Pun based title, when I think of one

C.S. Forester  was just about my most read author as a boy. He's famous for his Hornblower books, but wrote much more, with several being made into films. The best known is probably The African Queen , which was the last Forester book I read until now. Hornblower is a great character, brave, a leader of men, but also cerebral, sensitive, and with a strong moral core. As part of that he has an enormous streak of self doubt and introspection, which causes him difficulties at times, especially romantic ones, and which can also be off putting for the reader in the later books, of which Lord Hornblower is one. But even in these later volumes, Forester's writing strengths are to the fore: his deep knowledge of history and seafaring, and his knack for writing classic adventure yarns. I lapped up Hornblower as a boy, and any of Forester's other books I could lay my hands on. I'm sure Hornblower fed into my spell as a Royal Navy cadet; indeed, as a Midshipman and then 

As the cover tells you, Into the Fire is the second book in a series titled Vatta's Peace , which follows a five book series, Vatta's War . 'Vatta' is a family and an interplanetary corporation, but it is also the protagonist, Ky Vatta . Its genre is 'military science fiction'. Elizabeth Moon  is new to me, which may be a sign that I really have been out of it as far as science fiction is concerned, because she's been successful, with several series of novels published. I haven't read the earlier Vatta books, but I've picked up most of what I needed to know from the many flashbacks and references to past events. I bought this book having enjoyed the previous volume in the Vatta's Peace series, Cold Welcome , and I picked up that book on the spur of the moment wandering around a bookshop, and being intrigued by the premise. Cold Welcome is a story of a desperate struggle to survive in an icy and very hostile environment after a space shuttle