Rating: 
Summary: Solid but not Spectacular Series Ending
Review: _Against the Odds_ is the seventh and apparently final book in Elizabeth Moon's series about the Familias Regnant. The Familias Regnant is the term for a large area of colonized worlds in a future galaxy in which humans seem to be the only intelligent species. There are several other confederations of worlds. Familias space is ruled by a number of aristocratic families, fairly but not entirely benignly. The novels cover a period of perhaps a decade, or a bit less, in which radical changes occur in the Familias government, moves in the direction of greater democracy.On the whole, I found the series very good reading. There are weaknesses: Moon tends to paint her villains too blackly, for one thing; and her plots seem to be driven a bit much by coincidence. But the stories are very exciting, the action is well described, and the main characters are very engaging, we really care about them. Bad things happen, usually with real costs, as well. The first book (_Hunting Party_) is nice but a bit light. I felt that the series hit its stride with the second book (_Sporting Chance_), and maintained a high level through the following three books (_Winning Colors_, _Once a Hero_, _Rules of Engagement_). The sixth book, _Change of Command_, was a serious disappointment. By this time Moon had several significant plot threads from previous books that she wanted to track, all involving different characters. Plus she added an important new thread, a mutiny with the Fleet by disaffected officers of extreme villainy. _Change of Command_ is a very disjointed book, jumping from thread to thread, sometimes with essentially no sense of connection. This final book, _Against the Odds_, is something of a return to form. It's still not as good, in my opinion, as the four central books, but the thread gathering in _Change of Command_ has by _Against the Odds_ at least resulted in the major threads all being sufficiently well associated so that even though this book also jumps all over the place, the various plot threads are all pretty much linked. The basic action of this book is the attempt to suppress the mutiny that began in _Change of Command_. In addition, some political assassinations which happened in that book have left an unsettled political situation, which needs to be resolved. And finally, Esmay has been discharged from the Navy for basically silly reasons, and she wishes to get reinstated and join the fight against the mutineers. There are still some structural hiccups: the Free Trader plot sort of peters out halfway through the book, while the closing segment of the book is really a separate, late-introduced subplot, which at least serves to unite Esmay and Heris for the final action, but which otherwise seems a bit of an arbitrary addition. And there are quite a number of, I thought, unlikely coincidences. But all that said, the book is a solid and fun read, and it does a good job of closing off the main series threads, while not wrapping everything up too tidily. I certainly recommend the entire series for anyone who likes colourful space opera, with engaging characters and neat action.
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