Valor's Choice

Canada’s finest practitioner of Military Science Fiction must be Tanya Huff. In Valor’s Choice, she presents us with Staff Sgt. Torin Kerr. She’s somewhere between a No-Nonsense Sargeant type and a far-seeing war leader. In fact, she’s nearly indefinable in simple terms because Huff has imbued her with such a deep sense of personality and strategic reasoning. She’s an able leader, but not able in the Heinlein sense, where everything is the line of a sacrifice waiting to happen, but rather viewing every encounter as a problem to be solved. Huff’s writing is clear, and the humor she manages to give to each character and situation within the story makes it a delight to keep reading. There are elements of 1970s disaster movies, of military adventure tales, of Titanic, and the kind of humor favored by the likes of Robert Sheckley and Connie Willis. She mages to turn these elements into a combine that speaks far louder than the story itself, drawing us into the series, and into identifying with Kerr as the kind of character we love… sometimes even despite ourselves. Why it’s on the list A wonderful series and a strong contender for the most fun thing ever to come out of the Great White North!