Cold Welcome

by Elizabeth Moon Narrated by Carrie Coello

Overview

After nearly a decade away, Nebula Award-winning author Elizabeth Moon makes a triumphant return to science fiction with this installment in a thrilling new series featuring the daring hero of her acclaimed Vatta's War sequence.



Summoned to the home planet of her family's business empire, space-fleet commander Kylara Vatta is told to expect a hero's welcome. But instead, she is thrown into danger unlike any other she has faced and finds herself isolated, unable to communicate with the outside world, commanding a motley group of unfamiliar troops, and struggling day by day to survive in a deadly environment with sabotaged gear. Only her undeniable talent for command can give her ragtag band a fighting chance.



Yet even as Ky leads her team from one crisis to another, her family and friends refuse to give up hope, endeavoring to mount a rescue from halfway around the planet-a task that is complicated as Ky and her supporters find secrets others will kill to protect: a conspiracy infecting both government and military that threatens not only her own group's survival but her entire home planet.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

01/09/2017
Nebula-winner Moon’s popular far-future Vatta’s War series (Trading in Danger) roars on after a break of nearly a decade with this extended survival-and-rescue mission. Intrepid adventurer Kylara Vatta, a precocious Space Defense Force grand admiral at 29, blasts off in a shuttle to accept a hero’s welcome on the home planet of Slotter Key that she once left in disgrace—but she crashes on its least habitable icy continent. Familiar and colorful characters resurface, such as Ky’s rakish lover, Rafe Dunbarger, CEO of the vast Interstellar Communications, and Ky’s redoubtable great-aunt Grace Vatta, baker of clandestine fruitcakes and head of Slotter Key’s planetary defense. Abounding with a new set of piratical baddies, ramped-up military slang, assorted betrayals, and echoes of Shackleton’s incredible cold-weather trek, this lengthy space opera alternates among Ky in the planet’s coldest regions and a spooky tunnel environment, Aunt Grace’s political and economic machinations in the planetary capital, and Rafe’s paramilitary derring-do, all typical though flamboyant elements of Moon’s sci-fi mystery-action saga. Agent: Joshua Bilmes, JABberwocky Literary. (Apr.)

From the Publisher

Praise for Elizabeth Moon

Trading in Danger

“A mix of space opera, military science fiction and human drama, this is an exciting and often touching novel.”—RT Book Reviews

Marque and Reprisal

“Excellent plotting and characters support the utterly realistic action sequences: swift, jolting, confusing, and merciless. It’s a corker!”—Kirkus Reviews

Engaging the Enemy

“Moon has created a richly imagined universe of different cultures, replete with intriguing characters and the sense of unlimited possibility that characterizes the most appealing science fiction.”—School Library Journal

Command Decision

“One of scifi’s best military space series . . . confirms Moon’s place with Lois McMaster Bujold and David Weber in the top tier of turn-of-the-millennium military SF writers.”—Syfy

Victory Conditions

“Rip-roaring action and intriguing science and tactics distinguish Nebula winner Moon’s fifth and final Vatta’s War installment. . . . A fine and fitting conclusion to Moon’s grand space opera tour de force.”—Publishers Weekly

Library Journal

03/15/2017
Coming home to a war hero's welcome would please most people, but Adm. Kylara Vatta is returning to the planet where her parents and siblings were killed. However, plans are dashed when her shuttle is compromised and crashes into the ocean. Ky works on getting surviving passengers to land, not knowing if the attack was aimed at her or someone else, if they are being hunted, or if one of the group is the saboteur. As the crew finally makes land on a small arctic island, Ky discovers that their refuge holds some secrets of its own, secrets that a mysterious government faction will do anything to keep hidden. VERDICT Moon's fresh series launch brings back the celebrated heroine of her "Vatta's War" books, along with the Vatta family. Business and governmental exploits clash in an exciting tale of military sf that will delight fans of the genre and series alike. [See Prepub Alert, 10/31/16.]—KC

Kirkus Reviews

2017-01-03
After an extended—and impressive—excursion into fantasy, Moon returns to science fiction, picking up her Vatta's War series (Victory Conditions, 2008, etc.) where she left off.Although no prior knowledge is assumed or required, we plunge immediately into a swirl of familial politics and interstellar intrigue. Following her victory in the recent brutal war, Ky Vatta, now the youthful Grand Admiral of the interstellar Space Defense Force, returns to her home planet, Slotter Key. But Ky's shuttle loses contact and crashes into the sea. Searches, hampered by a lack of communications, appalling weather, official foot-dragging, and a deliberate, long-term effort to conceal the region from probes, prove fruitless. Ky must take command of a motley band of soldiers who only reluctantly accept her authority—they report to Slotter Key, not Ky's space fleet—and weld them into a force capable of survival, maybe even fighting, in the extreme cold. Neither Grace Lane Vatta, Ky's great-aunt and Slotter Key's civilian Rector of Defense, nor Stella Vatta, CEO of the family business empire, believe Ky is dead. And Ky's love interest, Rafe Dunbarger, CEO of a corporation that makes ansibles (instantaneous communicators), has a secret, private method of communication, so he knows she's alive. Once again, Moon's great strength is her characters, particularly the soldiers and how they comport themselves when under great stress. Less robust, the underlying plot, or what little's discernable here, comes across as a trudging retread of previous conspiracies and treacheries. And while the life-and-death situation intrigues, the overall narrative lacks tension—Ky's successfully negotiated so many similar circumstances we never seriously consider the possibility that she'll be killed or even defeated. Solidly engrossing if unspectacular fare, with greatest appeal to readers who prefer the familiar over the innovative.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940192342190
Publisher:	Tantor Audio
Publication date:	07/16/2024
Series:	Vatta's Peace , #1
Edition description:	Unabridged

Read an Excerpt

Chapter One
(Continues…)

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Excerpted from "Cold Welcome"
by .
Copyright © 2017 Elizabeth Moon.
Excerpted by permission of Random House Publishing Group.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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