And Ky appointed herself another task: to build a multisystem force to oppose the mysterious Gammis Turek and his ruthless pirates, who have overrun star systems and devastated interstellar trade and communications. Two spaceships have joined Ky, to form a nascent fleet. But few members of their crews have military experience. Even if they did, the three ships are dangerously short of missiles and the money to buy them. And Ky's ship isn't a warship, except through dangerous adaptations that, sooner or later, will cause its self-destruction. But before that happens, her tiny fleet could be wiped out.

Yet Ky may have found allies. One is the wealthy and flamboyant young Teddy Ransome, who leads his own private pirate-hunting navy. But Ransome is so foolhardy that he could prove more dangerous to her fleet than the pirates. Another ally is the remittance man Rafael Dunbarger, who is actually a deep-cover operative working for his father, the CEO of a powerful and deep-pocketed corporation, ISC. Then Dunbarger discovers his family is missing and ISC has experienced a takeover of an especially hostile sort. Now the ISC corporate fleet, a mercenary space force, and the interstellar pirates are all converging on Ky Vatta's slightly expanded but still overwhelmingly outnumbered fleet. ...

One of scifi's best military space series

The Serrano Legacy showed that Nebula Award winner Elizabeth Moon was a military SF writer to reckon with. Her more recent Vatta's War series, a skillful blend of military SF with hard SF, the family saga and space opera, confirms Moon's place with Lois McMaster Bujold and David Weber in the top tier of turn-of-the-millennium military SF writers.

Command Decision, the fourth Vatta's War novel (following Trading in Danger, Marque and Reprisal and Engaging the Enemy), interweaves four subplots. The first follows protagonist Kylara Vatta as she builds her anti-pirate fleet. The second follows operative Rafe Dunbarger as he seeks his kidnapped family and untangles corporate intrigue. In the third subplot, Ky's Aunt Grace becomes Rector of Security in a government complicit in the near-total destruction of the Vatta family. The final subplot follows cousin Stella's inventive efforts to revive the Vatta family's shattered trading business.

Though Command Decision doesn't have the breakneck pacing of the previous volumes, the frequent switches among the four treachery- and subterfuge-laden subplots keep readers eagerly turning the pages. However, the subplots are not all equally compelling. The narrative slows whenever operative Rafe Dunbarger changes disguises or pretends interest in baking equipment; fortunately, Rafe's undercover phase gives way to rescue efforts and boardroom battles. The novel is also slowed by a few corporate necessities, like new Vatta CEO Stella's brush with patent law. Grace Vatta's political maneuverings are more consistently absorbing. But the fastest-paced and most exciting subplot concerns Ky Vatta's action-packed struggles with duplicitous traders and hostile space fleets. And, while it's clear that Command Decision isn't the last book of Vatta's War, the novel rousingly resolves its storyline in a multisided space battle.