Winning Colours

Winning Colours concludes Elizabeth Moon's "Serrano Legacy" adventure-SF trilogy, whose previous novels are Hunting Party and Sporting Chance. Captain Heris and her cranky but highly acute patron Lady Cecelia are in their tightest corner yet, visiting a planet that's due to be torched by a raiding fleet from the villainous Benignity of the Compassionate Hand. Only their lightly armed space-yacht Sweet Delight stands in the way: the official defence force is commanded by traitors. Of course resourceful Heris contrives a daring last-ditch scheme, but still seems doomed ... Another storyline features the various young, foolhardy offspring of merchant princes and clones of royal scions who repeatedly risked their necks in previous books, and here tangle with revolutionaries enraged by the concentration of galactic power in the hands of repeatedly rejuvenated oldies. En route there's a fair bit about horse-breeding, and a tongue-in-cheek justification for sound effects during space-battles in vacuum. After subjecting her characters to nail-biting peril (with one small mystery frustratingly unresolved), Moon dishes out happy endings with a touch of sentiment that goes down well--since we've come to like most of these people. And, just as in P.G. Wodehouse, the prime motive force in the galaxy turns out to be aunts. Enjoyable reading. - David Langford, AMAZON.CO.UK