Helpful Score: 3
Moon's dazzling Heris Serrano series relates events in a fascinating interstellar milieu. The latest installment follows young Fleet Lieutenant Esmay Suiza after the mutiny and space battle detailed in Winning Colors (1995). Esmay returns to her home planet, where she is a member of an aristocratic family, and learns the hidden secret of her childhood. The fleet then reassigns her to inglorious duty on a massive space base, on which she must come to terms with both her background and her military career while facing ever-present danger from enemy forces ready to strike. 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. She even achieves the seemingly impossible by deftly making naval maintenance and logistics the stuff of riveting fiction. A resplendent addition to Moon's already impressive catalog.
