Early military science fiction was close to the equivalent of watching The Green Berets staring John Wayne or some such equally jingoistic piece of patriotic propaganda. The stories weren't bad and the action was good, but everything had a my country, right or wrong sentiment, and you just knew that even the aliens on "our" side were good Christians.

But as the times changed and the Vietnam war was coming to its ignoble end, the military science fiction novel changed. The books were still filled with good characters and action-packed battle scenes, but the attitudes had changed towards war and blinkered patriotism. The soldiers were more cynical about the reason for fighting and toward their superior officers.

The prevailing motivation of all the troops when they enter a battle situation now is to win through to the other side in order to survive. Nobody has any visions of glory or desire to be a hero, which doesn't prevent acts of individual heroism or courage from occurring, because individual glory and sought-after heroism usually ends up with people dead.

Tanya Huff is one of today's most diversified science fiction writers. She has written everything from epic fantasy, (The Quarter Series), contemporary fantasy (The Keeper Series) and horror (The Blood Debt Series). So it wasn't too much of a surprise when she embarked upon her own version of the military science fiction series with the The Confederation Series.

The first two books, Valor's Choice and The Better Part of Valor, introduced us to Marine Corp Staff Sergeant Torin Kerr, a typically omniscient non-commissioned officer (NCO), with a wonderful disdain for those she considers inferior species – anybody who is not an NCO, specifically 2nd lieutenants and officers who think they know better than her.

Thankfully for her in Heart Of Valor, the latest installment of the series, there is only one officer and she's broken him in long ago. In fact her assignment, escorting him to the Marine training planet to test out his new body parts, should be a piece of cake. Sergeant Kerr, the officer, (a major), twenty recruits of the three warrior species of the Confederation, the three NCOs assigned to train the platoon of recruits, and the major's civilian doctor will spend the next two weeks going through basic training.