The Better Part of Valor

Written by Tanya Huff

Narrated by Marguerite Gavin

Telling a two-star general what she really thought of him was the mistake Staff Sergeant Torin Kerr made with General Morris. But as a battle-hardened professional, she took pride in doing her job and getting her troops back alive. So after she'd saved the mission to bring the Silsviss into the Confederation-instead of losing them and their world to the enemy known only as the Others-she let the general know exactly how she felt.

And Torin's reward-or punishment-was to be separated from her platoon and sent off on what might well prove an even more perilous assignment. She was commandeered to protect a scientific expedition to a newly discovered and seemingly derelict spaceship of truly epic proportions. And Confederation politics had saddled her with a commanding officer who might prove more of a menace to the mission's success than anything they encountered.

Only time would tell if the ship was what it appeared to be or a trap created by the Others-or the work of an as yet unknown alien race with an agenda that could prove all too hostile to other life-forms.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tantor Media, Inc
• Release date: Jan 19, 2009
• ISBN: 9781400179916

Tanya Huff

Tanya Huff lives in rural Ontario with her wife Fiona Patton, five cats, and an increasing number of fish. Her 32 novels and 83 short stories include horror, heroic fantasy, urban fantasy, comedy, and space opera. Her BLOOD series was turned into the 22-episode Blood Ties and writing episode nine allowed her to finally use her degree in Radio & Television Arts. Many of her short stories are available as eCollections. She’s on Twitter at @TanyaHuff and Facebook as Tanya Huff. She has never used her Instagram account and isn’t sure why she has it.

Reviews for The Better Part of Valor

[ca8bookwyrm · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This second book in Tanya Huff's Confederation series has only three (I think) of the same characters as the first book (once you get past the introductory chapter), but it has all of the same wit, action, and good writing as the first. I enjoyed this one at least as much as the first, and I can't wait to continue with the series! Especially with that teaser thrown in as the very last sentence...

[phyllis2779 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Love this series, love this book. Read this a while go but I still remember the general outline. Huff has followed this up with additional books in the series. Which I have read and will continue to follow this series.

[mardel_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Even though I read this about a month ago, taking a very long time to review, I enjoyed the hell out of this book. In fact, I went into a serious reading frenzy. Taking a chance, I had bought the first four novels in this series (two of them in the omnibus edition, giving me a two for the price of one deal). I'm usually not really into military fiction, it's just not really my usual reading interests. However, I've found myself almost obsessed with this particular series. It must have something to do with the strong female figure, in charge even as she's subordinate to her superior officers combined with Tanya Huff's unique sense of humor, writing style and the way she writes her dialogue. In about three weeks I had read all four of my Valor novels, and it only took me that long because I had a few other obligations and grandchildren. As of now, there's only one more book in the series waiting for me to buy...This series - Confederation series - It is far, far into the future. So far, in fact that there are many planets that have been colonised, terraformed, or discovered - all in different phases of advancement. It is so far advanced, that a lot of terms and phrases we take for granted don't make any sense because of technical advance, such as "rubber-stamp it". Nobody seems to know what an actual rubber stamp is, or what it was used for. One of the characters in the first two novels is full of these type of sayings. One of the fun quirks of Huff's writing. There are also entire universes (I might have the wrong term) at war with each other. The Marines are still the marines, but they do a lot of space travel, of course, to get back and forth. The Navy is the branch that runs the space ships - kind of like the navy has water ships now, just a different venue. The Navy and the Marines have, naturally, a kind of rivalry going on - I'm sure they do now in fact. In the first book - Valor's Choice, Torin Kerr, a Staff Sargeant in the Marines was part of a diplomatic mission gone wrong. One of her final actions involved punching the general - it needed to be done- but she also made a comment referring to parentage. Apparently he has remembered this. In The Better Part of Valor, the General orders her away from her regular platoon into an investigation of an apparently abandoned huge spaceship. Either he's punishing her for her previous actions, or he's using her skills - trusting that she's the best person for the job, since they are going into an unknown situation. Never know with a general. Seems a salvage operator (space style salvage operators - keeping open space clean by recycling broken and destroyed spaceship pieces and detritus) left suzumi space (similar to FTL travel) finding this large vessel just floating. Scans revealed no life forms. A scientific team is going to take a look at it, study it with the marines in attendance for safety. Torin is assigned a group of marines who have all been hand selected from a wide variety of other platoons. Their's is a top-secret mission to keep scientists safe while they try to find out what exactly this huge bright yellow ship is. Because it doesn't even scan as any metal or plastic that they've ever come across before. Unfortunately, complications arise almost immediately.From the moment they enter the ship, strange things begin to happen. First an explosion occurs, caused by the scientists deciding to drill into the wall. It kills almost all the scientists. Then Torin and the salvage operator fall through the floor - slowly.After this, they have to find their way to a new port, since the shuttle they came on and the airlock were destroyed in the initial blast. Their way seems to be complicated and yet when they most need it the most, they get a break in the form of a shortened passageway, or a sudden room. Creepily, the compartments and passageways start to feel familiar - they seem to have been taken right from their memories. Torin and the salvage operator finally get together with the remnants of their crew and they all, including a reporter who has invited herself along the expedition, continue to try to make their way to another airlock, without the aid of any outside communications - they've been left without contact and with few supplies. It soon becomes apparent that there is another almost similar group going through the same thing - the confederation's eniemies called "the others".Something mysterious is going on. The twists and turns they went through along with the story of what was going on in the ship that they came on, the discovery of the enemies on the other side of the huge abandoned ship. It all added up to one hell of a novel. I found it a very engaging and entertaining novel. As usual wlith a Tanya Huff novel, I found all the characters fascinating - the irritating characters as well as the characters that were doing their best to get through their situation. There was a great variety of personalities. I enjoyed the dialogue between the characters very much. Loved it.As soon as I finished The Better Part of Valor, I was grabbing The Heart Of Valor, #3 off my shelf. I am really looking forward to reading the fifth in the series and hope that Tany Huff has plans for more.

[zjakkelien · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Similar to the first one, nice fluffy SF with cool and scaringly competent heroine.

[nikkles_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is a great sequel to Valor's Choice. The action is top notch, but the characters are great. The great characters are what set this book and this series apart from other military science fiction. It is a great escape from reality novel, as well as, being well written. How innovative!

[wyvernfriend · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Quite a good military SF story, would probably be enjoyed by fans of David Weber, will trial it on husband.Staff Sergeant Torin Kerr has been put into a squad with an inept commander to investigate an unknown spacecraft. Interesting and very cool.

[simonw11 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The second in the series and not so good. Our heroine is this time asked to lead an exploration of a possibly abandoned spaceship of unknown origin. Her CO appointed for political reasons is an incompetent glory hound.

[tadad_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

As with Valor's Choice, this is fairly standard fare. A little less "military" and a little more "science fiction" than the first. The plot is less predictable this time out, which is good. The ending was a little weaker, which is bad.As with the first novel, if you enjoy military science fiction, you will probably enjoy this. If you're lukewarm on it or new to it, there are greener pastures elsewhere.

[reading_fox · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I guess it's almost a sub-genre of mil-sf: exploring an unknown derelict 'alien' ship. Torin's on call again as 2star General Morris' personal diplomatic Marine: A salvage operator has found a drifting ship and a mixed race bunch fo scientists need to examine it, but only with a military escort. It's all kept under the radar, so a scratch team of individuals is assembled under Staff Sargent Torin's command. Well there's a capatin and Lt and so, on but to Torin they don't really count, they're Her Marines. Then the scientists are joined by the press who managed to get word of it before they all depart.The first incident knocks the captain unconcious leaving Torin in charge as she prefers it. The rest is as expected, they meet obstacles, she over comes them. The Ship plays Silly Buggers for no explained reason and it all ends has happily as most Marines can expect. There's plenty of fun banter and innuendo to keep morale up along the way. A few cut-outs to other points of view never really works as a story-telling device, but does allow the flight jockeys to show off their skills.Fun, Silly and Mil-SF all the way.