Plot summary
As the novel opens, things are in disarray in the Familias Regnant. Lord Kemtre's monarchy has fallen as a result of the events in Hunting Party and Sporting Chance which led to the revelation of the king's illegal use of biological clones as doubles; Lord Thornbuckle ("Bunny"; Brun's father) has taken the reins of government. Crises abound: a young and foolish Family member disappears on the fractious and restless world of Patchcock; there are concerns that the drug supply for curing aging is being adulterated by the Benignity; and other concerns that Brun is somehow in danger.
The Fleet, too, is restless and ill at ease; lurking and awaiting their chance is the Benignity of the Compassionate Hand (the "Black Scratch"), which has begun preparing an invasion.
The recently rejuvenated and cured Lady Cecelia de Marktos has decided to channel her recently acquired youthful energy into breeding horses, using the Sweet Delight (legally now Heris's as a result of a bequest in Cecelia's will which was executed whilst Cecelia was incapacitated, but de facto Cecelia's) to visit the frontier world of Xavier (which specializes in horses), with the added complication of Brun aboard working as a low-level apprentice technician.
Meanwhile, Ron and George are dispatched to the Guerini Republic. Ostensibly, they are there to get Ron away from his lover Raffaele, whose family refuses to countenance their marriage, and also to retrieve some information about Cecelia's treatment there. The true reason they are there is that, at the request of Bunny, they are taking some of the suspected adulterated rejuvenation drugs to be compared against the original known good Guerini products. While waiting on the test results, they accidentally run into the manumitted clones of the dead prince; to protect their secret, the two surviving clones take Ron and George prisoner, until the trailing Raffaele tracks them down. The clones need their help because the former king is also trying to track them down, as they are his only surviving sons, in a sense. Ron, George, and Raffaele help the clones assume new identities in exchange for them freeing Ron and George.
Freed, they learn that the Guerini had discovered that the rejuvenation drugs, supposedly of Guerini manufacture, were in reality being shoddily produced on Patchcock and fraudulently sold at the higher price.
Meanwhile, Heris has been quietly ferrying around Cecelia and a special guest: Livadhi's secret weapon, a remarkable scan technician named Koutsoudas.
A raider out of the anarchic and barbaric conglomerate known as Aethar's World visits Xavier and is blown into space dust by the Sweet Delight. Unfortunately, this display of martial expertise is insufficient to intimidate the Benignity observer, who reports back that Xavier has only minimal defenses; this report initiates the invasion, as Xavier is strategically situated.
Heris's desperate pleas for assistance against the coming strike to the local Fleet headquarters succeeds only in roping in a cruiser and two patrol boasts - all commanded by traitors in the pay of the Benignity. After Koutsoudas's spying on the command crew sorts out traitors from loyalists, Heris lays and executes her plan: she has invited aboard to dine with all of the senior officers, along with some of her "officers" (really her best hand-to-hand combat fighters). When closeted away with the traitors, she quickly kills them and takes over the cruiser using the hidden computer authority which her aunt Admiral Vida Serrano had had created specifically for her to use in such a situation. Heris bluffs her way into command of the cruiser (claiming that she was really still in Fleet, and that her court-martial had been arranged to serve as a plausible excuse for leaving Fleet when she went undercover), and of one patrol boat. The third patrol boat, the Despite, escapes and warns the incoming Benignity fleet of what awaits them.
Through a lot of luck (such as mechanical problems for the foe) and some excellent micro-jumping tactics by the defenders and the unexpected assistance of the Despite, whose crew had mutinied, and now captained by a jig named Esmay Suiza (who figures more prominently in the next three books), the invading fleet is destroyed and the system held until it is relieved by a Familias battle group under Admiral Serrano, who reveals to Heris that she had been deliberately maneuvering and aiding Heris to use her as a lightning rod to flush out traitors and blunt Benignity incursions. Now imbued with Fleet imprimatur, Heris travels with Cecelia to Patchcock, where together they help an aunt of the Family concerned kick her felonious brothers out of corporate control, and rescue the youngsters, all the while defeating the Benignity-encouraged terrorists who had killed the young Family member.
At the end, Brun decides to take Fleet training; George begins following after his father in law school; Raffaele and Ron quasi-elope to a frontier world colony to build a life of their own; Heris and her crew rejoin Fleet, while Heris finally is reconciled with her parents over their betrayal of her during her court-martial, and Cecelia decides to captain a new vessel on her own while continuing to raise horses.
HMS Manchester was a Town-class light cruiser built for the Royal Navy in the late 1930s, one of three ships in the Gloucester subclass. Completed in 1938, she was initially deployed with the East Indies Station and had a relatively short but active career. When World War II began in September 1939, the cruiser began escorting convoys in the Indian Ocean until she was ordered home two months later. In late December Manchester began conducting patrols in the Norwegian Sea enforcing the blockade of Germany. Beginning in April 1940 the ship played a minor role in the Norwegian Campaign, mostly escorting convoys. She was assigned to anti-invasion duties in May–November in between refits.
HMS Courageous was the lead ship of the Courageous-class cruisers built for the Royal Navy during the First World War. Designed to support the Baltic Project championed by First Sea Lord John Fisher, the ship was very lightly armoured and armed with only a few heavy guns. Courageous was completed in late 1916 and spent the war patrolling the North Sea. She participated in the Second Battle of Heligoland Bight in November 1917 and was present when the German High Seas Fleet surrendered a year later.
USS St. Louis (CL-49), eighth of nine Brooklyn-class light cruisers, was the fifth ship of the United States Navy named after the city of St. Louis, Missouri. Commissioned in 1939, she was very active in the Pacific during World War II, earning eleven battle stars.
USS Hoel (DD-533) was a World War II-era Fletcher-class destroyer in the service of the United States Navy, named after Lieutenant Commander William R. Hoel.
USS Bulmer (DD-222/AG-86) was a Clemson-class destroyer in the United States Navy during World War II. She was named for Captain Roscoe Bulmer, and was the last warship of the Asiatic Fleet in USN commission.
Yahagi (矢矧) was an Agano-class cruiser which served with the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) during World War II.
Ellen Jane Carr is an English actress. She is well known for the voice role of "Pud'n" on the animated The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy. She also played a character called "Pudding" in the Jilly Cooper-penned BBC sitcom It's Awfully Bad For Your Eyes, Darling.
USS Preston (DD–379) was a Mahan-class destroyer in the United States Navy before and during World War II. She was the fifth Navy ship named for Lieutenant Samuel W. Preston (1840–1865).
SMS Cöln was a Kolberg-class light cruiser of the German Kaiserliche Marine during the First World War. She had three sister ships, SMS Kolberg, Mainz, and Augsburg. She was built by the Germaniawerft; her hull was laid down in 1908 and she was launched in June 1909. Cöln was commissioned into the High Seas Fleet in June 1911. She was armed with a main battery of twelve 10.5 cm SK L/45 guns and had a top speed of 25.5 kn. After her commissioning, she served with the II Scouting Group, part of the reconnaissance forces of the High Seas Fleet.
The Familias Regnant is the name of the government of an area of the galaxy in the distant future from the Serrano series of books written by Elizabeth Moon. In the early books of the Serrano Legacy, the government is headed by a monarchy. As the story progresses, the abdication of the King after the Cloning Scandal caused the Council to appoint an elected official to govern.
Abukuma (阿武隈) was the sixth and last of the Nagara class of light cruisers completed for the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN), and like other vessels of her class, she was intended for use as the flagship of a destroyer flotilla. She was named after the Abukuma River in the Tōhoku region of Japan. She saw action during World War II in the Attack on Pearl Harbor and in the Pacific, before being disabled in the Battle of Surigao Strait in October 1944, then bombed and sunk by the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) off the coast of the Philippines.
Zhemchug was the second of the two-vessel Izumrud class of protected cruisers built for the Imperial Russian Navy. She was sunk during World War I by the German light cruiser Emden in the Battle of Penang.
Sporting Chance is a science fiction novel, written by Elizabeth Moon. Published in 1994, it is the second novel in the Familias Regnant fictional universe, and the second in the Heris Serrano trilogy. It follows on the heels of Hunting Party and is followed by Winning Colors.
Once a Hero is a science fiction novel by Elizabeth Moon. It is the first of the three books of the Esmay Suiza trilogy in Moon's fictional Familias Regnant universe, following the three of the Heris Serrano trilogy.
Rules of Engagement is a science fiction novel written by Elizabeth Moon. It is the fifth in her Familias Regnant fictional universe. Following Once a Hero, it is the second novel in the informal Esmay Suiza trilogy; despite a major increase in focus on the character Brun Meager, Esmay Suiza still plays a major role.
Hunting Party is a science fiction novel by Elizabeth Moon. It is the first novel set in her Familias Regnant fictional universe, and the first novel in the informal Heris Serrano trilogy. It is followed by Sporting Chance and Winning Colors.
Change of Command is a science fiction novel by Elizabeth Moon, first published in 1999. It is set in her Familias Regnant fictional universe, and is the third novel in the informal Esmay Suiza trilogy.
Against the Odds is a science fiction novel by Elizabeth Moon. It is her seventh and last novel set in the Familias Regnant fictional universe. It does not fall in either informal trilogy ; fittingly it does not focus on any particular character, instead a more general, almost kaleidoscopic perspective of the upheaval in the Familias Regnant, and the rise to power of a new and more capable Speaker. It can be seen as a conclusion to the series, resolving or at least making a good start at resolving many issues and peoples and ending as it does on a memorializing elegiac note.
The Active-class cruisers were a trio of scout cruisers built for the Royal Navy shortly before the First World War. They were initially assigned to the First Fleet and became destroyer flotilla leaders in 1914. Amphion and Fearless and their flotillas were assigned to the Harwich Force when the war began in August 1914. They went out on a patrol on the first day of the war and Amphion and her destroyers encountered and sank a German minelayer. On the voyage home, the cruiser struck a mine laid by the German ship and sank. She was the first ship of the Royal Navy to be sunk in the war.
Cassard was a D'Assas-class protected cruiser built for the French Navy in the 1890s. The D'Assas-class cruisers were ordered as part of a construction program directed at strengthening the fleet's cruiser force at a time the country was concerned with the growing naval threat of the Italian and German fleets. The new cruisers were intended to serve with the main fleet and overseas in the French colonial empire. Cassard was armed with a main battery of six 164 mm (6.5 in) guns, was protected by an armor deck that was 70 to 80 mm thick, and was capable of steaming at a top speed of 20 knots.
