Trading in Danger cover art

Trading in Danger

Vatta's War, Book 1

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Trading in Danger

By: Elizabeth Moon
Narrated by: Cynthia Holloway
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About this listen

 The first of the acclaimed Vatta's War books, the exciting military science fiction series that features a swashbuckling spaceship-captain heroine who mixes commerce with combat.©2004 Elizabeth Moon (P)2008 Tantor Adventure Hard Science Fiction Military Science Fiction Space Opera Fiction War

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All stars
Most relevant
I liked the concept. Moon’s typically high quality writing shines despite the poor narration, but there are a few moments where it gets too bogged down in details.

Frustrating narration

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It's a good idea, some good action scenes, but the author spends far too much time on irrelevant details. This is almost an excellent story, but it isn't. The secondary characters are poorly drawn, and the work lacks the faintest trace of humour that I like in a book.
The reading struggles to be average.
Would I spend a credit to buy the next book?
Absolutely not.

Not bad, but some parts drag.

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Story gets its points across but this is no action series.

I already know and like the author so the plot and pace of development are familiar while the general focus on suspense and “what if” may put off others looking for an action/intrigue based novel. Elizabeth Moon is far more of the Arthur c Clarke style of story where the selected cast encounter an unusual situation and act mostly professional about resolving it, with a few side-cast to throw wrenches into an otherwise stable plan of action for not unreasonable reasons.

It’s a relatively slow burn with a character very much in their formative years as a young adult with a caring family (direct and social) on her first time out in a generally safe universe.

Narrator pot on just enough voice inflection to carry characters but some of the scene descriptions didn’t help her, a decent overall performance of a tad warble at times.

The introspective moments reminded me somewhat of dune, but where the frank Herbert characters are far more concerned with long term impacts the MC here is far less self confident. It makes sense given the situation but I’d say a little too much time is spent in her head on the rationalisations, hopefully something there more to remind the viewer that this is a big change after an unexpected event rather than an ongoing feature within the series.

Plot was good enough it’s a slice of life and suspense or threat of danger story rather than a military officer novel.

The MC while written to be second guessing a lot is generally willing and able to act.
The wider cast (father excepted) remained fairly undeveloped throughout, understandable but something to be aware of.

Overall vocal performance was good though the “accents” are likely to vary in enjoyment by listener.

The prologue to a wider character story.

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I was first introduced to Elizabeth Moons' Vatta War series when I got hold of a copy of the second book in the series, purely by accident. I read it and loved it. So I decided to start reading again from the first book and I'm glad I did.

Its a brilliant story, and gives a nice believable insight into a life in space which lots of sci-fi fans love so much. The one thing I like about this story is that it doesn't try to stick with combat all the time. (I've read the second book and it does have more combat in it, but its paced and not overdone.) I must admit I do like the boring details, i.e. docking procedure, trading etc.

There has been some critisism on the narration style. Personally, I like it. Cynthia Holloway does have a heavy accent, and a reading style that can seem robotic, but its clear and easy to follow. She manages to convey the emotion and characters really well.

Definitley a good sci-fi story and I really do recommend it. !!!

A great space adventure !!

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I loved the nitty-gritty details of daily life as a new starship captain. So believable.

The narration was a constant irritant, though. What with the over-enunciation and stresses in the wrong place, it was constantly pulling me out of the story.

Good story, bad narration

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