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Title | Valor's Choice
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Author | Tanya Huff
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Cover Art | Paul Youll
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Publisher | Daw Books - 2006
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First Printing | 2000
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Title | The Better Part of Valor
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Author | Tanya Huff
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Cover Art | Paul Youll
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Publisher | Daw Books 2006
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First Printing | 2002
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Title | The Heart of Valor
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Author | Tanya Huff
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Cover Art | Paul Youll
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Publisher | Daw Books 2008
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First Printing | 2007
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Title | Valor's Trial
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Author | Tanya Huff
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Cover Art | Paul Youll
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Publisher | Daw Books 2009
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First Printing | 2008
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Title | The Truth of Valor
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Author | Tanya Huff
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Cover Art | Paul Youll
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Publisher | Daw Books 2011
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First Printing | 2010
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Category | Military SF
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Warnings | Sexual inuendo, bloody battles, swearing
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Main Characters | Staff Sergeant Torin Kerr, Craig Ryder, Jarret, Morris, Presit a Tur durValintrisy, Ressk, Werst, Mashonna, Alamber and a host of others
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Main Elements | Aliens
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Website | Tanya Huff Blog
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 Valor's Choice
Staff Sergeant Torin Kerr was a battle-hardened professional. So when she and her platoon were yanked from a well-deserved leave for what was supposed to be "easy" duty as the honour guard for a diplomatic mission to the non-Confederation world of the Silsviss, she was ready for anything. Sure, there'd been rumours of the Others - the sworn enemies of the Confederation - being spotted in this sector of space. But there were always rumours. The key thing was to recruit the Silsviss into the Confederation before the Others attacked or claimed these lizardlike warriors for their side. And everything seemed to be going perfectly. Maybe too perfectly...
The Better Part of Valor
Never tell a two-star general what you really think of him...That was the mistake Staff Sergeant Torin Kerr had made with General Morris. And Torin's reward - or punishment - was to be separated from her platoon and sent off on what might prove an extremely perilous assignment. She was commandeered to protect a scientific expedition to a newly discovered and seemingly derelict spaceship of truly epic proportions. Only time would tell whether the ship was what it appeared to be, or a trap created by the Others - or the work of an unknown alien race with an agenda that could prove all too hostile to other life-forms...
The Heart of Valor
Gunnery Sergeant Torin Kerr was a Confederation Marine's marine. She'd survived more deadly encounters - and kept more of her officers and enlisteds alive - than anyone in the Corps, and she was determined to keep that record intact. But since her last mission she'd been sidelined into endless briefings and debriefings with no end in sight. So, of course, she'd jumped at the chance to go to Crucible - the Marine Corps training planet - as temporary aide to Major Svensson. The major had been reduced to little more than a brain and spinal cord in his last combat, and he and his doctor were anxious to field test his newly re-grown body.
It should have been an easy twenty-day run. After all, Crucible was only set up to simulate battle situations so recruits could be trained safely. But they were barely on-planet when someone started blasting the training scenarious to smithereens. And suddenly Kerr found herself not only responsible for the major and his doctor, but caught in a desperate fight to keep a platoon of Marine recruits alive until someone discovered what was happening on Crucible...
Valor's Trial
After surviving the perils of Crucible - the Marine Corps planet where a routine training assignment had taken a deadly twist - Gunnery Sergeant Torin Kerr returned to Ventris Station just in time to link up with her old platoon and head out to a new war zone, an area of space where the enemy know as the Others appeared to be building up its forces for a preemptive strike.
Sent to pull back troops who'd moved up to an indefensible position, Torin was caught in the heaviest fighting just as a devastating air strike reduce the whole area to slag. The Corps concluded that she was dead. But despite irrefutable evidence neither Torin's father nor salvager Craig Ryder agreed.
And the truth was that Torin had survived. She woke to discover that she was trapped in a series of underground caves that appeared to be an enemy-run POW camp. But everyone knew that the Others never took prisoners - or did they? Could Gunnery Sergeant Torin Kerr escape this prison that shouldn't even exist, taking as many Marines as possible with her? Though she was determined to get herself and her Marines back to the Confederation, Torin had no idea how crucial her attempt could prove not only to her own well-being but to the course of the entire war.
The Truth of Valor
Gunnery Sergeant Torin Kerr was the very model of a Confederation Marine. She'd survived more deadly encounters than anyone in the Corps. No one who'd ever served with her could imagine her walking away from the Corps. But that was before Torin had learned the truth about the war the Confederation was fighting...before she'd been declared dead and had spent time in a prison that shouldn't exist...
It was Salvage Operator Craig Ryder who had refused to believe Torin was dead. Craig found and rescused Torin. And so, when her mission was complete, Torin resigned from the Marines to start a new life with Craig aboard his tiny salvage ship, the Promise.
But civilian life was a lot rougher than Torin had imagined. The salvage operators were losing cargo and lives to pirates. Because salvage operators were an independent lot unwilling to turn to the OutSector Wardens for help, no one in authority seemed to take this ever-increasing threat seriously.
Then, on their first real run together, pirates attack the Promise, kidnapping Craig and leaving Torin to die. However, leaving former Gunnery Sergeant Torin Kerr behind to die was never a good strategy. Against all odd, Torin survived, and certain - despite no evidence to prove her correct - that Craig was still alive she decided to mount a rescue mission. When Craig's salvager friends refused to join her, Torin had no choice but to call in the Marines - some very special Marines. Then she discovered why the pirates had been trying to kidnap salvagers. And suddenly Torin's mission expanded from saving Craig to stopping the pirates from changing the balance of power of known space...
The basis of this series is as follows. The Confederation, an alliance of advanced, peaceful, alien races is attacked by the Others. Now, in a diplomatic manner, they suggest to the Others, seeing as how space is so large and there are plenty of planets for everyone, that the Others might like to invade in another direction and leave them alone. When the diplomats returned in pieces, the Confederation realized they had a problem. Centuries of peaceful existence had left them helpless against an aggressive race, so they needed to ally themselves with another race that still knew how to blow their enemies to pieces. Of course, they found us. :o)
They also found the di'Taykan. A race of elf-like (Lord of the Rings elves, mind you, not the little guys with curly shoes) aliens with pastel coloured hair. Oh, and they emit pheromones that cause humans, and some of the other races, to be irresistibly attracted to them. The di'Taykan don't mind, being one of the most "indisciminately enthusiastic life-forms in the Galaxy." Of course this leads to some "interesting" situations along the way.
They also found the Krai, an aboreal species, short and hairless, that can eat pretty much anything and everything. If the di'Taykan are elves, then these guys are the trolls. They find humans particularly tasty, but they manage to refrain from eating their fellow marines.
If this bizarre mix isn't enough to get you interested I can tell you what I thought of the two first books. I loved them. I laughed at Torin's sharp commentary, and the di'Taykan's inability to say a sentences without it being a suggestion to find a secluded corner in which to get to "know" you better. There were sad moments, when favorite characters did not survive the battles into which they were thrown. One has to remember this is a war, and that is what happens in a war, but it is still hard to accept.
Huff's father was in the Korean war, and she has obviously done a lot of research into what a Staff Sergeant and her marines might expect experience in the field. This story might be fantasy, but it gives you insight into the life of a real soldier on the front lines. And a great deal of respect for those who sacrifice their lives for us.
I can't wait for the next book to come out in the summer of 2007.
Jan 2010
Well, took me a little longer to get back to the world of Torin Kerr than I expected, but that meant I got to read two books in a row. They were both good, and we got to learn more about the other alien races like the di'Taykan and the Krai. I like books where the authors puts some thought into her species and gives them an actual culture. In particular I like her di'Taykan, they are always good for comic relief, and I'm a little disappointed we didn't learn even more about them. In the fourth book we meet some of the Other races and they too were quite interesting, particularly the quadrupeds and their bonds with their riders.
So the third book starts off on what appears to be a completely independent storyline, but it introduces some questions about the very reasons for the war, and ties back into the previous books. Makes us question the reasons for any war. And there are losses. Is the cause of the war worth those losses? Kerr had believed that it was so, but now she begins to question the Elder races, those who started the war but find other more agressive races, like the humans, to fight it for them. No one seems to know what the war is about, do the Elders know it themselves?
The fourth book answers a lot of questions. Unfortunately I also found it very predictable. If you make one statement too often ("The Others don't take prisoners") and then put Torin Kerr on a prison planet...well, you can kind of guess what will happen next. I didn't guess everything, but it was more predictable than the other three books.
And while it is a fact of war, I found we never got a chance to get close to any character other than Torin, Craig and Presit. I was looking forward to her joining her old platoon, but she gets to talk to about three of them before being separated again.
I'm curious if there will be a fifth book. It is open ended enough that there might be, and almost should be, because there is no way Kerr will spend the rest of her life like this (no telling, you'll have to read it to find out). On the other hand there is also a kind of finality to it. The main thread ended. I suspect there won't be one, but if so it wasn't quite as satisfying an ending as it could have been. But still a fun read.
April 2012
The Truth of Valor was ok. I mean I wasn't quite sure what to expect with Torin no longer a Marine. But happily, instead of throwing a platoonful of new characters at us, we get to meet up with some from before. As I'd complained in the previous book, we never got to know most of the characters in much depth.
However, I wasn't all that impressed by the writing. Sometimes the author would even repeat herself two sentences in a row. It wasn't like we would have missed a statement about the effect of being tortuted by a di'Taykan's pheremones in the first sentence that the effect needed to be repeated in the second...word for word no less! That was just a gratuitous use of foul language. Note that I am aware that cursing is a standard form of communication in the military, and sex a standard form of communication with the Taykan, but it loses effect when overused. Don't get me wrong, the whole book wasn't like this, maybe it was just bad editing in some parts. Other di'Taykan scenes were hilarious as usual. Admittedly I found it odd to be in the presences of psychopatic di'Taykans (they always seem so happy!) but given they are one of the warring races they must have that in them.
The ending is rather promising for another novel, and I'm happy that the one new character I liked will almost certainly be reappearing, along with a few other older ones. Guess we'll see when it comes out. I'll give it a 3 out of 5, by far not my favorite series, but one I'll probably continue with. I've definitely read worse, and I'll admit, military SF is not my favorite genre.
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