Book Review: Cold Welcome by Elizabeth Moon

Cold Welcome
Author: Elizabeth Moon
Series: Vatta's Peace (Book 1)
Publication: Del Rey (April 11, 2017)

Description: Nebula Award–winning author Elizabeth Moon makes a triumphant return to science fiction with a thrilling series featuring Kylara Vatta, the daring hero of her acclaimed Vatta’s War sequence.

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.

My Thoughts: Ky Vatta's homecoming to Slotters Key isn't something that she anticipated with pleasure. The planet is filled with bad memories for her since it was the site of most of her immediate family's death. However, business relating to Vatta Enterprises calls her home to deal with the transition in power to her cousin Stella and to deal with her substantial share in the corporation.

She is being ferried down to the planet in a Space Forces shuttle when things start to go wrong. She finds herself needing to abandon ship and survive an ocean crash into the icy seas around the unterraformed continent of Miksland. She takes command of the survivors and relies on remembered instructions from her father about ocean survival. 

She manages to get the survivors to Miksland but something about the continent is blocking any communication. Also, it soon becomes apparent that the crash was not an accident but a well-planned attempt to kill all of them. The Commandant of the Academy is one of the first victims killed by poison darts in his survival suit. All of the officers except Ky and her aide who wore their own survival suits perished even before the craft hit the ocean. 

Ky manages to get the survivors to Miksland and gets them to an unknown base there. However, figuring out who is using the base and for what purpose leads to a large and long-running conspiracy. While Ky is trying to survive, her aunt Grace and lover Rafe are trying to find her and uncovering the conspiracy from the other end. 

This was an exciting adventure filled with all sorts of information about cold weather survival. I love the way Ky wins the hearts of her fellow survivors except for the undercover conspirators in her company. She does uncover them and wins in a fight against them. I also liked that the base gave clear evidence of aliens having once inhabited Slotters Key.

I bought this one April 10, 2017. You can buy your copy here.