Valor's Trial

Written by Tanya Huff

Narrated by Marguerite Gavin

Gunnery Sergeant Torin Kerr is a Confederation Marine's marine. She has survived more deadly encounters—and kept more of her officers and enlistees alive—than anyone else in the Corps.



Unexpectedly pulled from battle, Torin finds herself in an underground POW camp that shouldn't exist, where her fellow marine prisoners seem to have lost all will to escape. Now Torin must fight her way not only out of the prison but also past the growing compulsion to sit down and give up—not realizing that her escape could mean the end of the war.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tantor Media, Inc
• Release date: Jul 20, 2009
• ISBN: 9781400179909

Tanya Huff

Tanya Huff may have left Nova Scotia at three, and has lived most of her life since in Ontario, but she still considers herself a Maritimer. On the way to the idyllic rural existence she shares with her partner Fiona Patton, six cats, and a chihuahua, she acquired a degree in Radio and Television Arts from Ryerson Polytechnic—an education she was happy to finally use while writing her recent Smoke novels. Of her previous twenty-three books, the five—Blood Price, Blood Trail, Blood Lines, Blood Pact, Blood Debt—featuring Henry Fitzroy, bastard son of Henry VIII, romance writer, and vampire are among the most popular.

Reviews for Valor's Trial

[Priscilla Sarinas · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Great read—excitement n adventure n
Fast paced, international, multiple challenges, ties in w prior books.

[blodeuedd_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I have been waiting for this book ever since I read book 1 (yes I read the blurbs for the rest of the books, I am too curious). Anyway, great premise so I waited.

It's starts with Torin getting ready for battle and then bam! (it takes a while for the bam but bear with me). So bam! Torin wakes up in a tunnel, she is now a POW. All while Craig refuses to believe she died in battle and tries to find her.

That was the premise I was interesting in. Torin in a POW camp, and not any POW camp. A weird underground jail where they do not know who put them there in the first place. And Torin wants out, and nothing stops Torin cos she is a kick-ass marine who never gives up.

I was also curious about the war thing as I started to wonder about things (just like Torin), like why they are even fighting. No one knows. And we do learn a few things about the whole war.

This book does not have as much action as previous book, it's more of an adventure of sorts and I liked it.

[maowangvater · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The last thing Gunnery Sergeant Torin Kerr remembered before waking up in a dark underground cave was the lieutenant that she had been sent to retrieve during the battle for Estee vaporizing in a blast of flame and light. Well, if this was the afterlife, it was certainly a miserable one. Fortunately for her it’s not the afterlife but a POW camp, which is odd, because it’s a well known fact that the Others, the enemy collation that her interstellar Confederation has been fighting for a century, don’t take prisoners. So how did she get here, and more importantly, how does she escape?

[jalenv_2 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Valor's Trial is the fourth book in Tanya Huff's Confederation series.

Gunnery Sergeant Torin Kerr of the multi-species Confederation is sent to another battle in that same war against the multi-species aliens called the Others by her side. One thing about the Others that seemed to be a known fact was that they never took prisoners. So why has Torin awakened in what appears to be an underground prisoner of war camp?

This being Torin Kerr, she works to set things straight, including finding a way out. Meanwhile, it's believed that there were no survivors of that battle. Torin's father and her significant other, civilian salvage operator Craig Ryder, don't believe she's gone. Craig is going to do something about that, although the other person he involves isn't exactly someone Torin ever wanted to see again.

The grim reality of POW life and the bleak outlook for escape make for compelling listening, as do the personalities of our heroine and her supporting characters. I enjoyed the speculation, the problem solving, and meeting new aliens. I didn't enjoy some of the harsher consequences of war, but of course I wasn't expected to.

The point of view is mostly Torin Kerr's, but it shifts to Craig Ryder and back within chapters.

[jeremypreacher · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The scope broadens yet again, and I was hugely satisfied to see some of the hand-wavey "we fight them because they're the bad guys" propaganda directly addressed. I was not expecting this series to have such a clear overarching structure or such an ultimately anti-war message, given all the chest-thumping throughout all the novels. Really well done.

[nikkles_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Another great addition to the Valor series. I love the characters and the plots are always inventive (but sensible), fun (but not too silly), and funny (but in a smart way). I recommend starting at the beginning and making your way through.

[jamespurcell · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Quite satisfactory conclusion to a fun series. Gunny Torin Kerr, the godlike mother hen to various species of space
marines, creates, resolves and survives an intriguing series of extraterrestrial problems that originate from a superior race.

[cissa_5 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I do love Tanya Huff, and this was a fun, interesting read wit a fairly twisty plot.

[jjmcgaffey · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Oookay. What I said in the first two reviews about going overboard? Tanya Huff managed, more or less, not to - which is amazing given the story. But Torin is so purely the Gunnery Sergeant in this one... OK. The story starts with her going off to another battle - and not making it back. Then things get weird. And it wasn't the Elder Races lying to the Younger - no, the meddling is a lot deeper and odder than that. Interesting how closely the Others' military setup matches the Confederacy's, too. And the Di'Taykan who thinks she's a god is a) weird and b) - well, I'm surprised she survived the trip up. A weird and wonderful story, and I really hope Huff doesn't write any more - because I think she's pushed it about as far as it will go. Of course, I thought that for the last one too…

[readinggeek451 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The Others don't take prisoners, but here Gunnery Sergeant Torin Kerr is in an underground prisoner-of-war camp. Her fellow POW's have all given up, probably because of something in the food, but Torin is determined to escape before she succumbs to the hopelessness. Meanwhile, her boyfriend refuses to believe her dead and sets out with an annoying reporter to find her.

Not as much strictly military action as the others in the series, but very good. And there are some shattering surprises to come.

[phyllis2779 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Another great installment in Huff's Sgt. Torin Kerr series. I just hope that this is not the last one since SPOILER -- Kerr leaves the service at the end of this one. It definitely gave me a few surprises. I found the ending very sad in the sense that so many died. But that is also so true about any military losses in wartime and in that sense the novel is realistic.

[volleydog · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I have read all of Tanya Huff's books and I have to say, the character of Gunnery Sergeant Torin Kerr is my absolute favorite. Kerr's character is gritty, tough, with no apparent feminine characteristics anywhere in sight. If she were a man, should would be a true man's man. Except, as you follow her through each adventure, you find that she is more than capable of falling in love.

In this latest installment of the Confederation Series, Gunnery Kerr is presumed dead with several hundred other Marines after they take a direct hit from a new type of missile launched by the Others. Kerr's love interest, Craig Ryder, and Sector Central News reporter, Presit, set out to find either DNA proof that all of the marines are dead or evidence of a government cover up. If you like space adventures, aliens, and dry humor with a dash of romance, then you will really enjoy this series.

[tadad_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I have mixed reactions to this fourth installment in the series about Gunnery Sergeant Kerr.

On the positive side, I felt the plot moved along a lot more smoothly than the last volume. Whereas The Better Part of Valor and The Heart of Valor both were a bit lumpy and unevenly paced, this flowed along quite smoothly.

Ms. Huff also made the various alien races appear a lot more matter-of-fact, which is a good thing. In previous books, they always seemed to be written as oddities, which didn't make sense in the integrated universe of the book. In this volume, they seem as natural as the human characters.

On the negative side, if I had to read one more paragraph telling us how Gunnery Sergeants walk on water, how Gunnery Sergeants are omniscient and omnipotent, how Gunnery Sergeants are the axle on which the universe turns, how Gunnery Sergeant's s***...err...I was going to commit mayhem somewhere. It's not just in Gunny Kerr's thoughts: Ms. Huff has almost every single character in the book thinking it and saying it out loud, over and over and over and over. I mean, she's even got the enemy characters saying it.

Can you say, "beat this horse to death, then hit it 1,000,000 more times"?

The book actually ends on a note that could be the end of the series. I'm not saying that it actually will end there, just that it's a good ending place if one chooses to stop. I'll have to examine the next book in the series a bit before I make up my mind on what to do.

[silentq_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Torin did finally get to go back to Sh'quo company, after the debacle on Crucible, and they were deployed again almost immediately. Battle ensues, new weapon is dropped, new glass crater where Torin was. Craig Ryder doesn't give up though, and
joins forces with Torin's father and Presit the reporter to try and
convince the Marines that Torin must have survived. She did, but she was somehow transported to a POW camp where the other Marines are the biggest threat. She proceeds to kick butt and take names, but her reputation preceded her (and people who didn't know promptly find out via the grapevine, in a wonderfully true to life piece of writing), she faces mistrust, bureaucracy, and the apathy of the other prisoners.
I laughed out loud at many points, the dialogue is wonderful, and I got totally swept up in the drama. The alien races are well characterised, and I'll use this series when bemoaning the dearth of strange aliens in TV shows and movies - you can still empathise with a sympathetic centipede like life form if the writing is strong enough. The challenges Torin faces are reminiscent of her adventure on Big Yellow, but the end result is that she finds some answers that she was looking for. I wasn't 100% happy with the hint of what she'll do next, but I'll read anything about her. :)