Valor

I can't help myself. I just have to ask: Is this the end for Torin Kerr?

I hope not. I really do. Tanya Huff's Valor's Trial doesn't end in a cliffhanger, that would be fine, but ends... well, there could be more, or it the series could stop. I hate that in a series. I don't want to make my own conclusions. Remember Total Recall by Philip K. Dick? Not the movie, the book! That ending both annoyed and intrigued me. Took me days to settle.

Anyway, it's a great read; and, like Lynn Viehl's Stardoc and Darkyn, David Weber's Honor Harrington and Elizabeth Moon's Paksenarrion, well worth re-reading.

To the book: Gunnery Sergeant Torin Kerr is returned to her battalion and that battalion is sent into action against the Others. In a flash of light, the battalion and the Others are gone. The Corp believe them dead, the public believe them dead and irritating Katrien reporter Presit a Tur durValintrisy believes them dead; Torin's lover Craig Ryder (who speaks like an Australian) doesn't.

Torin awakes to find herself in an underground prison with other marines, all of whom show no inclination to escape. But Gunnery Sergeant Torin Kerr isn't going to accept there's no way out and with friends, old and new, she's going to bust out of prison, taking her Marines with her, or die trying. What she doesn't know is that a successful escape may end the centuries-long war.

I like a kick-ass heroine and Tanya Huff's Torin Kerr is just that. In this book, the body count is high but not without reason. And the enemies are hidden: one is the struggle Torin has with herself, against the need for violence the need to give up and the need to get the hell out. The other... would be a spoiler.

There's also a part that's reminiscent of The Chronicles of Riddick - a favourite movie of mine.

The writing is terrific, you can almost feel the hopelessness of the other prisoners, the pointlessness of orders from officers who don't know what else to do, and the frustration of Kerr at those orders. You can feel Kerr's resistance to more violence, too, even when you want her to punish wrong-doers.

But it's not all grit and determination in the face of overwhelming odds, there's humour, longing, fear and mistrust, too. The characters are sympathetic and well written, even the aliens, the world-building is just enough and Gunnery Sergeant Torin Kerr right out of a Boy's Own.

Which is all why I don't want this series to end too soon. I. Want. MORE! Please?