Review of Leviathan Wakes – Book 1 of The Expanse by James A. Cory

I’ll be honest – although I’d heard a lot of good things about this book, I did approach it with some scepticism. All too often, I’ve picked up a recommended space opera that is supposed to be character-led, with plenty of action and a sharp, well-rounded world, only to find that it isn’t. Because writing a really good space opera takes a lot of skill. Although I did have some hope about this particular offering – James A. Cory is the pen name of Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck, who wrote this together. And Leviathan Wakes was also shortlisted for both the Hugo and Locus Awards last year.

Humanity has colonised the solar system – Mars, the Moon, the Asteroid Belt and beyond – but the stars are still out of our reach. Jim Holden is an officer on an ice miner making runs from the rings of Saturn to the Belt. When he and his crew stumble upon a derelict ship, the Scopuli, they find themselves in possession of a secret they never wanted. A secret that someone is willing to kill for. War is brewing in the system, unless Jim can find out who left the ship and why.

Detective Miller is looking for a girl. One girl in a system of billions, but her parents have money and money talks. When the trail leads him to the Scopuli and rebel sympathiser Holden, he realises that this girl may hold the key to everything.

Holden and Miller must thread the needle between the Earth government, the Outer Planet revolutionaries, and secretive corporations – and the odds are againstem. But out in the Belt, the rules are different, and one small ship can change the fate of the universe.

This whole tale – that spans the Solar system – is told through Holden and Miller’s viewpoints. Both characters are complex and convincing, with dislikeable traits as well as their evident strengths that get them through the repeated danger they find themselves running towards. There are also solid reasons why they are busy putting themselves in harm’s way, which I liked. I do get a tad fed up when the plucky heroes keep muscling their way to the danger zone, as everyone else is busy fleeing. During the book, the characters go through a variety of adventures which completely yank them out of their previous lives and take them on a journey that changes their viewpoint about most things. Miller, in particular, is extremely poignant near the end.

The world is detailed, layered with awkward corners and believable factions that are busy blaming each other for the unfolding terror unfurling in their midst. And all this comes to us filtered through the protagonists’ viewpoint – this isn’t a book where the author sees fit to jump out of the characters’ heads and serve up chunks of omniscient point of view. The result is that the narrative tension doesn’t ever let up. The storyline powers this long book from beginning to end – all 561 pages of it. So I was locked into the plot for every single page and would have happily gone on reading another 500…

That doesn’t happen very often. Though I’m a sucker for a really tight, well-written space opera, they aren’t all that thick on the ground. Certainly not one with the readability, tight plotting and strong characterisation that Leviathan Wakes offers. I’m going to give myself a late Easter present and buy the next instalment - Caliban’s War – stories of this quality don’t come along every day of the week.
10/10

Review of The Xenocide Mission – Book 2 of The Ark series by Ben Jeapes

Lieutenant Joel Gilmore is part of a multi-species space observation team stationed in a distant solar system, who find themselves attacked by the very aliens they were supposed to be watching. Now Joel and his allies, the enigmatic Rusties, explore the parameters of trust in a lethal confrontation with a deeply alien third species: one with a nasty predilection for mass murder on a planetary scale.

This book was marketed as a YA science fiction, but I had no trouble getting fully engrossed in the story which started with a bang and kept going right to the end, despite the fact that I hadn’t read the first book, His Majesty’s Starship. The story is told in multiple viewpoint – and Jeapes joins that select handful of science fiction writers who are brave enough to have a serious stab at writing from an alien point of view. In fact, there are two major alien species in this adventure. The vicious variety with teeth, talons and a propensity for ripping apart anyone who seriously upsets them – and the Rusties, who have formed a coalition with humans. So, the question has to be – does Jeapes pull it off?

As far as the bad guys, known as Xenocides, are concerned, the depiction is excellent. We get a really good slice of their political and cultural life without any info-dumps silting up the narrative pace, which is always a lot harder to achieve than it looks. There is even some humour in there and I particularly enjoyed Oomoing, who had the job of evaluating the captured human. The twist near the end of the story was one I didn’t see coming and thoroughly enjoyed. By the end of the novel, I had a really good sense of what they looked like and how their society ran. But the overall impression of how the other species – the First Breed – operated, their appearance, and their relationship with the humans was a lot less sharp. However, I am also aware that this is the second book in a series and I got the feeling that the storyline featuring this particular species was highlighted in His Majesty’s Starship.

As far as the main human story running through the book, Joel makes a solidly convincing hero as someone who reacts quickly and selflessly when the unthinkable happened – and then finds himself up to his neck in trouble as a consequence. He manages to care about issues like honour, duty and loyalty without coming across as some lantern-jawed dummy, which also demonstrates Jeapes’ skill as an able, technically gifted writer. His relationship with Boon Round, the First Breed also caught up alongside him, is nicely sharp.

The ending is well executed, with all the lose threads across all three main species satisfyingly tied up. Overall, this slickly convincing multi-species adventure story is a really good read – and I’m going to be looking out for more of Jeapes’ writing.
9/10

Review of EBOOK Storm Over Warlock by Andre Norton

This book is the first one in the omnibus edition of Norton’s work, Visions of Distant Shores: An Andre Norton Collection, containing seven of her novels. I uploaded it onto my Kindle for the princely sum of 77p.

Shann Lantee is left stranded on the alien world of Warlock after the Survey camp where he works is wiped out in an attack by the Throgs, beetle-like beings so alien no one has figured out how to communicate meaningfully with them. Shann was signed up to feed and clean out the animals and perform all the lowliest tasks. He hasn’t been trained to survive on an alien planet. How will he manage to stay alive in this hostile environment against the most voracious and implacable enemy humankind has encountered?

This book was first published in 1960, but I have to say that it doesn’t feel like it. Norton’s straightforward, unfussy style is evergreen and her characterisation – refreshingly for one of the earlier sci fi writers – is well developed. She manages to keep the narrative pace right up and her scene setting is excellent. In short, she is a technically accomplished writer who has absolutely nailed recounting a cracking adventure story set on an alien planet. I enjoyed the steady growth of her protagonist throughout the story. Shann Lantee has been brought up hard – coming from a world where there are few prospects. He was the dogsbody who happened to be performing one more grubby thankless task when the Throgs struck. Worse, he’d been targeted by one of the younger members of the Survey team, who made it his business to constantly bully Shann and get him into trouble with the Survey leaders. Understandably, he is both relieved and guilty to discover that his tormentor is one of the Throgs’ victims. He hasn’t been specifically trained in the survival skills that other Survey members specialised in, but he isn’t totally without resources. One of those grubby tasks is to tend for the two genetically enhanced wolverines who are trained to hunt out the local wildlife and warn the Survey group of anything dangerous crashing about in the undergrowth – a real boon when all sorts of things crash about in the undergrowth, other than the Throgs.

From this strong opening, when we immediately bond with Shann and care about his predicament, we watch as he steadily gains in confidence while dealing with a variety of challenges throughout the story. For anyone struggling with how to structure a novel, this is a textbook example of how to achieve an exciting, readable story – and yes, the ending also satisfactorily ties up the dangling ends, while affording an opportunity to take the plot further.

This is only the second Andre Norton book I’ve read – but I would have happily paid a whole lot more than 77p to have read this one gem. And there’s six other books in the omnibus… More than worth every penny, even if the rest turn out to be real stinkers. And from what I’ve read so far, I’ve no reason to believe that the lady wrote stinkers… If you are a bit broke at the start of 2012 and looking for a bargain, quality read to add to your Kindle, then I highly recommend Visions of Distant Shores: An Andre Norton Collection. Happy Reading!
9/10

Review of Transformation Space – Book 4 of The Sentients of Orion by Marianne des Pierres

Transformation Space is the last book in this sweeping space opera by des Pierres, so clearly if you haven’t read the previous three books you need to go back to the start of the series and track down Dark Space. However, if you’ve been waiting for this final instalment, the question has to be – does she deliver on the previous excellent storylines that have propelled this series to such admiring attention?

Mira Fedor’s pregnancy seems to be proceeding at an inhuman pace and the sedate acceptance of this state of affairs by her bizoon, Insignia, is as much an irritation as it is comfort. It seems clear that the extropists’ procedures have had an unforeseen effect – but will her child be more than human? Or less?

Meanwhile, the galaxy-wide conspiracy that has plagued the Orion League for so long is revealed. The conspirators stand unmasked, but is there time to prevent their carefully laid plans from coming to fruition? And even if there is, how many of the Orion Worlds will pay the price for their leaders’ blindness?

The pieces are all in play; all that remains is for each side to commit to its endgame. But there’s one question nobody has thought to ask: will ‘god’ play by the rules…?

Space opera tends to be epic in scope; storylines often sprawl across galaxies, while the characters tend to be larger than life and eccentrically different from the folks you brush shoulders with in Sainsburys. Let’s face it, that’s the attraction – a true escape from the everyday and mundane. Transformation Space certainly sustains the fast pace characterised in the earlier instalments, which is a plus – tying up various loose ends often silts up the final book in multi-volume series. Furthermore, des Pierres also manages to keep control of her disparate cast of characters, ensuring that they all grow and develop in varying ways after the adventures they endure – I particularly enjoyed watching Thales and Trin undergo some interesting changes, as well as following Mira’s steady growth in confidence. Overall, I think she handles closing this hectic adventure very well with most of the storylines and characters resolved to my satisfaction.

If you’re sensing a ‘but’, however, you’re right. For me, the single hole in this final book in the series is the disappearance of the Entity. I’m aware that it went missing, but having been such a feature of the earlier plot, it was something of a disappointment at how fleetingly it appeared in this book, given its pivotal importance to the storyline. Having said that, I’m aware that the whole series is a vividly depicted, ambitiously plotted piece of work and this is the only area where her sure touch stutters slightly. Overall, this is an entertaining, well executed series and Transformation Space – a worthy winner of the 2010 Aurealis Award – brings it to a successful conclusion. If you’re a fan of classic space opera and haven’t yet encountered The Sentients of Orion, take the time to track down this impressive four-book series – you won’t regret it if you do.
9/10

Review of Spindrift – Book 4 in the Coyote series by Allen Steele

The starship Robert E. Lee is bearing a controversial cargo on its return to Earth: the only surviving crew of the EASS Galileo. This ship and all aboard vanished decades previously, while examining an apparently alien artefact.

As John Shillinglaw, director general of the European Space Agency, waits nervously for the vessel to dock, he ponders the mystery. First Officer Theodore Harker, astrobiologist Jared Ramirez and pilot Emily Collins have been missing for fifty-six years. Where have they been… and why have they returned now?

While Spindrift is clearly set in the same world as the other Coyote novels, with the same political tensions and difficulties, readers don’t need to have read any of the previous books to be able to easily access the story – a major plus as far as I’m concerned. However, I came to Spindrift after reading the previous trilogy, which is the tale of a planet colonisation, leading to a war of independence from Earth. There were classic elements from Steele’s other novels – the political manoeuvring, leading to stupid mistakes being made. That strand certainly plays to Steele’s strengths – he is good at ramping up tensions between suspicious individuals and the Galileo’s outward journey provides a strong backdrop for these tensions to nicely fester.

I also really enjoyed the exploration of Spindrift, the enigmatic alien object. Steele manages to evoke the sense of wonder and excitement, as well as danger, while his three protagonists are confronted with the very first alien artefacts seen by humans. It is a staple of science fiction writing and all too often, authors are so carried away by telling their particular stories, they fail to take the time to adequately convey just what a big deal this event is. Not so Steele.

So far, so good. However, I do have several problems with this book, which in my opinion, isn’t as strong as his previous offerings. The first is the basic structure. As the blurb suggests, the book starts off in John Shillinglaw’s viewpoint as he waits to interview the three survivors of this expedition. Then the story is told from the viewpoints of the three main protagonists throughout the adventure, and then right at the end, it reverts back to Shillinglaw – as if the whole intervening narrative is in flashback, before the conclusion.

This has two effects – the first is that throughout the storyline of the expedition, we are aware that only Ted, Jared and Emily survive. So certain key moments are robbed of their shock or surprise value – we wait to discover in what way the Galileo comes to a sticky end, rather than being shocked that it happens. If a writer is going to pull that kind of stunt on his readers, he needs to provide another surprise – or make the characterisation so engrossing and original that the fact we already know several big spoilers doesn’t matter. Steele doesn’t provide either, so while the story is effectively told we already know too much, which robs this tale of a lot of its potential impact.

The other aspect is that as Shillinglaw ‘bookends’ the whole narrative, his character really needs to leap off the page, or he needs to provide a keynote role that helps to satisfactorily wind up the plot to a proper ending. In my opinion, Steele didn’t manage to fully persuade me that Shillinglaw’s contribution to the whole business was sufficiently important – and as for creating a really strong character – that isn’t one of Steele’s innate strengths, anyhow.

As a woman, I was particularly frustrated with Emily’s character – I felt she was very much the ‘token’ female – the fluffy, submissive kind. We kept being told that she was a wonderful pilot, despite the fact that she had all the drive and personality of a wet flannel. Both the male protagonists were a lot more interesting and I found myself wishing that Steele had stuck to making all three protagonists men.

However, all that said – it is still a worthwhile, reasonably enjoyable read. My frustration with the book is that if only Steele had restructured the story differently, it could have been so much better.
7/10

Review of Journey Into Space by Toby Litt

This is a generation ship novel – a classic science fiction theme that has also been visited by Robert A. Heinlein in his book Orphans of the Sky, Paradises Lost by Ursula LeGuin and The Book of the Long Sun by Gene Wolf to name but a few…
A vast generation ship hurtles away from a violent, troubled Earth to settle on a distant planet orbiting an alien star. Those who set out on this journey are long-since dead. Those who will arrive at their destination have yet to be born. For those who must live and die in the cold emptiness between the stars, there is only the claustrophobic permanence of non-being. Life lived in unending stasis.
Then the unthinkable happens: two souls – Auguste and Celeste – rebel. And from the fruit of their rebellion comes a new and powerful force which will take charge of the ship’s destiny.

Auguste and Celeste pine for the lost Earth they’ve never seen and it is this craving that draws them together. Auguste’s character is vividly depicted as his longing for Celeste merges with his attempts to describe weather events that he has never experienced. Litt’s writing ability fully flowers in the first section of this short novel as the interaction between the young teenagers is poetically described and the characters sing off the page – although I did find myself skimming through a very long Earth-like metaphor… I felt it was too heavy-handed a literary flourish at this crucial stage in the action.

However, Litt’s focus abruptly shifts from the young couple as events move onto the next two generations and we don’t get the same depth and complexity of characterisation with any of the subsequent protagonists. To be honest, I found some of the following events difficult to believe. The notion that someone as spoilt and self-centred as Three would devote whole years of her life to producing a letter – and why wouldn’t there be paper and writing implements on a colonial ship, anyhow?

As the years speed on by and the crew become increasingly alienated from their original Mission and more wrapped up in the capricious demands of their mentally challenged Captain, the novel lifts away from the character-led depiction of the beginning and into an omniscient viewpoint as Litt skims across the next major protagonists in his story, leading to the shocking end which I should have cared about a lot more than I actually did.

I found the notion that humans start behaving oddly when shut away from Earth-based sensory stimuli to be entirely believable. However, I do feel that in order to fully convince his readership that Three’s behaviour or the ending is a convincing outcome, Litt needed to spend more time and energy on the second half of the novel. It seems to be a book of two halves and the latter section simply does not live up to the shining promise of the beginning, which is a real shame. Litt is clearly a talented and extremely capable writer – the fact that this is still a book worth reading despite the rather perfunctory ending demonstrates this. If only he had continued writing with the same fire and conviction shown in the first section, I believe this could have rivalled the likes of LeGuin’s outstanding Paradises Lost. As it is, Journey Into Space is a thought provoking but ultimately flawed attempt to examine this fascinating concept.
7/10

Review of The Quiet War by Paul McAuley

This hard science fiction tale grabbed my attention because being a shallow sort, I loved the cool cover…

On twenty-third-century Earth, ravaged by climate change, political power has been grabbed by a few powerful families and their green saints. Millions of people, most little better than slaves, labour to rebuild ruined ecosystems. Those who fled Earth’s repressive regimes to the moons of Jupiter and Saturn live in a fantastic variety of habitats, some deep underground, others protected from inhospitable atmospheres by vast tents; all scientific utopias crammed with exuberant inventions of the genetic arts.

But the fragile peace between Earth and the colonies is threatened by the Outers’ growing ambitions to spread out through the Solar System, pushing human evolution forward. On Earth argument rages: whether to take pre-emptive action against the Outers, or to exploit their scientific talents. Amidst all the debating and turmoil, war between the two branches of humanity moves ever closer.

This book looks at a familiar conflict point much explored by the likes of Alistair Reynolds, Eric Brown and Iain M. Banks – that of humanity diverging as the diaspora start living in space. McAuley, like a number of other science fiction writers, trained as a scientist and this becomes apparent in the loving detail he lavishes on the extra-terrestrial vegetation that the Outers manage to establish in all sorts of unlikely nooks – like Callisto and Titan, for instance.

So, how ably does he handle this ambitious tale that spans a number of far-flung settings, with six main characters? Is the characterisation sufficiently complex and compelling? Do the passages concentrating on the extra-terrestrial eco-systems silt up the narrative pace and get in the way of the book’s message?

While there are six viewpoint characters, it is Macey Minnot and Professor Doctor Sri Hong-Owen whose stories drive most of the action. McAuley has tweaked this familiar territory in interesting ways – while we are given a ringside seat into the slow, inexorable slide into war, all the main characters including Macey and Sri are all underlings, hemmed in by a strict chain of command. Not one of them are free to follow their own wishes – and when any of them try to do so, the consequences are dramatic and dangerous. This gives the reader a first-hand appreciation of the limits experienced by the Earth-based characters, both good and bad. However, it is interesting that we are not privy to any Outer viewpoint. I’m wondering whether McAuley covers the experiences of that faction in detail in the sequel, Gardens of the Sun. I’m not willing to believe that this was just some random omission – McAuley is too careful a craftsman to make such a basic mistake.

I particularly enjoyed Macey and Sri who are both well rounded, complex creations – neither are innately likeable, yet I was able to empathise with their dilemmas as the stakes become ever higher in the increasingly febrile political situation. It was interesting to compare how both women deal with the unfolding conflict, given that there are some obvious similarities along with their very different backgrounds. There is an implicit suggestion that had Macey enjoyed Sri’s advantages, she could have achieved similar success and status. McAuley does an effective job of providing a sophisticated Earth society with a variety of influences and differing agendas, while the Outer factions are less well defined. Though, I’m betting he’s going to get round to those in due course.

Loc Ifrahim is less successful. He starts off very well, but unfortunately towards the end of the story, he becomes too much of a caricature. There are plotlines that could have coped with that type of shorthand, but this isn’t one of them. McAuley’s initial approach is too nuanced and knowing to allow such a lapse to be anything other than a disappointment. The other fascinating character is Dave #8. Perhaps his journey is the most dramatic of all and I’m going to track down Gardens of the Sun in no small part because I want to discover what happens to him.

McAuley is an accomplished, experienced writer and when I realised that he would be devoting pages of detail to his invented world, I decided to go with the flow. After all, if it got too tediously wordy I could always abandon the book and pick up the next one on the pile teetering by my bedside. As it happened, I fell under the spell of his enthusiasm and rolling prose, growing to really enjoy the flights of imagination that had these fragile bubbles of life seeded in improbable crannies around the solar system.

Overall, I found The Quiet War an enjoyable, satisfying read and will be tracking down Gardens of the Sun to discover what happens next, and if your taste runs to the harder end of science fiction and you haven’t yet come across this little nugget, I recommend you do so.
9/10

Review of Overthrowing Heaven – Book 3 of the Jon and Lobo series by Mark L. Van Name

This is another excellent offering from Baen – which immediately tells those of you in the know that this is adventure space opera, with something of a military edge. There is plenty of action, with plot twists aplenty and two strong protagonists who fully engaged my sympathies and drew me into the world.

Jon Moore grew up on an island of outcasts and in a prison laboratory. When he escaped, memories of the things he’d done still haunted him and he often helped those in need. This particular adventure began as a favour to a woman trying to get away from an abusive household. However, his kindnesses frequently didn’t work out well. This one really didn’t work out well.

It hurled John and Lobo, the intelligent assault vehicle and Jon’s only friend, down an accelerating, dangerous spiral involving: private armies and government covert ops teams; a courtesan who always seems a step ahead of him; rival superpowers that define ethics as whatever doesn’t get in their way; and a brilliant, amoral scientist to whom human beings are just more experimental animals – and who might be Lobo’s creator.

I have to say that the book is better than it sounds on the blurb – I’m not convinced that their back-of-the book summaries are one of Baen’s strengths. However, there is nothing wrong with the quality of their current stable of authors – I’ve recently read a batch of Baen books which have all impressed me and Van Name is one more to add to the list.

His characterisation of Jon is extremely deftly done in first person viewpoint – we get a real sense of how damaged and closed off he is because of his horrific childhood. At times, this is played for laughs – Jon’s complete cluelessness with women and Lobo’s merciless teasing creates some welcome humour in amongst the ever-tightening tension. There are also times when Jon’s essential loneliness creates a real sense of poignancy. I also very much liked the fact that despite their formidable strengths, Lobo and Jon are not depicted as invincible. They are up against a major organisation and there is a realistic appreciation of just what a difficult business it is for an outsider to gain access to Wei, the unscrupulous scientist, whom Jon and Lobo are contracted to extract. The other aspect to this book, which is a recurring theme throughout, is that Jon is determined that no one should die unnecessarily. He constantly wants to use trank weapons and is concerned that injuries he inflicts on his opponents aren’t life threatening. In a genre where violence is a staple and bloodstained bodies are part of the landscape, I found this preoccupation both enjoyable and a refreshing change. Jon is very aware that it is only his moral compass that sets him apart from a monstrous killing machine – and doesn’t let the reader forget it, yet manages to avoid any kind of preaching. It’s a clever trick to pull off.

Van Name’s pacing is faultless. It zips along at an appreciable rate so that a 541 page book didn’t seem long, yet at no time what I ever left in any doubt exactly what was happening in any of the action scenes. He also manages to effectively provide the whole unfolding plotline from a single viewpoint without sliding into omniscient viewpoint or holding up the action with a lot of description – an achievement which is a great deal harder than Van Name makes it look. He also earns a gold star from me by managing to make a third book in a series sufficiently stand alone, that I didn’t feel I was missing anything by not having read the two earlier books, One Jump Ahead and Slanted Jack. Having said that, I’m definitely going to try and get hold of them – Van Name is a great storyteller whose world is worth another visit.

10/10

Review of The Empress of Mars by Kage Baker

Your gaze rests lovingly on your battered copy of Heinlein’s The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, wondering why no one writes like that anymore… Well, I’ve uncovered another gem in the same mould, folks. Based on Baker’s Hugo-nominated novella of the same name, this is space opera at its rollicking best. While still set in Baker’s world of The Company – her series about time-travelling immortals plundering Earth’s history – it is entirely stand-alone to the extent that you don’t need to be aware Baker has written anything else, in order to appreciate the story.

When the British Arean Company founded its Martian colony, it welcomed any settlers it could get. Outcasts, misfits and dreamers emigrated in droves to undertake the gruelling task of terraforming the cold red planet—only to be abandoned when the BAC discovered it couldn’t turn a profit on Mars.

This is the story of Mary Griffith, a determined woman with three daughters who opened the only joint selling alcohol on the Tharsis Bulge. As such, she and her bar, The Empress of Mars, are the beating heart of the bereft colony of eccentrics struggling to survive in the face of BAC’s corporate indifference. However, that indifference switches to something more threatening when an unexpected discovery suddenly makes Mars more important in the scheme of things…

A classic frontier tale of rugged individualistic grit pitted against shadowy religious and corporate ambition, Baker is very upfront about the influence of the Wild West in this book. This emphasis on the individual allows Baker free rein in her depiction of the gloriously mapcap characters peopling Mars as the plot weaves through a series of hurdles that Mary and her family have to scramble under and over. The characters leap off the page as the action sweeps them through edgy tense drama to humorous interludes verging on farce – classic Baker, in other words.

The setting is wonderfully realised. Mary’s bar… the Celtic settlement… the bleak red Martian landscape… without holding up the action, Baker has managed to make Mars and the Martian environment pivotal to the whole story – an element often missing in modern space opera. With their current obsession for character-driven plots and plenty of snappy dialogue, many modern writers treat their uniquely different science fiction settings with nonchalant carelessness. However, Baker never lets you forget that this is Mars – an untamed planet right on the edge of viability for human habitation.

All in all, a thoroughly enjoyable, well-crafted offering by a scandalously underrated writer, who tragically died at the beginning of last year after a brave battle with cancer. I’ve been banging on about her Company novels ever since I accidentally stumbled across them a couple of years ago. Give yourself a treat, track down this book – and you’ll see why…
10/10

Review of ‘The Serrano Legacy’ by Elizabeth Moon

I’ve been mooning during this last week – and no… I’m not baring anything in this bitterly cold weather. Or staring vacantly into space while dreaming of a special someone. No – I’ve been immersed in Elizabeth Moon’s world in this omnibus edition of the first three books in this excellent series – Hunting Party, Sporting Chance and Winning Colours.

Heris Serrano was an officer born of a long line of officers. A life serving in the ranks of the Regular Space Service was all she had ever known or wanted – until a treacherous superior officer forced her to resign her commission. This was not just the end of a career path; it was the end of everything that gave her life meaning.

Heris finds employment as ‘Captain’ of an interstellar luxury yacht. Being a rich old woman’s chauffeur isn’t quite the same as captaining a Fleet cruiser, but nothing Heris will ever do again could compare with that. Or so she thinks. For all is not as it seems aboard the Sweet Delight.
And there you have it – in next to no time, Moon has swept you up into Heris Serrano’s adventure as this sympathetic, well rounded protagonist leaps off the page with just the right mix of spikiness and vulnerability. Moon also excels at pacing, alternating the building tension with the action, so that I didn’t want to put this down – but read far into the small hours to get to the end of this blockbuster. Each story is sufficiently self contained so that if you’re not fortunate enough to have these books back to back, I think you would still be able to read them out of sequence and quickly find your bearings – a trick that many other writers seem unable to successfully manage.

This series of books was written back in the early 90’s, but Orbit’s smart move in reprinting this omnibus edition proves their pedigree because these novels wear their age well. Indeed, I’m willing to bet that the current crop of women writing successful space opera – the likes of Mary Rosenblum, Marianne de Pierres and Laura E. Reeve, for example, have read and enjoyed Moon.

On a practical note, the only major glitch in my enjoyment has been hefting a brick-sized book running to some 1,100 pages while reading in bed. But I’d better get used to it – the other four books in the Serrano series are also available in two further omnibus editions, which I’ve already ordered from the library…
9/10