The Better Part of Valor
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From bestselling author Tanya Huff comes a new novel in the Confederation series of military science fiction, blending action, intrigue, courage, and humor with more twists than a trip through Susumi space... Even if she was saving the Confederation at the time, Staff Sergeant Torin Kerr is aware that questioning a general’s parentage to his face was not a strategic career move. But she never imagined it would land her as senior NCO on a top-secret recon mission practically guaranteed to go sideways. The target is an unidentified alien ship the size of a station, floating dead in space. Most of her intel comes from a civilian salvage operator who’s bargained his way onto her landing party while making it clear he won’t be taking any orders. Best of all, the mission’s commanding officer is a politically connected captain so heroic his troops tend to end up dead. But as soon as Torin and her Marines set foot on the strange vessel, the rules change. This ship isn’t empty. Communications are down. And if they can’t get back to tell the Confederation what they’ve found out, all of the known galaxy is going to learn about it the hard way...
Series
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3 primary booksConfederation
Confederation is a 3-book series with 6 primary works first released in 2002 with contributions by Tanya Huff.
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Everything I said about the first book, in terms of quality, still applies here. It's very similar to the first book; enough so that I'm really not surprised that the two of them were released in a single volume.
What this one explores a bit more than the first one does is that looks more at the alien species that share in the Confederation with humanity. I remember years ago hearing a sci-fi author opine that it was curious that while humanity could produce both Gandhi and Hitler within a generation of each other, depictions of extraterrestrial species could often be as simplistic as “all Klingons are feirce warriors” or “all Twi'lek are sexy dancers”. It's a trap that many writers fall into, but one that Huff manages to avoid here, and her work is stronger for it. The Krai, di'Tayken, and other alien species feel fleshed out as alien species, with plenty of variety in their outlook, personality, and interpersonal relations.
In terms of plot, this one is fairly straightforward - Torin and a group of Marines are sent to investigate a ship belonging to a previously-uncontacted alien intelligence, which proceeds to challenge them by presenting them with scenes from their past, and a group of the Others that they're at war with. Fairly straightforward mil-SF stuff, made special by the stong characterization of Torin and the rest of the Marines she works with, as well as Huff's sparse yet mellifluous prose.
