As Marque and Reprisal opens, Ky is captain of a small Vatta tradeship, the Gary Tobai. The trader's life is one she never wanted, full of repetitive tasks, petty bureaucrats and red tape—everything she joined the Spaceforce to avoid. Ky's desire to pursue a more exciting career and escape civilian life is heightened by a disturbing discovery, one she is afraid to share with her family. Recently Ky was forced to kill two men, and though her actions were taken in self-defense, she has found that on some level she enjoyed the violence. Troubled by this reaction, she decides her best course of action is to join a mercenary force, putting some distance between herself and her loved ones before they learn of her bloodthirsty nature.
Ky is still pondering this dilemma when someone tries to plant a bomb on her ship. The attempted murder is just one element of a ruthless attack against Vatta holdings on several worlds ... and it changes her priorities completely. With assassins everywhere, her money and political support cut off and no clear idea whether any members of her family have survived the attack, Ky suddenly has all the mayhem she could possibly have hoped for. Now she must take her slow, unarmed tradeship into a battle for survival, answers and, hopefully, vengeance!
A license to thrill
The "marque" in the title of Moon's Marque and Reprisal refers to an old-fashioned license for privateering, a form of state-sanctioned piracy that Ky didn't even realize her home planet, Slotter's Key, was practicing. Rather than outfitting and paying for a proper navy, Slotter's Key licenses private ships to raid potential enemies on their behalf. When Ky comes into possession of such a license, it offers her a frail opportunity to recoup some of the massive losses inflicted in the attack on her home and family. Whether it is more curse than blessing, however, is deliciously unclear.
In Kylara Vatta, Moon has created another tough and complex heroine, but she doesn't stop there, throwing in a supporting duo of formidable Vatta women to help her. She also packs Gary Tobai with a variety of multitalented crew members. Outnumbered but determined to win, the Vatta crew's search for safe haven is an utterly satisfying adventure, portraying as it does a small group wrestling with a much more powerful foe. Moon is particularly deft when showing how even the best-laid plans can go awry. In her worlds, survival cannot always hang on either luck or skill, requiring instead a combination of the two. Ky sometimes prevails by boldness, sometimes by skill, sometimes by sheer chance. Being human, she sometimes also makes costly, dangerous mistakes.
Though this book is in its style and sensibility a work of military SF, Ky's position as captain of a civilian trading vessel presents innumerable difficulties, showcasing different facets of this setting than a more commonplace military adventure. The day-to-day interactions with civilian bureaucracies, the lack of government sanction for her actions—even Ky's need to pay for her own weapons herself—all present interesting challenges, carrying this narrative far from the usual cliches of the genre.
There was a time when I thought Moon would never create a better team of space heroines than Heris Serrano and Lady Celia, but Ky Vatta, her cousin Stella and Aunt Gracie are a very compelling trio. — A.M.D.
