I'm Reading Comeeks

Katya's War is the follow up novel to Katya's World, picking up pretty close to where the action left off. Katya is now Captain of the Lukyan (formerly Pushkin's Baby) her uncle's submarine, though she has yet to face sitting in Lukyan's chair.

The war is on and times are tough, her pay usually takes the form of government scripts rather than usable money and Yagizban ships lurk and hunt the trade routes, making her job as captain of a shipping vessel both hard to make a living doing and dangerous. When her co-pilot Sergei finds a job delivering plumbing parts for real money Katja doesn't question it.

She's also noticing a strange hostility which escalates as she's getting ready to depart, a fellow captain is shot in front of her eyes for disobeying a new policy that hasn't even gone into effect yet. Is this a normal effect of war paranoia or is something else in the water? 

Of course the well paid plumbing job turns out to be a trick. Havilland Kane needs Katja's help yet again. But this time he's asking her to do something terrible. He's asking her to commit treason.

This was a good sequel to Katja's World, answering some of the questions I had left over about Russalka, which is a very interesting setting. However, I felt that the book went much more quickly than the first book and I missed the character development of the the first one, especially with Kane, who was very much on a back burner in this book.

What I didn't miss was the love triangle that seems endemic in YA lit right now, esp. in books with a heroine as the protagonist. It was nice having Katja focus on the really important things, not how do I look or is he interested in me, or do I like strong stoic guy or do I like rebel boy, instead Katja was in the present, she didn't worry about her hair or figure when she had the crushing weight of the Russalkin ocean to worry about, or getting shot, or being tortured or the future of her entire world.

There were a few things, such as the propensity for just the right guy to go nuts, that makes me wonder, is that part of a strange plot, or just convenience? 

When I first noticed Howard was writing a teen series, I was interested, but I had no idea I'd be so impressed. He really translates well, writing from a woman's pov for a teen audience, not easy, but he does it with ease. I can't wait for the next book in this wonderful and original teen series