Into the Fire, by Elizabeth Moon
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 crash; and furthermore, to survive despite realising that some of her fellow survivors are traitors and willing to compromise their own survival for their cause.
Cold Welcome ended in apparent victory for Ky Vatta, and I could easily have left Into the Fire alone. Except that in the first book the group led by Ky stumble upon some abandoned alien structures and technology, only partially relevant to the outcome of the plot, but intriguing enough that I felt compelled to read on, because it seemed obvious that the next book would explore this possibility of alien encounter. Wouldn't it?
No. I was so, so wrong. I'm a sucker for ancient alien artifact scenarios, which made for some disappointment from the outset, because Into the Fire is all about exposing and defeating the grand conspiracy behind past events on this, Ky's home planet, and the secret base she discovered in Book One. Sadly, we may never read about those alien remains, because of the author's poor health. Of course one wishes her all the best irrespective of any future writing she may or may not want to do.
The Vatta books envisage a future of space faring, widespread planetary settlement, with little reference to 'Old Earth', at least in these two books. One expects lots of speculation and inventive world building in books like these, and we do get quite a lot of that, although none is especially original. The author is certainly not alone in handwaving the awkward question of faster-than-light travel, in the interests of her plot, which assumes regular commerce between star systems. And she adopts the device of the 'ansible', technology which enables instant communication at extreme distances.
However, in so many ways, society is little different to the one we live in now. This happens so often in science fiction: stories can involve some of the most outlandish and speculative technology, and deal with them as matter of fact in use; and yet when it comes to things which we have now, there's little suggestion that we might have either improved on it or replaced it with something entirely new. A famous example of this is in the Flash Gordon serial of the 30s. They use ray guns, of course, although we now understand how difficult it will be to develop hand held ray guns, no bigger than the pistols we have currently. Especially hard will be to store the energy required in such a small form factor. On the other hand, Flash Gordon also features radio operators, obliged to get about with a large back pack, which is a radio. Why so big and unwieldy? Because they already had radio sets in the 1930s, and that's what they looked like. Smartphones would have been unimaginable to the scriptwriters.
The most frequently mentioned technology in the Vatta books is the implant, which seems to be a large capacity data processor, body monitor and communicator buried in the skull. Having these often requires a price to be paid in terms of dependence and also vulnerability. Moon writes about these implants quite well, in my view; technology similar to this is quite likely, and the part they play in society as well as the experience of having them may well be as Moon describes. Other technologies are of less interest to her, or they matter less to the plot: for example, we assume vehicles move via advanced technologies, but whatever it is, it's taken for granted.
On the other hand, writers do tend to revert to the familiar. Writing about what you know isn't always ideal. Elizabeth's earlier career was in the US Marines, and it shows. I would think much of her time was spent in office environments, an idea surely confirmed by a comically extended sequence in which Ky Vatta, now in a senior appointment, explores her new office, trying to find hidden clues or evidence of the conspiracy she faces. There's little science fiction here. One can imagine Moon sitting in front of her own desk, fantasising about pulling out drawers and finding items of mundane present day stationery, and hidden compartments. To be honest, I found the time devoted to all this office work deviousness baffling, in particular the continual use of paper - paper records, paper printouts, etc etc. Whether or not it's paper as we have today is beside my point: I felt there'd been a failure to think through the consequences of so many other developments she describes. For all the future technology on show, it seems that in the future office life, both military and civilian will be much the same.
I was further baffled by so much of the story revolving around weird bureaucratic stand offs. I can see how these would have resonated strongly for Moon, after a career dealing with office politics. But the thing is, in every case, the otherwise very nasty baddies have a strange respect for legality, even as they're fully prepared to attempt violent assassination. They're undertaking a coup or putsch, by the way. Study of history shows that successful coups usually ditch any respect for 'the law' at a certain tipping point. Oh the catalogue of incompetency, together with at times supernatural incisiveness on the part of our heroes, suggests that the baddies never had much of a chance.
Fair enough.
I think the author had her struggles with Into the Fire, and naturally I have sympathy with her personal health ones. Completing the book was probably heroic. It became a largely procedural story, more military/bureaucratic than particularly speculative. There are all sorts of signs that maintaining vision was tough at times. But my view is that Moon succeeded in one particular task that was important to her, something which also partially explains why all the Vatta books are set in the far future. The books' main point is their protagonist, Ky Vatta, a woman of great presence and genuine charisma, living at a time and in an environment in which one can credibly just get on with the story. Place a character such as Ky in the present day, and a writer would run into problems, with the focus drifting on to gender politics.
Into the Fire is uneven in many respects, and overall some might complain that Ky never really looks like not triumphing in the end. But in the context of the entire Vatta series, this book - if it is indeed the last one - is a decent conclusion.
Cold Welcome ended in apparent victory for Ky Vatta, and I could easily have left Into the Fire alone. Except that in the first book the group led by Ky stumble upon some abandoned alien structures and technology, only partially relevant to the outcome of the plot, but intriguing enough that I felt compelled to read on, because it seemed obvious that the next book would explore this possibility of alien encounter. Wouldn't it?
No. I was so, so wrong. I'm a sucker for ancient alien artifact scenarios, which made for some disappointment from the outset, because Into the Fire is all about exposing and defeating the grand conspiracy behind past events on this, Ky's home planet, and the secret base she discovered in Book One. Sadly, we may never read about those alien remains, because of the author's poor health. Of course one wishes her all the best irrespective of any future writing she may or may not want to do.
The Vatta books envisage a future of space faring, widespread planetary settlement, with little reference to 'Old Earth', at least in these two books. One expects lots of speculation and inventive world building in books like these, and we do get quite a lot of that, although none is especially original. The author is certainly not alone in handwaving the awkward question of faster-than-light travel, in the interests of her plot, which assumes regular commerce between star systems. And she adopts the device of the 'ansible', technology which enables instant communication at extreme distances.
However, in so many ways, society is little different to the one we live in now. This happens so often in science fiction: stories can involve some of the most outlandish and speculative technology, and deal with them as matter of fact in use; and yet when it comes to things which we have now, there's little suggestion that we might have either improved on it or replaced it with something entirely new. A famous example of this is in the Flash Gordon serial of the 30s. They use ray guns, of course, although we now understand how difficult it will be to develop hand held ray guns, no bigger than the pistols we have currently. Especially hard will be to store the energy required in such a small form factor. On the other hand, Flash Gordon also features radio operators, obliged to get about with a large back pack, which is a radio. Why so big and unwieldy? Because they already had radio sets in the 1930s, and that's what they looked like. Smartphones would have been unimaginable to the scriptwriters.
The most frequently mentioned technology in the Vatta books is the implant, which seems to be a large capacity data processor, body monitor and communicator buried in the skull. Having these often requires a price to be paid in terms of dependence and also vulnerability. Moon writes about these implants quite well, in my view; technology similar to this is quite likely, and the part they play in society as well as the experience of having them may well be as Moon describes. Other technologies are of less interest to her, or they matter less to the plot: for example, we assume vehicles move via advanced technologies, but whatever it is, it's taken for granted.On the other hand, writers do tend to revert to the familiar. Writing about what you know isn't always ideal. Elizabeth's earlier career was in the US Marines, and it shows. I would think much of her time was spent in office environments, an idea surely confirmed by a comically extended sequence in which Ky Vatta, now in a senior appointment, explores her new office, trying to find hidden clues or evidence of the conspiracy she faces. There's little science fiction here. One can imagine Moon sitting in front of her own desk, fantasising about pulling out drawers and finding items of mundane present day stationery, and hidden compartments. To be honest, I found the time devoted to all this office work deviousness baffling, in particular the continual use of paper - paper records, paper printouts, etc etc. Whether or not it's paper as we have today is beside my point: I felt there'd been a failure to think through the consequences of so many other developments she describes. For all the future technology on show, it seems that in the future office life, both military and civilian will be much the same.
I was further baffled by so much of the story revolving around weird bureaucratic stand offs. I can see how these would have resonated strongly for Moon, after a career dealing with office politics. But the thing is, in every case, the otherwise very nasty baddies have a strange respect for legality, even as they're fully prepared to attempt violent assassination. They're undertaking a coup or putsch, by the way. Study of history shows that successful coups usually ditch any respect for 'the law' at a certain tipping point. Oh the catalogue of incompetency, together with at times supernatural incisiveness on the part of our heroes, suggests that the baddies never had much of a chance.
Fair enough.
I think the author had her struggles with Into the Fire, and naturally I have sympathy with her personal health ones. Completing the book was probably heroic. It became a largely procedural story, more military/bureaucratic than particularly speculative. There are all sorts of signs that maintaining vision was tough at times. But my view is that Moon succeeded in one particular task that was important to her, something which also partially explains why all the Vatta books are set in the far future. The books' main point is their protagonist, Ky Vatta, a woman of great presence and genuine charisma, living at a time and in an environment in which one can credibly just get on with the story. Place a character such as Ky in the present day, and a writer would run into problems, with the focus drifting on to gender politics.
Into the Fire is uneven in many respects, and overall some might complain that Ky never really looks like not triumphing in the end. But in the context of the entire Vatta series, this book - if it is indeed the last one - is a decent conclusion.
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