academy, replacing the commandant killed during the Miksland crash, who is a key member of the Separatist conspiracy, flees. Ky is named as a temporary replacement, but she soon discovers that in the event of a crisis, the military cadets are supposed to deploy to reinforce the defenses of key government installations and officials. But the plans for such an action are woefully outdated and, with Separatist forces closing on the capital city, Ky is forced to race to update and implement the defense plans…

I give this book 7.5 out of 10. The characters are interesting as are some of the conflicts and factions, but the story spends far too much time planning and in setting legal problems with not nearly enough action IMO. When I reached the part with the Separatist attack on the capital and the cadets deployed to aid the defense, I was looking forward to a grand climatic battle, but instead we got a short battle scene with little time spent on the viewpoints of the frontline soldiers for my taste. And I wish they had included at least a little space combat in the story. Maybe a training sim, or the Separatists deploying a small armed ship or two.