The expanded use of rejuvenation is having a great effect on the universe of the Families Regnant. Esmay is released from Fleet but her skills are needed more than ever if they are to survive the mutiny. Good development of the story line with great growth for the characters. ( )

I am a big fan of fantasy and science fiction novels especially if they are long and have several books in the series. I really enjoy a series of books that I can immerse myself in and I first picked up an Elizabeth Moon novel because it was long and part of a multi-novel series. I continue to read her books because I find them engrossing and highly enjoyable. ( )

The Serrano Legacy by Elizabeth Moon
Hunting Party
Sporting Chance
Winning Colors
Once a Hero
Rules of Engagement
Change of Command
Against the Odds
Military SF for horse lovers. The series focuses on the horsy side for the first 3, and tips much more into straight military SF for the last 4.

The first 3 focus on Heris Serrano, scion of a space navy family, and Lady Cecelia de Marktos, an elderly wealthy aristocrat with a horse fixation. The story begins when Heris resigns from the service and signs on as captain of Lady Cecelia's private yacht. It turns out the yacht has been badly maintained, some of the crew are smugglers, and Lady Cecelia is planning to go fox hunting on a private planet. Heris sorts out the smugglers, deals with the maintenance, and loses a bet to Lady Cecelia and ends up being taught to ride and joins the hunt on Sirialis. The problem is that there are other hunters on the planet - who are after much bigger game than recreated foxes. When her host's daughter, 'Bubbles', goes missing along with some other young guests, it's up to Heris to save the day.

In Sporting Chance, Lady Cecelia volunteers to take one of the other hunters back to his family - the royal family. His involvement in the hunting cabal is to be hushed up; and a discreet way is needed to get him home. However, on the journey, Lady Cecelia notices something odd about the prince - the bright child she remembers has been replaced by a frankly dim young man. Confronting his father, it turns out the prince is being systematically poisoned; he needs someone to take him to a different stellar empire where they may be able to reverse the neurological damage. Unfortunately, Lady Cecelia suffers an apparent stroke, and the Sweet Delight is tied up in legal red tape when it is decided to enact Lady Cecelia's will; she has left the yacht away from the family to Heris.

Winning Colors takes us back to the Familias Regnant, where the king has been deposed. Scenting blood, a neighbouring polity (the Benignity of the Compassionate Hand) decides to invade. Unfortunately, the planet they decide to annex is one where Lady Cecelia is visiting along with Heris. Heris has to figure out how to defend the planet with one destroyer, two P.T. boats, one ore scow, and -- oh yes -- the space yacht, Sweet Delight.

Once a Hero takes us firmly into military SF, and the focus switches from Heris (who has been reinstated in the Fleet) and Lady Cecelia to Esmay Suiza. She was the senior officer left after a mutiny that took control of a Familias ship from a treacherous captain and went back to help Heris defend the planet in the previous book. After she is exonerated by a Board of Enquiry and Court Martial, she is assigned to a deep-space repair vessel. Mistakenly taking aboard a commando team from the Bloodhorde, the ship is captured; it's up to Esmay and her allies to take it back.

Rules of Engagement focuses again on Esmay Suiza. Befriended by Brun 'Bubbles' Meager, the two have a public quarrel and Brun storms off in a huff meaning to go home. However, Brun and her escort are attacked by pirates on the way home and Brun is kidnapped by religious fanatics. Esmay is assigned to a search and rescue vessel and comes across the debris from the battle; they were finding out what happened to an overdue merchant vessel, also attacked by the fanatics.

Change of Command starts bringing the various threads together. Brun's father (the Speaker of the Familias Regnant and the most powerful man in the polity) is assassinated, undetected junior members of the hunting cabal get back together and break out others from their prison and stage a mutiny, there's an issue with the rejuvenation drugs now in use, and the rejuvenation haves and have-nots are at daggers drawn. In the midst of this, Esmay's grandmother dies and she becomes the Suiza Landbride; she and Barin Serrano (Heris' cousin) announce their engagement to the dismay of both families, and Esmay is dismissed from the Fleet.

The final volume, Against the Odds, wraps everything up. The mutineers are defeated, Brun takes over her father's position as Speaker, and starts work on reconciling the political factions in the Familias, and the last of the deep agents from the Benignity is unmasked.

This series is a pure humans-in-space universe. There do not appear to be any alien intelligences around; just different human factions. The Familias Regnant were a group of trading families who got together to mutually defend against piracy. The Benignity of the Compassionate Hand are a mafia-like polity, the Bloodhorde are a Viking-like polity who live as raiders. Others are Altiplano, the Crescent Worlds (formerly independent, now part of the Familias), the Lone Star Confederation, the New Tex Militias, the Guernesi Republic. Add in a mixture of religions, the expensive rejuvenation process (invented by the Guernesi), failed colonies and you get a rather explosive mix. It's rather reminiscent of the Honorverse, but instead of a fairly obvious Hornblower in space, it's more Renaissance Italy and rather more YA - there are a number of love stories in the various plot lines, along with a strong sense of bildungsroman.

The series as a whole is solid; the various books seem to hang together. Personally, I think the first 3 books are more to my taste than the last 4. Recommended, but fairly light for MilSF.

It's been a long trip but here we are at the last of the Serrano Legacy books, where Elizabeth Moon tied many of the loose ends together.

I am not completely happy with how it all ended though. A combination of events and behaviour that was hard to believe (no, love struck people do not have to lose every single brain cell) and events that were glossed over makes it seem rushed. A "let's get it over with" book. A pity, but there were some really good books on the way so it's what it is.

The book is better than the previous one, but not enough to tempt me into adding a third star. ( )

I really liked this saga but I found this book difficult to stick with. There were so many sub-stories int his book. And it jumped around from one to another. Except at the very end they didn't really come together and that was rather arbitrary. If I hadn't read all the preceding books I would have been totally confused. Every time I got into one story line, the author would just to another. Most of the stories were interesting and would have held my attention but they the stories were told in bits and pieces. There was no sense of how much time things would have taken or what actions were contemporaneous. Still a good book but I liked earlier books in the series better. ( )

This is book 7, the final volume in the Serrano Legacy series.

Chaos reigns across Familias Regnant space. The Speaker has again been assassinated. Part of the Fleet has mutinied, breaking prisoners out of high security Copper Mountain and commandeering several crafts. Common citizens feel oppressed by the rejuvenated upper class, and are unable to advance as superiors remain perpetually young and don't retire. Characters from throughout the series emerge--Lady Cecelia, Esmay Suiza, Heris Serrrano, Brun, and others--all seeking to unite the Familias before it's too late.

This book was stronger than the last, with lots of space action and events going on in several locations at once. The ending worked quite well--actually the last chapter was very touching. Still, I had some gripes. In a way, I like Esmay Suiza better when she was less mature; as a ship commander, her voice seems identical to that of Heris. Elizabeth Moon does a wonderful job of showing women in charge, both smart and sensitive, using their intuition to win battles. I do prefer her Vatta's War series simply because the writing is more mature and cohesive, and I can't say I disliked the Serrano Legacy, either. ( )

Excellent read. She never fails to draw you in. Great characters. ( )

A fun romp. as Esmay struggles to save her world. ( )

(Alistair) And finally, the last book in the Familias Regnant/Serrano Legacy series, following on from Change of Command, which I booklogged earlier.

Alas, most of the issues which I had with Change of Command are still present in this book. While an extensive suite of characters, plot threads, and layers are usually something I find satisfying, here there are just too many threads and too much intercutting for a book of this size, I think, and at least one of them (Sirialis) appears to disappear half-way through without resolution. (On second thoughts, make that two - much the same lack of closure could be said of the free trader plotline.) There's a clear ending, with one character from all through the series ascending to statesmanship, some promise of coming work on resolving the major conflict, and a poignant farewell to old friends at the end of the book, but there's just so much left unresolved.

Overall: Either this needed to be spread over more books, or a fairly major chunk of plot items needed to be cut out, because while I can see a really rather good space opera struggling to get out, the structural issues strangle it aborning.

Sadly disappointing, I'm afraid.
( http://weblog.siliconcerebrate.com/cerebrate/2008/04/against-the-odds-elizabeth-... ) ( )

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