Victory Conditions by Elizabeth Moon

Victory Conditions by Elizabeth Moon

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I rather dislike Rafe.

December 5 2017

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I rarely reread - much more so recently, but still I rarely reread. So the number of series I've reread, completely, can be counted on one hand. There's this series here - the Vatta War one (yes, it continues in Vatta Peace, but I've never read that one). Then, hmms, Jae's Hollywood series. Oh, heh, that's it. Those two. I came really close to rereading Jae's Shape-shifter series, I've read all but the last book and last two short stories, but . . . my energy ran out I guess. So - I reread every book in this series here and Jae's Hollywood series.

'Vatta's War' had never been my favorite series by Elizabeth Moon, that'd probably be either the Deed of Parksenarrion or Paladin's Legacy series. Both fantasy, and, chronologically, Deed is second and Paladin's is third in the same fantasy universe. I've never read the first series in that universe, The Legacy of Gird - not exactly sure why though Parksenarrion isn't in the first series, and does pop up on occasion in the third series (plus, the story of Gird is basically told over the course of the other two series). So it is easy for me to say that I've always liked Moon more as a Fantasy writer than a Science Fiction writer, though I also did like The Serrano Legacy series.

One of the things I had forgotten before the reread was the part where the series does not actually follow Ky Vatta. Though I probably should have realized/remembered that, since that’s something Moon likes doing in her series – follow a bunch of characters, not just one. Still, I forgot. Most of the books in the series do include significant sections devoted to Ky’s point of view, but there are books, and sections of books, that are almost exclusively devoted to other characters – like, if I recall correctly, both book 4 and 5 have significant time spent with Rafe and his family/business issues, with book 5 having a large chunk also devoted to Toby and his ‘stuff’. There’s still significant Ky action in book 5, but, by the end of the series, I kind of forgotten the character amongst all the others. Though I did see and recognize the character growth curve.

So, what did happen in book five? Plotline 1: Toby, the youngster (13? 15?) from prior books, does stuff on the space station he lives on, like go to school, invent stuff, date a girl his own age, have to deal with the parents of that girl, be kidnapped, etc.

Plotline 2: Rafe continues reluctantly guiding his family and business affairs. Though in terms of family, mostly just his sister (who he is kind of condescending to until he realizes she’s not ‘just’ his young sister but an actual individual who also happens to be an adult). The business part involves him dealing with being ‘temp’/’acting’ CEO for his ill father’s company. Oh, and he is also still lusting after Ky.

Plotline 3: Ky continues work on creating a fleet to defeat the ‘pirates’. Reminds me – there’s a ton of talk about ‘traitor’s’ that seemed very misplaced. How exactly were all these people traitors? Sure, some of them are, but just because someone is your enemy doesn’t magically make them into ‘traitors’. Sorry, that came up a lot, that word, though more in other people’s sections than Ky’s. Where was I? Oh, right, Ky continues creating fleet, gets into battles, matures, continues being condescended to because of her age and gender (‘of course she’s going to be distracted by pretty pretty boys!!!’ bah).

Plotline 4: Aunt Grace & her boy toy McRoberts (or was that MacRoberts?) doing stuff important related to the defense of Ky’s home system (what was that again, Slotter Key or something like that?).

Right, so, that’s the series. Relatively interesting and well written. Certain melodramatic parts (like the villain literally poses as a kind of soap opera villain, though there are no sections devoted to him and it is explained why he is acting that way – purposefully, so, okay).

I liked the books well enough. Though my purpose was to set myself up to read book 1 of the follow-up series before book 2 appears shortly. But I somewhat failed since I’m kind of burned out now on Vatta issues. *shrugs* Happens.

Rating: something around 3.75, since that’s the shelf I put it on on the 5th of December.

December 7 2017



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