Vatta's War is a science fiction series by American writer Elizabeth Moon, comprising five books: Trading in Danger (2003), Marque and Reprisal (2004) (Moving Target in UK and Australia), Engaging the Enemy (2006), Command Decision (2007), and Victory Conditions (2008). They have been characterized as military science fiction similar in style to the works of Lois McMaster Bujold (Vorkosigan Saga), David Weber and Walter Jon Williams (Dread Empire's Fall).[1]
The books follow the adventures of Kylara Vatta, a young member of the Vatta family, which runs the interstellar shipping corporation Vatta Enterprises. She had sought a life outside the family business by enrolling in the Slotter Key Spaceforce Academy, but she is forced to resign in her final year and assigned to captain an old trading ship for the corporation. Her military training is put to good use, however, during the crises she faces, first as a ship captain in dangerous situations, and later as the representative of a family under attack.
The first book, Trading in Danger, is narrowly focused on Ky and the local crisis in which she becomes involved. The perspective expands in the later books as connections between piracy and ansible attacks on the one hand and Vatta Enterprises and InterStellar Communications Corporation (ISC) on the other are revealed. In 2017 Cold Welcome was published. It is the first book of the new Vatta's Peace series. It also features Kylara Vatta and is set after the events of Vatta's War.
| Trading in Danger | |
| Author: | Elizabeth Moon |
| Cover Artist: |  Dave Seeley Fred Gambino |
| Country: | USA |
| Language: | English |
| Series: | Vatta's War |
| Genre: | Space opera, military science fiction |
| Publisher: | Del Rey Books Orbit Books |
| Release Date: | September 30, 2003 |
| Media Type: | Hardcover, paperback |
| Pages: | 304 (hardcover) 357 (paperback) |
| Isbn: | 0-345-44760-3 |
| Isbn Note: | (hardcover) (paperback) |
| Oclc: | 53087396 |
| Followed By: | Marque and Reprisal |
Kylara Vatta, the daughter of the CFO of Vatta Transport Ltd., a space shipping firm based out of the wealthy world of Slotter Key, is forced to resign in disgrace from the Slotter Key spaceforce academy after she is tricked by another cadet. Hoping to get her out of the limelight and make the best of her skills, her family give her the command the old, decrepit freighter Glennys Jones on its final journey to the scrapyards of Lastway. At the young Belinta colony she is told that a sorely needed shipment of agricultural machinery never arrived and a sizable payment is available to anyone who can bring the goods from the Sabine system. Determined to save the Glennys Jones from being scrapped, Ky deviates from the mission in an attempt to gain enough credit to refit the ship.
An engine malfunction strands her at Sabine until she can raise funds to replace critical parts, but the two planets in the system are sliding towards open conflict. Just as she prepares to call home to request funds, the ansibles that link Sabine to outside systems are attacked and mercenary warships from the Mackensee Military Assistance Corporation appear in the system. They board the Glennys Jones and Ky is injured when a young man who had joined her ship at Belinta tries to attack them. After recovering she agrees to host the hostages the mercenaries have taken from the other merchant vessels in the system.
Though conditions aboard ship are crowded and difficult, Ky manages to keep her passengers in line until a group of captains and senior officers mutiny and temporarily gain control of critical ship systems. Ky confronts them and kills the leading mutineers, but only at the cost of her own crewman Gary Tobai. They discover that the mutineers, who have sent the ship off-course, and sabotaged the communications system and the ship's emergency identification beacon, are connected in some way with piracy and the destruction of the ansibles. Help finally arrives with the return of the mercenaries, now co-operating fully with the InterStellar Communications ansible monopoly, and Vatta captain Josiah Furman, the bane of Ky's apprenticeship voyage years ago. He attempts to order her to scrap her ship at Sabine and come with him but she refuses. She quickly get funds for full repairs from ISC, which is grateful for her information regarding the pirates, but has to re-register the ship under a new name because of the sabotage to the identification beacon. She chooses Gary Tobai in honor of her late cargo master. The return voyage to Belinta is without incident and the agricultural equipment is delivered in fine shape.
| Marque and Reprisal | |
| Author: | Elizabeth Moon |
| Cover Artist: | Dave Seeley Fred Gambino |
| Country: | USA |
| Language: | English |
| Series: | Vatta's War |
| Genre: | Space opera, military science fiction |
| Publisher: | Del Rey Books Orbit Books |
| Release Date: | September 28, 2004 |
| Media Type: | Hardcover, paperback |
| Pages: | 336 (hardcover) 378 (paperback) |
| Isbn: | 0-345-44758-1 |
| Isbn Note: | (hardcover) (paperback) |
| Oclc: | 54685621 |
| Preceded By: | Trading in Danger |
| Followed By: | Engaging the Enemy |
This book is called Moving Target in the UK and Australia.
While on Belinta, completing the delivery of her shipment and looking for new cargo to take to Sabine, Kylara Vatta is attacked by trained assassins and an attempt is made to bomb the Gary Tobai. The Slotter Key consul provides assistance, but soon word comes that Vatta ships and facilities have been attacked on Slotter Key as well and the government is distancing itself from the corporation. Soon the Slotter Key ansible fails, leaving Ky unable to ascertain the condition of her family back home. Looking for allies, she hires Gordon Martin, a spaceforce sergeant from the Belinta consulate as cargomaster and security chief.
Arriving on Lastway, Ky faces continued attacks but manages to acquire both a personal sidearm and a defensive suite for her ship. She also receives a letter from Master Sergeant MacRobert, an instructor she had known at the Spaceforce Academy. He has sent her a letter of marque and instructions for acquiring some defensive mines to arm her ship.
Meanwhile, on Slotter Key co-ordinated attacks on the headquarters of Vatta transport and the private family compound leave most senior family members, including Ky's parents, dead. Command of the survivors falls to Gracie Lane Vatta who assigns her niece Stella Vatta Constantin to find Ky and give her the cranial implant from her CFO father Gerard Vatta which contains critical family data and codes. Stella heads for Lastway, with the implant concealed in one of Aunt Gracie's infamous fruitcakes, aboard an ISC courier. While stopped briefly at Allray, she discovers young Toby Vatta, who alone has survived an attack on the Vatta ship Ellis Fabery. While dodging assassins on Allray, Toby and Stella run across her old flame Rafael "Rafe" Madestan who agrees to partner with them for the trip to Lastway.
Upon reaching Lastway and finding Ky, they give her an update on the situation and Rafe reveals himself to be the son of ISC president Garston Dunbarger. He agrees that ISC and Vatta interests run together for the present and enters an extended partnership with Ky. She is also contacted by the Mackensee Military Assistance Corporation whose insystem personnel are running dangerously short of funds. She hires them to provide security for herself and ship as she seeks to find and protect surviving Vatta family members. In co-operation with Rafe they assassinate the corrupt local ISC agent and restore ansible functionality in the system. In order to spread the costs of hiring the mercenary force, Ky forms a convoy with three other traders and they set off for Garth-Lindheimer.
At an intermediate jump point in an uninhabited system they detect the ship Fair Kaleen which is registered to Vatta Transport and captained by family black sheep Osman Vatta. It soon becomes clear that Osman is in league with the enemies of Vatta, and Ky devises a plan to foil his attack on the Gary Tobai. She successfully uses her mines to disable the Fair Kaleen, but Osman attempts to re-enter the airlock and plant a mine of his own. Ky orders her crew to direct an EM pulse to disable it (along with critical ship systems) and kills Osman in single combat in zero-g. The mercenaries arrive in time to destroy the pirate ships that Osman has summoned and assist the Gary Tobai in the aftermath of the battle. Ky claims the Fair Kaleen both as stolen property and a prize and transfers over to it along with Martin, Rafe, and a small prize crew.
| Engaging the Enemy | |
| Author: | Elizabeth Moon |
| Cover Artist: | Dave Seeley Fred Gambino |
| Country: | USA |
| Language: | English |
| Series: | Vatta's War |
| Genre: | Space opera, military science fiction |
| Publisher: | Del Rey Books Orbit Books |
| Release Date: | March 28, 2006 |
| Media Type: | Hardcover, paperback |
| Pages: | 416 |
| Isbn: | 0-345-44756-5 |
| Isbn Note: | (hardcover) (paperback) |
| Oclc: | 61123209 |
| Preceded By: | Marque and Reprisal |
| Followed By: | Command Decision |
Arriving in the Garth–Linheimer system together with the convoy, Ky finds her title to the Fair Kaleen is in question. She refuses to submit to a legal adjudication of her rights and sets off at once for Rosvirein. Stella, left behind as captain of the Gary Tobai, is furious at Ky for putting her in a situation for which she is not trained without an adequate crew. She hires a shipmaster and pilot and follows as soon as the ship is repaired and reloaded.
On Rosvirein, Ky sells off enough of Osman's presumably stolen cargo to pay for repairs of her own ship and hire crewmen qualified to run the ship's missile and beam weapons. She also hires Hugh Pritang, a mercenary veteran with a prosthetic arm, to be her executive officer now that she has decided to use her letter of marque to justify seeking out and destroying the pirates who have attacked her family. When suspected pirate ships appear in the system, she undocks from the station to avoid being trapped in the event of an attack. The Rosvirein Peace Force orders all undocked ships to leave the system to prevent collusion with the pirates and so Ky is unable to wait for Stella.
At Sallyon, Ky's next port of call, she learns that a fleet of pirates led by one Gammis Turek has attacked Bissonet and forced the planetary government to surrender to them. She attempts to convince other ship captains, including Slotter Key privateer N. W. Argelos, that a concerted response along the lines of a true interstellar space navy is required to defend trade against the pirate threat. The Sallyon government interprets this as rabble rousing and demands that she leave the system. On her way out she passes the Gary Tobai which is inbound and informs Stella of her predicament. Stella, concerned that Ky is no longer focusing on the needs of the Vatta family in her zeal to rid the universe of piracy, is not amused at being left behind again.
In the rigidly formal Moscoe Confederation, gross discourtesy carries the death penalty. Ky delivers medical supplies to the planet Cascadia and waits for Stella to arrive, but before she does, Captain Furman appears and declares that Ky cannot be the real Kylara Vatta, whom he knows to be dead, and must be an impostor planted by Osman. The Cascadian government secures the Fair Kaleen to prevent it from leaving until Furman docks at the station and his claim can be formally adjudicated. Once Stella arrives in system, she is shocked to hear Furman's accusations, but still angry with Ky for leaving her behind and plotting a wild war rather than the rebuilding of the Vatta business empire. While she is on course for Cascadia, both she and Ky independently uncover evidence that Furman has been in secret, and illegal, cooperation with Osman for years. At the trial genetic testing of Stella, Toby, Ky, and a tissue sample from Osman reveals that Ky is not Osman's daughter (as Furman had alleged) — but that Stella is. The court concludes that there is no evidence that Ky has falsified her identity. Furman explodes in anger cursing both Ky and the court and is arrested for making mortal insults. Ky takes possession of the Katrine Lamont and manages to convince Stella that she is the one who needs to run Vatta Enterprises while Ky focuses on organizing effective resistance to the pirate threat.
Argelos arrives to tell Ky that Petrea Andreson, a Bissonet privateer, is organizing a force to attempt to retake that system. Ky, in her newly renamed Vanguard, agrees to join her. During their training, however, they are betrayed and attacked. Andreson and her ally Battersea are killed, but Ky manages to organize Argelos and Pettygrew, another Bissonet privateer, into an effective resistance, and they escape.
| Command Decision | |
| Author: | Elizabeth Moon |
| Cover Artist: | Dave Seeley Fred Gambino |
| Country: | USA |
| Language: | English |
| Series: | Vatta's War |
| Genre: | Space opera, military science fiction |
| Publisher: | Del Rey Books Orbit Books |
| Release Date: | February 27, 2007 |
| Media Type: | hardcover |
| Pages: | 400 (hardcover) 320 (paperback) |
| Isbn: | 0-345-49159-9 |
| Isbn Note: | (hardcover) (paperback) |
| Oclc: | 70408090 |
| Preceded By: | Engaging the Enemy |
| Followed By: | Victory Conditions |
After orchestrating a galaxy-wide failure of the communications network owned and maintained by the powerful ISC corporation, Turek and his marauders strike swiftly and without mercy. First they shatter Vatta Transport. Then they overrun entire star systems, growing stronger and bolder. No one is safe from the pirate fleet. But while they continue to move forward with their diabolical plan, they have made two critical mistakes.
Their first mistake was killing Kylara Vatta's family. Their second mistake was leaving her alive. Now Kylara is going to make them pay.
With a "fleet" consisting of only three ships – including her flagship, the Vanguard, a souped-up merchant cruiser – Kylara needs allies, and fast. Because even though she possesses the same coveted communication technology as the enemy, she has nowhere near their numbers or firepower.
Meanwhile, as Kylara's cousin Stella tries to bring together the shattered pieces of the family trading empire, new treachery is unfolding at ISC headquarters, where undercover agent Rafael Dunbarger, estranged son of the corporation's CEO, is trying to learn why the damaged network is not being repaired. What he discovers will send shock waves across the galaxy and crashing into Kylara's newly christened Space Defense Force (Third fleet) at the worst possible moment.
| Victory Conditions | |
| Author: | Elizabeth Moon |
| Cover Artist: | Dave Seeley Fred Gambino |
| Country: | USA |
| Language: | English |
| Series: | Vatta's War |
| Genre: | Space opera, military science fiction |
| Publisher: | Del Rey Books Orbit Books |
| Release Date: | February 19, 2008 |
| Media Type: | hardcover |
| Pages: | 384 (hardcover) |
| Isbn: | 0-345-49161-0 |
| Isbn Note: | (hardcover) |
| Oclc: | 182631485 |
| Preceded By: | Command Decision |
Kylara now has a fleet of significant size, with commitments of additional forces. Stella, on Cascadia, discovers that her ward Toby has become friends with a girl whose father is an agent of Gammis Turek. Realizing that Turek must have more ships to take and hold more systems, Kylara and her team eventually discover that someone has ordered a great many large warships from the shipyards at Moray. This buyer has made progress payments, but Kylara suspects that he intends to steal the ships and rushes to organize her fleet into something that can meet his at Moray. She partially succeeds, denying the pirate lord much of his fleet, but her own flagship Vanguard strikes a minefield and explodes. Her cousins and friends believe her dead, a fiction she fosters in hopes of catching Turek off guard during a future engagement. Rafael Dunbarger continues to purge ISC of elements in league with Turek or merely incompetent, eventually discovering that this rot reaches into the government of Nexus. His fleet in disrepair due to the machinations of Lewis Parmina, Rafe struggles to salvage enough fighting ships and men to assist in the defense of Nexus. He discovers that his sister, largely recovered from her mistreatment at the hands of Parmina's henchmen, has the strength and wits to assist him in running ISC. He'll need that help, because Turek and his fleet have set their sights on Nexus. If they can conquer it, they will control all galactic communications save for a handful of individuals with semi-portable ansible units. Ultimately, Kylara's new Space Defense Fleet combines with elements of the ISC fleet, Slotter Key Spaceforce, Moscoe Confederation and ships of the Mackensee Military Assistance Corporation in a huge battle for control of Nexus. There are many losses, but ultimately Kylara confronts a desperate Gammis Turek as he sends his doomed flagship in a suicide run towards Nexus. She manages to break the pirate fleet and destroy the pirate leader, but the actions of Turek have forever changed certain aspects of galactic commerce and interplanetary relations. Rafe and Ky have the chance to pursue their strong mutual attraction. They celebrate victory by having Rafe 'peel a lime' for her (and prepare to show what he can do with a pear).
Book covers on this page are from the publisher Del Rey. Those from the publisher Orbit have ships on the cover.