Engaging the Enemy by Elizabeth Moon

Engaging the Enemy by Elizabeth Moon

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


1) I'm doing a reread of the series, shouldn't I be able to think of 'stuff' to slide into these review boxes after I'm done? Heck, I've been writing reviews for almost everything for at least 1 or 3 years now, even if it's a little as 'I loathe Jonathan' (Don't recall if that's the character's name, but that's the entirety of a review I wrote this year). But alas, not having as much luck doing reviews recently. I keep taking days, weeks to get around to them.

2) I'm in the middle of the last book in this series (yes Ky returns in another series, but that's another series; and yes, literally in the middle, well, okay, something like 51 or 54% into book 5), so any review here will be tougher to write. Though being there I can say: I liked the earlier books better than the later. And I think that's almost entirely due to the many many characters who have POV's throughout the series. Many of whom I don't really care about (like, say, Rafe, Toby, occasionally Stella - though she grew on me; not 'basically everyone but Ky', but many of the POV characters and story arc's aren't that fun for me to read).

I say 'almost entirely' but I'm not certain how much of another reason fits in that 'the rest of the reason', or if I'm hiding the size of that reason's importance to me. For, you see, people were constantly lecturing Ky on being a young woman and, as 'everyone knows' young women are susceptible to pretty faces, and Ky kept taking it like an asexual who thinks everyone's dumb to keep lecturing her like this - for assuming what should not be assumed. That's the early part of the series, of course, not the later (well, I'm in book 5 - people are still assuming things about 'young women' and 'pretty pretty boys'). In the beginning Ky had Hal, a fellow cadet, and they'd exchanged class rings - but the reader never saw the two together, and later learned that - while there was 'something there', and while Ky thought she loved Hal, it had never advanced to fucking (or included it, depending on feelings about fucking and how much of an emotional connection is needed before fucking can occur, I'm not referring here using the word for profanity purposes, I'm literally talking about . . . sexual activities, but fucking is shorter that using two words). Men came, men went, Ky showed no attraction to any, despite people lecturing her (onto her ship, near her, etc., I don't mean into and out of her bedroom). In the middle of the series, this book here, Ky actually literally drooled over a gorgeous woman who boarded her ship - but alas, no, this isn't, way down in book three, the start of a romance; or lesbian fiction. (view spoiler)[that's one of the problems with the series - by book five Ky's occasionally, when she is actually in control of the POV, lusting after Rafe - who is also lusting after her; it's a bloody romance trope of 'but I can't have her/him because . . . 'our families' (people funding Ky's fleet; Rafe's literal family, his company he works for, and his government) would hate us if we got together . . . course that came up like three times in book 5, it's not actually a major plotline, yet, though it certain removes asexual from the mix (she still might be demisexual), though still leaving the possibility of being biromantic (hey, she did drool over that gorgeous woman in this book three here) (hide spoiler)]

3) And now I’m facing the problem of currently being in the middle of book 5 while trying to write a review for book 3. Hmms.

As the book description notes . . . bah, forget that.

Right, Ky, Stella and Toby had been flying together. Somewhere along the way they acquire another ship and Stella goes off on it while Ky & Toby fly off on a larger ship. Book three has all three land on the same overly and aggressively polite star system. Cascadia or something like that. Hmm, that . . . doesn’t look right. Darn, name of system not in book description (at least the book description for this edition). I’ll call it ‘Tree-lover system’. Right, so, while the three Vatta’s had been separated, they all now meet again in ‘Tree-Lover system’. But there’s a problem – Ky has the ship she acquired along the way and tries to do business in the system. But her ‘old friend’, that Vatta captain who was captain on Ky’s apprenticeship year, turns up. And claims . . . that Ky is an imposter – the real Ky had died. HE KNOWS! *angry shaking fist* It becomes a court battle. Is Ky an imposter, or not? Part of the problem is that, while there is DNA evidence in system, the court can’t use it because of legal rules (it’s with the bank the Vatta’s use, for identification – and that bank agrees that Ky is a Vatta and biologically closely related to the DNA sample on hand (Jo Vatta, Stella’s sister).

So, a court case occupies part of this book. And questions of identity. And a very brief appearance (because of the question of identity) of a system Monitor (to keep Ky’s ship ‘locked down’ from leaving) who is, apparently in Ky’s words, super gorgeous woman. Oh, and ‘Tree-Lover system’ also wants the Vatta dog. For reasons.

Of the five books, or, at least, the 4 and a half I’ve read so far, book three turned out to be my favorite of the bunch. Not sure how that happened, but it did.

Right, so . . .

Rating: 4.75

December 5 2017



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