About the Books
(See Bibliography pages for publication and ordering data)

Vatta's War  (current series in progress)

In Trading in Danger, Ky Vatta, daughter of the wealthy and powerful trading family, chose to leave the family business and attend Spaceforce Academy...but in her final semester, she makes an error of judgment and is expelled. Her family puts her aboard an old tub of a spaceship, and tells her to take it off to the scrapyards--Ky looks for something better to do, and ends up in what seems to be a pirate attack on the planet where she's buying farm equipment.

Marque and Reprisal begins with a murderous attack on the Vatta family and enterprise, leaving Ky bereft of family support and financial clout for the first time in her life. She must figure out who did it, why, and how to first survive, then rebuild Vatta...and if that means taking on an enemy that vastly outnumbers her, then sobeit.

Old family roles and disagreements threaten to set Ky and Stella against each other in Engaging the Enemy. Stella is focused on Vatta family affairs and rebuilding the company, but Ky believes she must convince others to join a multi-system force to attack the enemy. This comes to a head when a problem from the past reappears and casts doubt on Ky's identity. Meanwhile, back home on Slotter Key, their Aunt Grace is determined to track down and punish those in government who let the Vatta family be sacrified to save their own skins.

Command Decision, book four of Vatta's War: Ky Vatta, having survived a multi-ship battle and saved two other ships besides her own, remains determined to organize a force to avenge her family and keep Gammis Turek and his followers from conquering other worlds...even though she lacks almost everything such a campaign requires. But Ky isn't easily daunted, and after rescuing a shipload of refugees from another attack, she finds unlikely allies in the ebullient Teddy Ransome, whose own private force of pirate hunters is shockingly flamboyant. Meanwhile, her cousin Stella, trying to revive Vatta's commercial ventures, discovers that she has legal control of intellectual property ISC never meant to let out of its laboratories...which delights their Aunt Grace when she returns to influence as Slotter Key's Rector of Defense. Rafe Dunbarger, who had gone back to the ISC headquarters world to find out why his family had not contacted him in far too long, discovers the sinister plot at the center of the great monopoly, and must save his family from a traitor...but can he save ISC?

Victory Conditions, book five of Vatta's War: When Ky Vatta takes command of the Slotter Key privateers and a few allies, she knows she's still outnumbered and outgunned by Gammis Turek and his allies. Worse, she realizes that he is planning to attack shipyards where large warships are under construction....not to destroy those ships, but to steal them. Most of the ships in her fleet were built as merchanters, and have already sustained structural damage--and every combat stresses them more, sometimes to the point of failure. Meanwhile, her distant cousin Toby is abducted by pirate agents who want to learn the secrets of the new Vatta shipboard ansibles, and Rafe Dunbarger, CEO of the beleaguered InterStellar Communications, is embroiled in a political and economic battle with ISC's Board of Directors and the government of Nexus. Prejudice against the Vatta family is so great that Nexus refuses to ally with Cascadia against Turek because Ky Vatta commands the fleet. Alone, with only the outdated ships of the ISC fleet to protect it, Nexus looks like easy prey for Turek....and controlling Nexus means gaining control of the galaxy-spanning communications system. Ky Vatta is the only hope if Nexus--and ISC--are to survive.

The Speed of Dark
Lou is a high-functioning autistic adult who has made a good life for himself and is, he thinks, content. But a new manager in the pharmaceutical firm for which he works decides to put pressure on the unit that employs autistic persons. Lou is pressured to undergo an experimental treatment that might "cure" the autism he doesn't think needs curing, or risk losing his job--and certainly the accommodations the company has put in place for its autistic employees. (Nebula Award winner, Arthur C. Clarke Award finalist.)

"Every once in a while, you come across a book that is both an important literary achievement and a completely and utterly absorbing reading experience--a book with provocative ideas and an equally compelling story. Such a book is The Speed of Dark, by Elizabeth Moon.... In Lou Arrendale, Moon has created an unforgettable character..." -- Review from South Florida Sun-Sentinel, December 29, 2002, by Pat MacEnulty, a freelance writer in Charlotte, N.C.

The Deed of Paksenarrion
Paksenarrion, known as Paks, dreams of becoming a hero like those in the old legends. The first step, running away from home and an arranged marriage with the pig-farmer's son, is easy. In the end, the price of heroism is higher than she ever expected and the changes in herself more profound. This series, though set in a fantasy world, is grounded in history, anthropology, and military studies. Originally published as three mass market books, it is now available in a one-volume trade paperback or hardcover.

The Legacy of Gird
Gird, the patron saint of warriors in The Deed of Paksenarrion, was once a man around whom legends grew. Poverty, hunger, fear, and anger shaped this future leader, whose weakness for drink almost ended his cause--and his life. But his love for "his" people and his innate hunger for justice make him worthy of the legends.

Gird's assistant and biographer Luap, a king's bastard rejected because he showed no magical talent, is a complex and tormented man who means well but does great evil without noticing it. His tragic flaw is his blindness towards himself; he cannot see his own motives clearly, and in fooling himself he leads others to destruction.

First published as Surrender None (Gird's story) and Liar's Oath (Luap's story), these books are now available in the one-volume Legacy of Gird.

The Serrano Legacy
Heris Serrano is a disgraced Regular Space Service officer who takes a job as a rich old lady's space yacht commander. Set in a universe where longevity treatments are beginning to have an impact on society, this seven-book series combines political intrigue both internal and interstellar, space battles, military infighting, horses, hot-air balloons, and a fairly serious consideration of the effects of long life and immortality on any society which finds a way to have them. For new readers, the best entry points are book one, Hunting Party, and book four, Once a Hero. The first three books are now available as Heris Serrano; the other four are still out in separate editions.

Remnant Population
Ofelia, an elderly colonist most of whose family died on the colony planet, does not want to be transported somewhere else when the company loses its franchise on the planet where she's spent 40+ years. She evades the evacuation and expects to live out her life alone, the only person on the planet. For the first time in her long life, no one is telling her what to do, what to wear, how to spend her life--and she has a chance to discover who she really is.

Then she finds out who else lives on the planet, and circumstances force her to start caring once more what others think. (Hugo Award finalist)

The Planet Pirates
Sassinak and Generation Warriors are part of the Planet Pirates trilogy which Jody Lynn Nye and I wrote with Anne McCaffrey. Though this trilogy can be read by itself, some of the characters and settings were first created by Anne for Dinosaur Planet and Dinosaur Planet Survivors.