With a ration of males to females of 20:1, young Silviss males are sent off to reserves where their numbers are expected to be thinned in constant struggles for power. Their aircraft gets shot down in a reserve full of Silviss males. Kerr and her company arrive, guard a few diplomatic ceremonies, get into a somewhat staged bar fight, and leave for another part of the planet. The diplomatic mission is to the planet of the Silviss, a saurian race that the Confederation wants to enlist in the fight against the Others. In this future, humans and several other races of aliens are part of the Confederation, and the Confederation is at war with the Others. Almost immediately after a big battle, the company is given new orders by the brass and it's a diplomatic mission that's supposed to be easy. The book tells the story of Staff Sergeant Torin Kerr, of Sh'quo Company. While there still were things I disliked about the book, Valor's Choice delivered an amusing and fast-paced reading experience because of this streamlined structure. Huff uses the break in narrative rhythm for a laugh, and keeps the plot as straightforward as possible. At that point, an amusing digression occurs where a lesser writer would have introduced a plot complication or conspiracy. Military sf has never been a personal preference of mine, so Valor's Choice faced an uphill battle against my critical defences, and it did not win my affection until about halfway through. Despite her long track record of overcoming my doubts - for example, with a fresh and funny haunted house story in her recent Summon the Keeper - my initial reaction to this project was unenthusiastic, tepid at best. In Valor's Choice, Huff turns her attention to the creakiest subgenre of science fiction, the space opera, of the military type. Tanya Huff has spent her writing career turning fantasy and horror on their heads, discarding conventional wisdom and subverting genre clichés, with consistently enjoyable results. Valor's Choice, Tanya Huff, DAW, 2000, 409 pp.

Valor's Choice by Tanya Huff