Rules of Engagement

'"The Serrano Legacy", an entertaining SF sequence with strong female leads and a realistic space-military flavour, began with Hunting Party (1993). Young lieutenant Esmay Suiza came to stage centre in book four: Rules of Engagement is book five, continuing her story. Suiza may be a fine leader and tactician, but she doesn't know how to handle falling for Ensign Barin Serrano, a man she outranks. Frictions in command training school worsen when well-born beauty Brun makes a play for Serrano: Suiza's explosion of temper blights her career. Then Brun falls into the hands of the series' most plausibly nasty villains to date, a murderous, Bible-thumping militia that controls several planets where women are kept well down and--if they protest--surgically deprived of their voices. Moon remarks: ... it would be not only useless but dishonest to pretend that the New Texas God-fearing Militia did not derive its nature from elements all too close to home, in Waco, Fort Davis and even Oklahoma City. The "Nutex" have also grabbed a nuclear arms cache for Oklahoma-style terrorist bombing in Familias space, home of the Fleet in which Suiza and Serrano are officers. Multiple storylines cover Suiza's wrestle with her public and private life, Brun's sufferings and determination, Serrano's ups and downs with unwritten rules of command, and eventually a risky rescue mission into a Nutex solar system. Things work out excitingly and as they should. This is an enjoyable interstellar adventure, more harrowing than previous episodes. The next and final volume is Change of Command.' - David Langford, AMAZON.CO.UK REVIEW