The Vatta clan is an interstellar shipping dynasty, and one of the most prestigious families in the galaxy. But Kylara Vatta disregards family tradition and the desires of her powerful parents to attend Slotter Key Naval Academy, seeking to become an officer. When another cadet's treachery gets Ky booted from the academy, she braces for a menial job in Vatta Enterprises. Instead, Ky finds herself appointed captain of a company starship, the Glennys Jones.

Ky's mission is to bring the old starship to the planet Lastway, where she will be scrapped. Ky knows the Glennys is well built, with years of service still in her; Ky could save the ship if she could just find a way to pay for needed repairs. Of course, the repairs would be expensive, and would mean disobeying orders. Anyway, she's a new captain, and the youngest person on her ship. Repair is just a fantasy.

Then chance provides the opportunity to repair the Glennys: If Ky accepts a contract with the colony world Belinta and reroutes to fetch machinery from Secundus, she may earn enough to save the ship. It's a risky gamble, but Ky believes she can pull it off.

Her stardrive engine fails on the jump to Secundus, a star system on the brink of war. She can't purchase a new engine, so she can't leave the system—and can't escape the mercenary warships that have just arrived in the system. When the mercenaries board the Glennys, a crew member counterattacks. And Capt. Kylara Vatta is caught in the crossfire.

A new series about a tough female soldier

As Lois McMaster Bujold and David Weber were garnering attention and acclaim for military SF in the 1990s, Elizabeth Moon was quietly creating or co-creating some of the most believable soldiers and most interesting universes to grace SF and fantasy.

An ex-Marine, Moon brought a gritty new realism to high fantasy with her debut novel, Sheepfarmer's Daughter, and its sequels, Divided Allegiance and Oath of Gold, which relate how the peasant woman Paksenarrion becomes not only a mercenary but the greatest paladin of her world. With Anne McCaffrey, Moon co-authored Sassinak and Generation Warriors, the first and third books of the Planet Pirates trilogy, skillfully blending military SF, hard SF and space opera as the tough orphan girl Sassinak becomes a space-fleet admiral. Then Moon brought her unique vision to family and galactic politics in the Serrano Legacy, which follows the exploits of Cmdr. Heris Serrano and once-disgraced officer Esmay Suiza.

With Trading in Danger, Moon begins a new series about an honorable woman soldier, born into a powerful family and forced out of the military ... details that may sound perhaps too familiar to readers of Moon's previous SF novels. However, Trading in Danger has more than enough originality and intelligence to please Moon's fans and win new devotees. Still, readers may wonder whether Moon has failed to achieved Bujold- or Weber-level best-sellerdom because she hasn't focused most of her energy on a single military-SF series.

Though Trading in Danger will undoubtedly be compared to Bujold's Miles Vorkosigan saga and Weber's Honor Harrington series, the most accurate comparison may well be to the young-adult novels of Robert A. Heinlein. Trading in Danger has a libertarian slant, a compelling plot, an emphasis on military virtue and personal honor and a competent and sympathetic young hero. Trading in Danger is a superior novel, and if there is any justice it will bring Elizabeth Moon the praise and popularity she deserves.