Regular marked price: $26.00Discount Price: $17.16
Cost Savings: $8.84 (34%)Price fluctuation possible.
How soon does it ship: Normal ship time within one day
Shipping? Absolutely FREE if you qualify for Super Saver Shipping.
Type of bind: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN num: 9780345491619
ISBN number: 0345491610
Label: Del Rey
Manufacturer: Del Rey
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 416
Printing Date: February 19, 2008
Publishing house: Del Rey
Release Date: February 19, 2008
Sale Popularity Level: 8684
Studio: Del Rey
Other books you might be interested in perusing:
Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
Elizabeth Moon’s thrilling Vatta’s War series, featuring the no-holds-barred space-faring heroine Kylara Vatta, has secured her reputation as a master of first-rate military science fiction. Now Commander Vatta is back–locked and loaded and ready to win the fight against the marauding forces of ruthless space pirate Gammis Turek.
For Ky, it’s not just about liberating the star systems subjugated by Turek and defending the rest of the galaxy’s freedom. There’s also a score to be settled and payback to be meted out for the obliteration of the Vatta Transport dynasty . . . and the slaughter of Ky’s family. But the enemy have their own escalation efforts under way–including the placement of covert agents among the allies with whom Ky and the surviving Vattas are collaborating in the war effort. And when a spy ring linked to a wealthy businessman is exposed, a cracked pirate code reveals a galaxywide conspiracy fueling the proliferation of Turek’s warship fleet.
Matching the invaders’ swelling firepower will mean marshaling an armada of battle-ready ships for Ky to lead into combat. But a violent skirmish leaves Ky reeling–and presumed dead by her enemies. Now, as Turek readies an all-out attack on the Nexus system–a key conquest that could seal the rest of the galaxy’s doom–Ky must rally to the challenge, draw upon every last reserve of her strategic skills, and reach deep if she is to tear from the ashes of tragedy her most decisive victory.
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers 
-
I enjoyed this book immensely. I couldn't read it fast enough yet hated to finish it as it was the last of the trilogy. I've read all 3 books, the hardest part is waiting for the sequels. I hope Elizabeth Moon will come out with another series soon. She writes well. Her characters are believable and stories action packed.
Rated by buyers 
-
This is the concluding book in what has been an interesting series. It is set in something like the pirate-era Caribbean. It follows the career of Ky Vatta as she moves from washed up officer cadet to Admiral of a multi-government space defense fleet in just a few years. That requires a very fast pace of character and plot development. And Moon mostly pulls it off. The very first book felt too slow, and this last book felt too fast, but the three in the middle seemed to be be just right.
This book is action-packed, in a sense, but the nature of the action has shifted. In the earlier books the battles were small-scale. Ky was fighting people hand to hand. In this one fleets of hundreds of ships are opposing each other, and something seems to be lost in the change.
It could be argued that this whole series has essentially been a "coming of age" story for three characters: Rafe, Ky, and Stella. If so, this clearly is their ascention into adulthood. They all figure out their proper roles and excise the demons of their childhood. The book doesn't quite wrap everything up at the end, but that's as it should be. Adulthood is not the end of the story, it's just the end of the childhood.
However, while most of the series was a solid four stars, this book suffers a bit because it is so jammed full of plot resolution that it feels a little too unbalanced. The characters are too static compared to the plot. Still, any fan of the series will want to read this book.
Rated by buyers -
Ky Vatta has come a long way since being dismissed from Slotter Key's Space Academy. She has moved from privateer to commander and now is Admiral of a fleet still being assembled. And the enemy is the pirate Gammis Turek, a man so ruthless that many people believe there is no hope.
But Ky comes from a family of space traders who have survived plots and assassinations and stand ready to help. Her Aunt Grace, as minister of defense of Slotter Key, uses her influence and her cousin, Stella Vatta, the soon-to-be CEO of Vatta Enterprises, uses the ansible communication technology the family now controls to begin to level the playing field.
Elizabeth Moon crafts a tale of intrigue, military skill, and interpersonal conflict that will have the reader turning pages as quickly as possible. She paints characters that one can easily grow to both love and hate - and she helps the reader see the consequences of personal choices.
Many people have difficulty getting family members to cooperate - but to save the known galaxy, Ky, her family, and the few allies they have, are going to have to get entire worlds to cooperate - including agreeing to have their space forces serve under a single command wherever and wherever most needed-as decided by Admiral Vatta.
Any science fiction aficionado will find Victory Conditions and the earlier books in the series must-reads.
Armchair Interviews agrees.
Rated by buyers -
Victory Conditions was a solid conclusion to the series, but like the other reviewers, I thought in general it was a bit more rushed and especially "forced" than it needed to be. Moon focuses so much on wrapping up the series that the characterization really suffers as a result. And this is a shame, especially since she has spent four books working through the motivations of her main, supporting, and even small characters.
As a result, the challenges and conflicts that come from interpersonal dilemmas disappear. For example, (spoilers ahead), one girl in the book turns out to know the pirates' secret code language, because her dad works for them and taught it to her. Rather than spending a couple pages helping the girl work through her feelings about her dad, Moon simply has her suddenly recall a memory that paints him as a duplicitous snake and which prompts the girl to show little remorse over his eventual execution.
Similarly, because the characterization has become more shallow, it seems like Moon's own biases and views come to the fore in ways unsupported by the general plot. There is an inane little piece about the incompetence and irrationality of a non-profit professional sitting on the board of the galaxy's largest company. Leaving aside the logical gap (what is a non-profit manager doing on a private ICT company board?), this section is interesting because the rest of the board are pretty one-dimensional, so it's striking that Moon chooses to focus on this element of the character's motivation and personality.
So, unfortunately, the book reads as something of a foregone conclusion. As another reviewer wrote, all the good guys step up, all the bad guys screw up, right on cue. It's all a little too tidy. However, if you can get past these issues, Victory Conditions remains a solid read, particularly after the very first 50 pages. Moon's other strengths definitely remain in this book: solid narration; interweaving of politics, military, and business interests; and nicely fleshed out dilemmas between family, jobs, and responsibility. Her depiction of space battles clearly demonstrates some solid research/thinking about the challenges of combat in a 4x environment, and the descriptions of these battles are excellent.
Overall, a good read, but the weakest of the series.
Rated by buyers -
I love Elizabeth Moon and this book is a good, quick read. It is not the best in the series but it does tie everything up nicely. I am hoping that her subsequent effort is telling us the history of the annimosity between the Serranos and the Suizas.
Find other books like this one:
