Trading in Danger by Elizabeth Moon

Once again Moon has captivated me with her characters and her plots. This author has the ability to create a character that is like the girl next door but with super powers. Kylara Vatta is no super hero but she has grit and determination that overpowers all obstacles. Her dismissal from her life’s dream and her resultant resurrection in another direction provides the focus of the story. The trials, tribulations and action are icing on a delicious cake.

Kylara’s introspection into her own motivations and her questioning attitude flesh out her character with reality. Kylara’s character becomes real and you keep paging because you begin to care for her and want to see what she is facing next. The book is the first in a series and I have refrained from reading it until I could acquire all the books or at least all that have been announced and published at this point. This looks like the beginning of a terrific series with some similarities to David Weber’s Honor Harrington and as far as I am concerned that is a very good thing.

I highly recommend the book.

Body of work of Elizabeth Moon

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TRADE YOUR BOOKS, VIDEOS AND MUSIC AT SWAPTREE

I am an avid scifi/fantasy reader or perhaps just an avid reader. I keep the books I love for passing onto the next two generations of avid readers in my family. The bulk of current fiction and stuff I didn’t really love often seems to grow like coat hangers in an empty closet. What to do with all the accumulated things like Cd’s I don’t listen to anymore, movies I don’t watch and books I have read. WhooHoo, there is a place I can trade that stuff and get something I want in trade.

I have blogged about PaperBack Swap and frankly like it a little better than SwapTree. http://www.paperbackswap.com/index.php PaperBack Swap takes paperbacks and hard backs but does not do music or videos. I like it better in the book area because I don’t have to automatically find someone who wants what I have to trade and who has what I want in trade. You bank your trades. If you have something someone wants, you sent it out to them and you pay the postage. In return you get a book credit and you can choose out of the thousands of books something you want. What I like is you don’t have to do it immediately. I like to fill in missing books in trilogies or series so I often wait until those books are put up before I use my banked trade. It works well and I have gotten a lot of good books.

I just started using SwapTree and have gotten a couple of books. I like that I can trade Cd’s and videos and get books in return. You post what you want to trade and then you see what you can get in return. So far I have not been able to get much in the scifi/fantasy category. I guess because I haven’t put much of that category up on their site. It seems like it is another good alternative to letting things just pile up. http://www.swaptree.com/WebFrmUserHomePage.aspx

Since the average postage seems to be about $2.61 to send someone a book, you are getting a book you haven’t read for that low price. You can’t buy a new book for that anymore and with SwapTree you can get a video or a cd for the same price. My experience with SwapTree and Paperback Swap has been positive at this date.