Rating: 
Summary: Non-coms Rule!
Review: A lively, engaging, and extremely readable book that brings a refreshing new viewpoint to military sf - the protagonist is not an officer! Instead, we see the troops and their struggles through the eyes of the person most intimately responsible for them and for their officers - the staff sergeant. I grew up an airforce brat and this story was a delightful breath of fresh air! Bravo, Tanya. Grunts from all eras salute you!
Rating: 
Summary: OldSciFiDog
Review: First of all I would give this book 5 stars, if I believed in rating anything to a max. This was the 1st book I have read of Ms Huff's (I have waited till having read #2) and would rate her talent up with my masters (L. Niven, J. Pournelle, F. Herbert, I. Asimov, R. Heinlein ... etc) and new finds M. Stackpole and T. Zahn. Which is a good thing because some of these folks no longer write.
Her character develement is superb and along with the plot, is consistent (i.e., she does not use gimmicks to get characters or the plot out of a jam). The characters, for me were believable and the story moves along.
I loved the main character who was the Staff Sergeant, a no none sense person who knew that she ran her company. From people I have known in the services, an army is only as good as it's sergeants. I also appreciated Tayna, sharing with us that her father made "chief" twice. I must also add that I enjoyed all the characters (even the enemy).
She has the added ability to develope characters while something intersting is going on. While this is not necessary with me (I have read Michner), I appreciate this kind of cleverness in an auther.
Rating: 
Summary: Good, standard-fare military SF, with a flawed ending
Review: Huff draws a future where immature races like the Humans fight to protect the civilization of older, less aggressive races. Surprisingly well-integrated, a multi-species platoon faces a ceremonial duty that can explode into war.A set of likable, although slightly cartoonish characters, move the plot at a breakneck pace. The emotions, despite the horror and the passion of combat, are somewhat superficial, and the intelligent protagonist is competent enough to avoid much character development. This is an enjoyable book, although the ending, well-foreshadowed as it was, left this reader unsatisfied.
Rating:
Summary: Undeveloped Potential
Review: I am a big fan of Tanya Huff, and one of her best qualities is exploration of new settings for her stories. She never lingers overlong in an already developed world unlike some other writers. I was very excited to see a new book set in a new world and see her trying her hand at science fiction. While I found the book adequate, it never really engaged me completely and I felt cheated by the ending. The writing moves you right along, but the plot was weak. It felt unfinished, as if this was the prologue to a bigger, better story with better characterizations and a more adequate backstory. Another problem I had was her use of a combat or other military unit filled with oddballs. A standard cliche, even if the oddballs include alien species. I thought her protaganist was too smart and all-knowing to be completely believable and the possible storyline that could have come from the friction with her new commanding officer, so promising at the start, was never explored to its full potential. The ending was disappointing since it did little to wrap up the story, despite leaving the door open for more adventures. I also thought the conclusions the main character's came to about war were so slight as to be non-exsistant. They were both too intelligent not to have been affected by what they saw and did. I'm not saying it needed to have been pro or con, ambiguity is fine, but if Huff didn't have anything worthwhile to say about the situation, then the book would have benefited from the silence of saying nothing at all. Overall a disappointing outing from this dependable writer.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing outing from talented author
Review: I am a big fan of Tanya Huff, but I found this book disappointing. It lacked the usual insight and character development I have come to expect from her writing. The situation was not terribly well defined, the alien species involved were caricatures, not characters, and the main character seemed oddly removed from the action. Huff usually uses several character's points of view to explain the action - this book relies on the main character only. Even when focused on other groups, such as the privates and corporal of a squad, all the interaction is through dialogue, with no explanation of the thoughts or feelings of the characters. This led to a distance and remoteness from the situation for this reader. I could not imagine myself part of the action because there was no explanation of what being in the action felt like. I also found the conclusion less than satisfying. My hopes had been raised by an excerpt from Ms. Huff's book of short stories, What Ho Magic, but they were not met by the final product. I would not say to avoid this book altogether, just recognize that it is likely to be a less satisfying experience than other books by the same author.
Rating:
Summary: Ginger
Review: I enjoyed this book more than any of the others that I have read by this author. I have read all of her "blood" books and while enjoying them I like a little more action in my books and space opera is right up my alley. I liked the way Ms. Huff worked with her characters and while feeling that a little more exploration of the background of the main character's would have been interesting I didn't feel that it detracted from the enjoyability of the read at all and hope to see further books using them again.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent, Bring on more
Review: I loved the this book. Light, pleasant read, kept the story moving, added humor, and was very enjoyable.
Rating:
Summary: Awesome, please write a sequel!
Review: I loved this book. My only complaint is that I want more! I found the characters entertaining and well-drawn. The action was great, and the plot twists fun. Please, Ms. Huff, write a follow-up to this story!
Rating:
Summary: Action filled and past-paced
Review: I must say that I have become very taken with Tanya Huff's novels, and her first sci-fi series, beginning with "Valor's Choice" is delivered with strength, skill and humour.
The book opens with Staff Sergeant Torin Kerr waking up in an unfamiliar room, having had a little too much pheromone from one of the ever-willing di'Taykan. In a hangover-like state, Torin is requested to meet her captain an hour earlier than expected and finds a two-star general waiting in the captain's office. She is commissioned to put together an honour-guard for what seems to be an easy and nonsense diplomatic mission, which will be led by a newly graduated Second Lieutenant di'Ka Jarret. Not only is Jarret the mystery person she woke up next to that morning, she will also be responsible for training him whilst pulling together Marines from a well-deserved break so that they can travel to the world of Silviss in an attempt to get the world to join the Confederation in the battle against the Others.
As most of the Confederation worlds consist of non-aggressive species, it is up to Humans, di'Taykans and Krai who make up the Marines, to put their best foot forward. But the Silviss are strange; their culture is to test the mettle of others through fighting skills. It soon turns out that drills and standing guard lead to boredom within the troops and a not-so-unexpected bar fight leads to more serious consequences. The Marines find themselves stranded in the middle of nowhere, facing thousands of adolescent Silviss.
The book has a good pace, following the main character, Staff Sergeant Kerr, who is likeable but tough, and popular with the troops. She takes no nonsense from superiors and is firm with her training of the new Second Lieutenant, keeping her relationship strictly professional, of course. But when things get heavy, will the Lieutenant be able to pull it off? And how do you hold off a thousand aggressive species with only 30 or so Marines and a couple of civilians who refuse to fight?
Huff has a talent for writing fun, intriguing novels with strong main characters. Her imaginations goes deep, as evidenced by the development of the species' characteristics, and the action is plentiful. The only drawback is that some of the characters are not properly built up, so it is difficult to emphasize with the peripheral characters, and they are tricky to keep apart.
All in all, thoroughly enjoyable for just what it is: an action filled military sci-fi novel.
Rating:
Summary: space opera
Review: I read everything Tanya Huff writes. I was a little nervous going into this one, because I knew it was space opera, instead of the fantasy she usually writes. I had also read an excerpt from it in What Ho, Magic!, and wasn't very impressed. But I haven't not liked one of her books yet, so I figured it was worth a shot. What a relief! Definitely space opera, but still the same likeable Tanya Huff characters, and plenty of humor. She obviously had fun with the over-the-top attributes of the genre. While I hope that she is done with space opera, since I can only take it in limited doses, this book does not disappoint. I'm sure I'll be buying the next Tanya Huff, whatever genre it is.
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