Well written, but I just really couldn't get into it. Pat of the problem may have been that it's a second book in a series, and I didn't know that when I started it.

I’ve enjoyed other books by Moon, but this one didn’t work for me. It’s part of a series; a once-disgraced, now-successful military leader returns home, where palace intrigue threatens her and her loved ones/her crew. The logistics, repeated conversations bringing new players up to date, and endless meetings are realistic, but not in the way that makes for fun reading.

Ky Vatta and her fiance Rafe are trying to decide what to do when the world interrupted. Instead of free space, they are sucked into finding out what happened to the rest of the group that were rescued from Miksland and who all is involved in the conspiracy. Overcoming bureaucracy, sabotage, murder, and outright insurrection, Ky, Stella and Aunt Gracie manage to survive and even thrive. It will be interesting what else Elizabeth Moon will throw at the Vatta family.

Thanks Netgalley for the opportunity to review this title.

Hero downgraded!

Things are not right! Having returned to Slotter Key a hero, Kyla Vatta has survivors from Miksland turning up as escapees on her doorstep, and Ky's suddenly trapped in her house having been declared a non citizen and wanted for questioning. The whereabouts of the other personnel who escaped from Milksland is unknown and alarmingly Aunt Grace is coming under legal and personal attack. Facts surrounding Grace's past are brought to light that threaten her freedom. Stella is forced to dig deep and finds herself more capable than she thought.
At times I found events in Into the Fire somewhat disjointed. Stella's self pitying stance becomes dangerous for all. On the other hand she is being kept in the dark by Ky. Even though we have seen Stella come into her own as a highly talented woman, here we see her face unforeseen danger and grow from that testing.
Ages old mysteries are brought to light and Ky finds the past rushing up to capture the present. Danger looms and the enemy is faceless. Whom to trust is moot as the very fabric of Slotter Key is threatened. Politics and legalities threaten Kyla and Rafe and the plans they'd been making are put on hold as survival becomes prime. These are times of surprises, shocks, and danger to the existence of Slotter Key.
Overall, another Elizabeth Moon gift from the Slotter Key menagerie.

A NetGalley ARC

There’s a saying about war being the continuation of diplomacy by other means. So, also, is politics, particularly the politics of Slotters Key in this second book in the Vatta’s Peace series. And in the case of this series, it’s that politics are the continuation of diplomacy by other means, diplomacy is the continuation of politics by other means, and even, finally, that war is the continuation of politics by other means, which was not what von Clausewitz originally meant.

But it all makes for compelling reading.

Into the Fire is the second volume in the series, after last year’s marvelous Cold Welcome. And it is a direct sequel to the first. All of the action in Into the Fire is a result of the mess that was uncovered in Cold Welcome, as well as the culmination of strikes against the Vatta family that have been going on since all the way back in the first book in the Vatta’s War series, Trading in Danger. And it turns out that some of that mess relates to events far, far back in the past of the Vatta family, particularly back into the past of Ky’s Great-Aunt Grace, currently the Rector for Defense (think Secretary of Defense in the US Cabinet). The skeletons in Graciela Vatta’s closet have burst out of hiding, and with a vengeance. Or certainly with vengeance in mind.

The first half of Into the Fire is almost completely political. There are forces moving against Grace, Ky, Ky’s fiance Rafe Dunbarger, and all of the soldiers that she found herself in command of in the snafu that occurred in Cold Welcome. In that first book, Ky and her shipmates crashed on what was supposed to be the barren continent of Miksland on Slotter Key, only to discover that Miksland was far from barren, rich in mineral wealth, and that someone had been conducting military exercises on its supposedly empty landscape. And that whatever may be happening on Miksland now, someone, or rather a whole succession of someones, has been successfully hiding the truth about Miksland not just for years, but for centuries.

There’s a lot rotten somewhere in the military, and its up to Ky to ferret it out. Particularly after whoever is rotten systematically whisks all of the soldiers who were part of Ky’s discovery into quarantine, where they can be abused, drugged and eventually murdered without ever being able to reveal what they saw.

At first, Ky is both kept hopping and stuck in her own version of purgatory. At the same time that she discovers that her crew is imprisoned, she finds herself under house arrest and Grace is poisoned. Someone very high up in the government is questioning Ky’s Slotter Key citizenship, with an eye to having her arrested by Customs and Immigration, and then whisked away to the same drugged confinement as her crewmates.

But Ky is wilier than that, and she has the vast resources of Vatta Enterprises behind her, even if she is no longer a shareholder in the company. She’s still a Vatta. And someone is clearly out to get the Vattas. Still. Again.

And someone has upped their timetable on whatever it was they were planning and plotting out in desolate Miksland. Whether those are the same someones, and what Ky can manage to do about them, take the story from politics straight into war.

But if there’s one thing that Admiral Kylara Vatta is good at, it’s war. She and her allies just have to hope that she is better at it than her well-entrenched enemies. And that the butcher’s bill won’t be too high.

Escape Rating A: This was a “just sit there and read” kind of book. It sucked me in from the very first page, and didn’t let go until the end. Actually, I’m not sure it’s let go even yet.

That being said, this is a book that will make no sense to someone who has not read Cold Welcome. I think that the background from the further past is explained enough that you don’t have to read all of Vatta’s War to get into Vatta’s Peace or at least you certainly don’t have to have read it recently. But if you like mercantile/military SF I highly recommend it.

I initially read Vatta’s War in roughly the same time period that I read the Honor Harrington series and Tanya Huff’s Valor (Confederation) series. All three series feature kick-ass military heroines who we meet roughly at the beginning of their careers and who face bigger enemies and greater dangers as they advance. They also pick up great friends, a cohort of companions, and soldiers that will do sacrifice anything for them, and sometimes pay the ultimate price. In the end I gave up on Honor as she seemed to become her very own deus ex machina, but I’ve stuck with both Ky Vatta and Gunnery Sergeant Torin Kerr of the Valor series, and still enjoy their adventures. All of this to say if you like one, you’ll probably like the other. And I’d love to be a fly on the wall if Ky and Torin ever go out for drinks together.

Into the Fire is a densely political book. The entire first half is primarily the set up, as Ky and company find themselves stuck in various places, trying to find ways around the corrupt and/or clueless branches of officialdom that are trying to keep the truth about Miksland under wraps for as long as possible.

This part of the story reads very much like a spy thriller, with the villains trying to flush out the heroes and the heroes trying to get information without tipping off the villains. Meanwhile the disinformation campaign fomented by the villains just confuses the civilians and makes the job of the heroes that much harder. A lot goes wrong in the first half of the book, leaving Ky, Grace and the reader all frustrated at just how difficult it is to fix this mess.

The second half of the book is all action. Once Ky and company find enough trustworthy people to work with on both the military and the civilian sides, the official logjam gets broken and Ky and her friends are on the move – rooting out the corruption, investigating the conspiracy and most importantly, rescuing Ky’s people before they can be wiped out. It’s a wild and compelling rollercoaster ride from that point on. The reader just can’t turn the pages fast enough. Or at least this reader certainly couldn’t.

This isn’t a story that delves a lot into personalities. It’s all about the action. And that’s non-stop from the moment Ky gets out of house arrest until the book’s breath-stealing conclusion.

The comment at the end of the book is absolutely marvelous, and so completely true. “Vatta’s peace may not be perfect, but it could have been worse.” The book, on the other hand, could not have been better.

Into the Fire does end in a proper closure, as Cold Welcome did not. However, there are enough small loose ends that the series could continue if the author wished. This reader certain wishes very, very hard.

I pick up a new Elizabeth Moon novel with anticipatory delight. In its pages (or phosphors, for the ebook version), I will find fascinating characters with skills and intelligence, subtle conflicts of culture, superbly handled tension and plot twists, and insights into people who are different from me. Unlike the heroine of Into the Fire (and Moon herself), I have no military experience whatsoever (30 years of Chinese martial arts notwithstanding). I was a long-haired, sign-waving war protester. Most military fiction leaves me looking around for those love beads. But not Moon’s, and a big part of that (aside from her sheer story-telling skill) is the intelligence and compassion of her military characters.

In the previous novel, Cold Welcome, Ky Vatta and an assortment of people under her command and not-under-her-command manage to survive a shuttle crash into icy waters and make their way to an abandoned base in a frigid, barren landscape. Their survival depends not only working together and making the best decisions but a huge measure of luck. Ky’s training and experience give her a structure to establish leadership and discern what must be done, and by whom, and in what order, how to best use the skills of the others, how to resolve conflicts without squelching initiative. Most of the book centers on how leadership, delegation protocols, the balance between negotiation and creativity and obedience, and the skills to construct and carry out strategic planning can save lives. In fact, there’s very little shoot-‘em-up and a great deal of wow, these people have thought carefully about how to manage desperate situations. Into the Fire continues that story.

After the grand finale and rescue, Ky might think her ordeal is over. Ha! Her meticulously collected records of the sabotage go missing and her people mysteriously disappear, drugged and kept incommunicado by forces inimical to her family. The focus shifts from physical to political survival. Sabotage, betrayal, immigration raids, poisoning, and a rescue executed in typical Ky Vatta style build and sustain tension. Again I was impressed by the skillfulness with which Ky and her companions make and execute plans, whether it’s marshalling an academy full of unseasoned cadets to defend the planetary president or nab the drugged prisoners from several different locations. Ky didn’t just jump into action, as characters in many other military novels so often do. She didn’t say, “Trust me, just do what I say” to her subordinates. She conferred with those with expertise, made plans, revised them, revised them again, made backup plans and backups to the backups, made sure everyone had the information they needed to do the best, smartest job. Things went wrong, as of course they must in fiction. And that’s half the fun of the adventure.

Moon provides enough backstory for Into the Fire to stand on its own, but I recommend reading it together with Cold Welcome. And I do recommend it!

Into the Fire (Vatta's Peace, #2)
by Elizabeth Moon

Into the Fire is another step in Elizabeth Moon’s plot to leave us in suspense. This novel is the next in the installment of Vatta’s Peace. Sera Ky Vatta, has survived the plots and ploys of her enemies, crash landings, and murder attempts to find herself sequestered in the Vatta compound because of legal obstacles. A new law has caused a problem of phenomenal legal conflux. The people who are plotting against the Vatta family and attempting to hide their secrets of Slotter Key’s Miksland island have done many things to put obstacles in the way of their freedom. The mounting scope of the legal problems, and direct assaults on the family seem insurmountable, added to the mix is a plot to hide all the transgressions that happened on Miksland. Sera Rector Grace Vatta, has been poisoned, and her secret file released. Ky Vatta has been sequestered in the family compound that has been assaulted, and attacked more than once, she faces deportation and loss of her citizenship. Raf, and Teague have been labeled criminals for expired visas. Those troops that survived the crash and isolation on Miksland have been kidnapped, drugged and labeled exposed to toxic exposure and illness. Sera Stella Vatta, has been assaulted, her citizenship questioned, and has many legal problems that the Vatta family is not prepared for. The solution of these problems is the building suspense of the book, causing the reader to be addicted to resolution of the plot.

Elizabeth Moon did it again in her 2nd book in the Vatta’s Peace series. She once again delivered the goods and created another book that kept me glued to the pages far past my bedtime! In Line of Fire, Ky Vatta once again proves why she’s such a kick ass heroine in this sci-fi military space opera!

I’ve been reading Elizabeth Moon’s books since the 90’s when I discovered the Serrano series. I apparently have a love for military sci-fi set in space and/or other planets.

In Line of Fire, Ky discovers that the rest of the survivors of the shipwreck from Cold Welcome (1st book of Vatta’s Peace) are being held prisoner. With the aid of her fiancé Rafe, her cousin Stella, and her Great Aunt Grace, Ky does anything and everything to plan to rescue her fellow survivors. And who was responsible and why?

I thoroughly enjoyed this book (and series) and I hope there’s another waiting in the wings! Everything seems to be tied up pretty neatly by the end so I’m crossing my fingers that Ky and her family are needed again to save the day.

*Thank you to NetGalley and Del Rey for an advance copy!*

Two things to be noted immediately: 1) this is the second book in the Vatta Peace series, which follows the Vatta War series (with about a 5 year chronological gap between the last book in War, and first in Peace) – and yes, at the very least, book one in the Peace series needs to be read before reading this book here, and, preferably the War series; 2) only the action that started to build up near mid-point, well, more around 70% plus, kept this book from receiving a lower rating than it did.

Another thing to be noted slightly less immediately: people’s personalities change over time, that’s reasonable and expected, and several characters in this specific book showed personality changes from the prior series. One, though, seemed to have changed more than time would allow. To explain what I mean would be too spoiler-y; I’ll attempt to give a hint without spoiling stuff – there’s a scene during which Stella Vetta very reluctantly puts on body armor, she’s quite prissy about it and thinks it’s stupid to do so, then is all panic-y and oddly confused about guns (momentarily) – the problem? You know the first time Stella was meet? It probably wasn’t then, but the first time Stella and Rafe shared a scene together in this multiple series thing had Stella wearing body armor and being quite masterful with a gun and showing a weird lack of panic in a dangerous situation.

Right, so, after all these ‘immediately’s are out of the way, what can I say about the book? *thinks*

I do not wish to give a recap of the book or anything like that, especially as this book is the second book in one series, and the . . . 8th, I think, in the extended Vatta series (combining War and Peace). So I won’t.

There are books that start strong, edge of the seat type stuff, kind of fumble around in the middle, then either have a great ending or stumble trying to find an ending. This book? Started slowly, and was somewhat tough to get into. Middle was frustrating legal and political stuff; while the end (well before the end, the end of the middle) turned up the action (which literally just means that Ky finally left the house she was in, that kind of action), and built up to an exciting near climax. Then we, the readers, had to get to Rafe and Ky stuff to close off the book. So I guess the book ended somewhat annoyingly there as well (okay, I never liked the Rafe & Ky stuff at any point in this multiple series situation and so that probably helps increase my negative feelings about this book here).

So long and short: once I got past a certain odd reluctance to dive into this book brought on by how the prior book ended (there was a glimpse of how the series might turn from there, an exploration, adventure type of glimpse, which was immediately shut down by weird legal and political stuff – picked up by the beginning of this book here), the book turned out decent, then got quite interesting and even, pardon the phrase, ‘not-put-down-able’.

Rating: 3.68

February 5 2018

Just when Admiral Kylara Vatta thinks that she is home free everything falls apart. There are enough problems in Into the Fire to fuel the plot for several books. It was interesting to see how each of the characters reacted to the danger they find themselves in. Of course Ky does seem to win in the end but not until several of the key characters are almost killed. There is one characters who finally comes into her own leaving Ky feeling very puzzled by her reaction to events. A interesting read filled with danger and tension. Understanding the backstory and the world building worked best if book one in the Vatta's Peace series was read first. Into the Fire continues the interesting plot started in book one.

I received a free copy of the book in return for an honest review.

During what should be a peaceful, relaxing vacation after her ordeal on Miksland, Ky discovers that things aren't going as smoothly as expected. First, her accounts are frozen as a result of the death of her SDF aide. Then, she is accused of murder—with all of the evidence used to absolve her missing. And finally, three of her Miksland survivors drop into her garden—drugged, bald and abused—to tell her that all of the survivors have been held hostage by a mysterious faction within the military. It's a race against time for Ky and friends to free her former subordinates, all while her family's enemies work against her.

Wow. Wow. Wow! This book is incredible and amazing and goodness there are few other words I can used to describe it. It starts off almost painfully slow, with much talk of planning and plotting (which is, tbh, very realistic of any military endeavor), but when the action starts it does. not. stop.

THIS is superior military science fiction.

I received this ARC from NetGalley for an honest review.

I received this book through the publisher via Netgalley.

This second book in the Vatta's Peace duology builds on the original Vatta space opera series, much in the way that Moon recently expanded her Paks books. While <i>Into the Fire</i> is ultimately satisfying, I didn't enjoy it quite as much as the original books or the preceding one in the new set. That said, it's still a strong, enjoyable sci-fi read.

In <i>Cold Welcome</i>, Ky Vatta experiences a brutal return to her homeworld. Her shuttle is sabotaged, the officers poisoned, and Ky must keep the remaining crew alive at sea and on a barren continent at the edge of winter. They soon find the continent isn't so barren, but hosts a hidden military base. Clues point toward a growing rebellion within the military and broader government. At the end of the book, everyone is rescued after months of struggle. All's well, right?

Wrong. Ky finds herself embroiled in more intrigues. Her legal status is challenged and she becomes a captive in a family home. Even worse, she discovers the people who survived the ordeal with her haven't been returned to their families, but are locked up and drugged, as a faction proclaims they have a deadly contagion. Meanwhile, Ky's family is under repeated attack both physically and bureaucratically.

The first half of the book was more of a struggle for me, as Ky and many other characters were couldn't leave the house. Mind you, there was still tension, but it was more along the lines of a legal thriller with heavy sci-fi elements than the space opera/derring-do I love about the Vatta books. Once the immigration debacle is worked through, the real action of the book began and it became a faster read. The end has quite a few big surprises--which I won't reveal--but I will say that the book circles around to the very beginning of Ky Vatta's adventures in a wonderful way. She ends up where she belongs.

Second book in the Vatta's Peace duology, following the Vatta's War series. Kylara Vatta has finally returned to her family home on the mainland a few months after being rescued from the mysterious icy continent. She soon faces new legal troubles: Immigration wants to detain her based on a new law, and she is being charged with murder in two cases. Trapped in the house because she will be summarily arrested if she leaves, she learns to her horror that the military who had crashed with her are being held captive and abused under the guise of quarantine and treatment for a nonexistent disease. Her family comes under renewed attack as well, and it becomes apparent that civil war is being fomented. Scattered and beleagured allies must find each other and work together if Slotter's Key is to be saved and peace restored.

A satisfying ending.

I would like to think that reading the first book of this series would give a better insight into the universe of Admiral Ky Vatta. Ky spends all of the first half of 'Into the Fire' secluded in her cousins home fending of legal and illegal attempts at eliminating her as a factor in society. This story takes place after the survival episode on the arctic island. Most unusual event is Ky's sudden elevation to command the Academy. Not enough was said to indicate how important the Academy was to the military or the government.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing - Del Rey for the digital galley of this novel.

Woo-hoo! Five stars because this book was just so much fun to read. If you like space opera, this will probably be the book for you. Second in the Vatta's Peace series - after Cold Welcome - this one takes up right where that one left off except now Ky and Rafe have had a little bit of downtime from the startling events around Ky being stranded on a supposedly uninhabited continent for six months. She and Rafe are having to make alternate plans for their future because their bank accounts have been frozen. That's pretty bad, but now the bad guys have managed to bring their citizen status to the attention of the Immigration officials and they can't even leave Stella Vatta's house without risking arrest. On top of those problems Ky discovers that the military personnel stranded with her were not sent home on leave; the others are being held in appalling conditions with their survival hanging by a thread. Those are Ky's people, naturally she has to rescue them.

It is entirely possible to consider this a standalone novel, but I think you would enjoy it even more if you read Cold Comfort first. I also think I may have some sad/bad news for readers who like this series. Judging by the fact that every single loose end was tied up with a bow on it at the close of this book, plus the main characters making statements about "Vatta's Peace" as if it is an accomplished thing, this might be the last of this series. The door is always open for more, but this sure does feel *done*. I hope not. For me, this series isn't Elizabeth Moon's best work, but that's just my personal notion and it sure is enjoyable and fun to read. Here's a thought: the character of Stella Vatta made great strides in her personal growth during this book so how about a series featuring Stella? Or Grace? Or the twins?

After 5 books of war, Ky Vatta now has a second book of peace, even if peace isn't all that peaceful. Long ago in book one, Trading in Danger, we met spunky Ky Vatta, the next generation of the Vatta transport and trading fortune. Ky had elected to not follow the family business, but to go to her planet's military academy, and just before graduating with honors she gets thrown out because she tried to help the wrong person. From there she went on to a brief trading career, and a longer military conquest, leaving that service at the rank of Admiral and hero of a war. In the last book, Cold Welcome, Ky came back to her home world only to get captured by enemies of her family and held prisoner in a secret facility for months until she managed to escape. That should have been the end of it, and she should now be relaxing with a small fortune in back pay with her fiancée Rafe, and wondering what to do with the rest of her life.
Not so fast. Into the Fire finds Ky hiding out in her cousin's house with her funds tied up by the courts, possible murder charges for the people she killed in her escape, and her citizenship revoked for being off planet too long. Her fiancée has been deemed an illegal alien, and the soldiers she escaped with have disappeared into the military's medical system without a trace.
Ky may have escaped from her captors, but clearly the conspiracy goes deeper than she could have imagined.
Political intrigue leads to numerous assassination attempts as Ky and her friends try to unravel the extent of the conspiracy and rescue the missing soldiers before they''re erased along with any other evidence of wrongdoing. The delightful twist tat the end is seeing Ky wind up where she started, back at the academy trying to help people, but this time she's fighting to save the institution that cast her out.
It's engaging, but readers of Vatta's War and other Elizabeth Moon titles hardly need to be told that. This isn't the place to start, but it may be the place to finish Ky's story, at least as the main player.

I'll have a review of Into the Fire on SFRevu in the Feb 18 issue.