I wrote this for my SFF Net newsgroup back in, I think, 2001. It serves, actually, as a sort of summary review for all seven Familias Regnant novels -- called Serrano and Suiza at ISFDB, though to be honest I think the best name was coined by James Davis Nicoll: Aunts in Space. I don't think there are terrible specific spoilers for the book, though certainly some idea of the overall shape of the series hints at the results of the first few books.
Review: Against the Odds, by Elizabeth Moon
by Rich Horton
The two main characters in the novels are women in the Familias space Navy, Heris Serrano and Esmay Suiza. Heris is somewhat older than Esmay: the series starts with her having been cashiered from her position as a Captain.
As the series continues, she is restored to her position, and begins to advance as expected for members of her family, a powerful traditional Navy family. Esmay is a minor character in the third novel who becomes the focus of the last four novels: she is from an isolated planet, one of the first people from her planet to join the Navy, and she is unaware of her potential to be a ship commander until Heris takes her as sort of a protege. The threads in the novels that follow Heris, Esmay, and other Navy people with smaller roles (Heris' nephew Barin Serrano, Ensign Margiu Pardalt, various crewmembers) focus heavily on military action and military values. However, to call Heris and Esmay the main characters, while true, is somewhat deceiving, because a number of other characters have very prominent roles. Most notable perhaps is Lady Cecelia Marktos, a rather apolitical member of one of the ruling families. She begins as a horse-mad old lady in the first (least serious) novel, Hunting Party, and develops into a very formidable character throughout the series. (Lady Cecelia, and perhaps the fact that Heris is also an aunt, and something about the tone of at least the first couple of books, caused James Nicoll to dub this series "Aunts in Space", a very cute, if not wholly precise, collective title.) Other important characters are a number of relatives and connections of Lady Cecelia, especially Brun Meager, a young woman who develops from a society airhead into a political power. These characters allow Moon to focus on political issues as well as military issues. There are also some minor characters from outside the Familias: the occasional villain, as well as for example (in the last couple books) Goonar Terakian, a free trader.
The series ends up following an overall story arc that covers the political changes mentioned above, many of which are driven by a series of crises involving the use of rejuvenation drugs, which allow people with sufficient money or connections to live very extended lives. Moon makes a good effort, throughout the series, of presenting some of the social problems this might cause, and suggesting at least a couple of possible solutions (particularly in the last book). The other story elements, which tend to dominate one or two books at a time, are unrest in the Navy, especially the mutiny which drives the action in the last two books, and external threats, from the sinister Benignity of the Compassionate Hand, from the pirate worlds of the Bloodhorde, and from an independent planet settled by some Texan right wing nuts.
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 colorful space opera, with engaging characters and neat action.
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