Rating: ![4 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-4-0.gif) Summary: Character study and space adventure Review: Esmay Suiza doesn't think of herself as a hero, because she's sure she isn't capable of heroic behavior. Certainly she has no gift for command. All she wants in the universe is a chance to live and die away from her native Altiplano, as an officer (preferably a very ordinary and obscure officer) in the Regular Space Service. But after taking command of the Despite when everyone above her in the command chain either turns traitor or dies in the resulting mutiny - and after becoming, as a result, the lowest-ranked officer who's ever won a battle - Lieutenant (j.g.) Suiza can't go back to her cherished anonymity. So Admiral Vida Serrano tells her between the battle's end and the start of her court martial, and so Esmay learns for sure when she goes back to Altiplano for the first time since she was 14. The lesson continues in her next assignment, as a full lieutenant aboard the deep space repair ship Koskiusko.
On the Koskiusko Esmay makes the first opposite-gender friend she's ever had: Vida Serrano's grandson, Ensign Barin Serrano. Her new superiors, understanding that this young woman's command gifts are just that - real gifts, unlocked for the first time by the events aboard Despite - search in growing frustration for ways to convince Esmay that she must accept who she really is, and develop the talents no one knew she possessed during her first ten years of RSS life. Then a Bloodhorde commando unit finds its way aboard Koskiusko, and once again Esmay Suiza must rise to the challenge. Once a hero, there's no going back.
Part character study (well done, indeed) and part blood-and-thunder space adventure, this book bogs down at times during its first half; but after that the action comes fast and furious. Well worth the read.
Rating: ![4 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-4-0.gif) Summary: The best of the Serrano/Suiza series Review: Good solid space opera. While some aspects are clicheed, the heroine (along with some of the other supporting characters) is genuine enough to make the book worthwhile. The book can easily be read without reading the three earlier books in the series (Hunting Party, Sporting Chance, Winning Colors), which aren't nearly as good. The later books are also weaker, in my opinion.
Rating: ![4 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-4-0.gif) Summary: The best of the Serrano/Suiza series Review: Good solid space opera. While some aspects are clicheed, the heroine (along with some of the other supporting characters) is genuine enough to make the book worthwhile. The book can easily be read without reading the three earlier books in the series (Hunting Party, Sporting Chance, Winning Colors), which aren't nearly as good. The later books are also weaker, in my opinion.
Rating: ![4 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-4-0.gif) Summary: Good storyline if you swallow setup Review: I agree with an earlier reviewer who commented on how silly the situation that the DSRV got itself into was. The events leading up to the DSRV being borded are very nearly slapstick. My only other complaint is a general one with Moon, namely that all of her protagonists seem to get raped.
Rating: ![5 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-5-0.gif) Summary: Science fiction adventure at its best Review: I bought this book out of curiosity and I have never enjoyed a book this much. The story is fascinating, the characters alive and believable. The story became more and more exciting as it went on, and the conclusion was excellent. Really worth five stars.
Rating: ![5 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-5-0.gif) Summary: I bought it on a whim and was very pleased Review: I don't have as much time as I would like for pleasure reading. Reading this book was time well spent. The characters were wonderful, the story engaging, and I caught myself questioning the gender assumptions I make when they talk about a ship commander. They are not all male.
Rating: ![4 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-4-0.gif) Summary: First rate "Adventures of the Space Navy" story. Review: I enjoyed this book very much, reading it straight through in a single day. It reminds me strongly of the Honor Harrington books by David Weber, but with more emphasis on character and environment and less on action (although there is action enough). The story is about a young female officer in the space navy, growing as a person as she climbs the ranks. She learns to trust herself and her own competence, while also learning what her real failings are and how her friends and mentors can help her deal with them. She deals also with the advantages and disadvantages of childhood in a rigid paternal military family. I have only one criticism: Often while reading the book I felt the detailed descriptions were set-ups for action to come later, and when I finished reading the climactic action sequence I had the feeling that many good scenes the author had planned were edited out (i.e. "left on the cuttting room floor," as it were).
Rating: ![5 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-5-0.gif) Summary: Reasons I Enjoyed this Book Review: I grew up with Heinlein and other male science fiction writers, and felt sometimes frustrated with male protagonists and story line focus. Some of the other reviewers have mentioned that they had trouble getting into the book because they felt that the rape storyline was something they could not identify with as men. Well, I have always had trouble enjoying books in which women were two-dimensional potential partners...It's nice to finally see books with female protagonists who are assertive and successful, and not focused on partnership! (Norton, while a great writer, always seemed to hook up her women at the end). I enjoyed Moon's characterization of Esmay, and Esmay's family and work entaglements and incidents. Esmay became a character I genuinely cared for- enough to buy the books that include her!
Rating: ![4 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-4-0.gif) Summary: An adventure with some real depth Review: I just reread this book, and I'm even more impressed the second time around. This is NOT just Honor-Harrington-like Wonder-Woman fantasy, but a story with some real depth to it: the heroine not only survives external challenges, but (eventually) faces down her inner demons. On the deepest level this book is about what comes after betrayal - it is one thing to survive, but quite another to live.
Rating: ![4 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-4-0.gif) Summary: An adventure with some real depth Review: I just reread this book, and I'm even more impressed the second time around. This is NOT just Honor-Harrington-like Wonder-Woman fantasy, but a story with some real depth to it: the heroine not only survives external challenges, but (eventually) faces down her inner demons. On the deepest level this book is about what comes after betrayal - it is one thing to survive, but quite another to live.
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