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Engaging The Enemy (Vatta's War book 3) by Elizabeth Moon
01/11/2007 . Source: Geoff Willmetts 
pub: Del Rey/Ballantine Books. 401 page hardback. Price: $25.95 (US), $35.95 (CAN). ISBN: 0-345-44756-5 - pub: Orbit. 464 page paperback. Price: £ 6.99 (UK). ISBN: 978-1-84149-378-7. Buy Engaging The Enemy in the USA - or Buy Engaging The Enemy in the UK  check out website: www.delreybooks.com , www.littlebrown.co.uk and www.orbitbooks.co.uk
Captain Kylara Vatta's story is developing with this book, discovering who her friends and enemies are. Having killed the black sheep of the family, Osman Vatta, last book, she now has control of his starship, leaving her cousin, Stella, with her old ship and getting new crew and following in her wake. Attempts to bring together alliances with other trading spaceships against the pirates who are systematically taking over planets isn't helped when the planets governors she orbits don't like the idea. Things aren't helped when her ownership of Osman's ship and her own identity is brought into question by Furman, captain of one of the few remaining Vatta Trading starships, who says she's an impostor. Ky has to wait our a trial in an etiquette driven planet to establish her identity and ponder on the implication that he could be right and she could be one of Osman's illegitimate children.
Going beyond this point at this time will give away too much of this plot. Writer Elizabeth Moon gives a lot of clues as to what is going on but roller-coasts it so you read on rather than solve the clues to the solution she creates. As great as she is at dialogue, I couldn't help wonder if there was far too much talking and not enough action, especially compared to the two earlier books. There has to be a balance between the two rather than have it bunched up at the end.
To some extent, my comments previously still uphold in that the Science Fiction elements take a backseat to the more human problems here. Indeed, the court case could be the same if held on Earth although I doubt if execution would be the option for rudeness. Makes a careful note to read up on the by-laws when visiting populated planets and their space stations.
If you've enjoyed Moon's earlier books then you will want to read more and see how Ky Vatta turns things around. We're seeing or rather hearing a lot more about the pirates' actions now even if the motives or key players are still only hinted at. Some things have been given away in this book but only in as much explaining some of the earlier plot elements. It does show Moon has a long term plot when it comes for this series of books but like any writer magician only reveals what is needed for you to find out what happens next.
GF Willmetts
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