Product Description

Esmay Suiza, a very junior-grade lieutenant from a non-Fleet family, had surprised herself and everyone else by becoming the youngest and lowest-ranking member of Fleet ever to win a major battle. Finding herself the senior surviving officer in a mutiny against a treacherous captain, she'd had no choice - it was do or die. And she'd risen to the challenge with flying colours, saving Heris Serrano and her crew in the process. But instead of offering congratulations, Fleet are barraging her with awkward questions. And her actions, successful though they were, have landed her in the firing line of a court martial for treason ...ONCE A HERO is the fourth volume of The Serrano Legacy, an action-packed science fiction series from an author who has 'established herself as one of the best-known and most acclaimed writers of SF adventure' (PUBLISHERS WEEKLY)

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #443334 in Books
• Published on: 2000-01-20
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 410 pages

Review
'A highly entertaining adventure ... thrilling' LOCUS 'A satisfying read, full of the finely detailed settings and excitement that Moon's readers have come to expect' Publishers Weekly 'Moon's mastery of contemporary science fiction is evident in every line. The characters spring to life on the page, the intricacies of societies are astutely explored, and the pace never flags.' Booklist

Publishers Weekly
`A satisfying read, full of the finely detailed settings and excitement that Moon's readers have come to expect'

Booklist
`Moon's mastery of contemporary science fiction is evident in every line...'

Customer Reviews

Another "cover to cover in one session" winner
I was highly dubious about the replacement of Heris Serrano with Esmay Suiza however she started as an adequate replacement and ended as a much better heroine. Where Heris was already on the chain of command, Esmay is a techie ensign and not a very good one. She has to struggle with hero worship but the author keeps the character's feet on the ground. It was thoroughly enjoyable and like the previous three books in the Serrano Legacy, I read it from cover to cover in one sitting. If you want to read a believable Sci-fi book that doesn't require a PhD in Astro-Physics look no further.

Good, honest space adventure.
The hero of the story, Lt Esmay Suiza, appeared near the end of "Winning Colors". At that point she had just participated in a mutiny in which she was the senior survivor and followed it up with the destruction of the enemy flagship when the battle was all but lost. Starting at that point Moon takes us through the Captain's Board and the court-martial and then into a home-coming fraught with reprisals of early childhood trauma. Then things get interesting. In all Moon did her usual thorough job with the details of ships and their internal arrangements. The problems associated with the enemy boarding and the follow-up attempts to re-take control are well thought out and are completely consistent with my own experience with aircraft carriers and other large ships. One reviewer claimed that this was a flaw in the story. It is, in fact, the most realistic part of the story. Large ships are easy to take and difficult to hold. Underway there are no security guards, guns are locked up, no one is armed and nobody watches security monitors that closely. The worst problem with large specialty ships is that the crew forgets that it is part of a military organization, they get focussed on the job they do and forget the larger picture just like Moon depicted. On the down side, Moon went to extraordinary lengths to explain Suiza as a self-doubter caused by early trauma. This was unnecessary and detracted from Suiza's charm. In many ways Suiza's self-effacing manner and personality was a clone of CS Forrester's hero, Hornblower. Forrester did not try to explain Hornblower as the outcome of a rape, on the contrary, Forrester saw Hornblower the result of an extraordinary intellect hampered and enhanced by character flaws of one of the less common personality types. This is where Suiza should have remained. Other than that it was good fun and a good read. Hats off to the guy that EM credits with laying out the commando infiltration. He is certainly capable and perhaps should be convinced to try his hand a plotting something of his own. He's got Clancy's sort of mind.

fast paced action
I like this series because they are based upon strong but realistic female heroines. The characters seem more real because of their human strengths and weaknesses. The plot is action packed with just the right amount of adventure spiced with a bit of romance and of course my favourite it is set in space.