Winning Colors
(Serrano Legacy #3)

Elizabeth Moon

Riverdale: Baen, 1995. ISBN: 0-671-87677-5. Pp. 409

Review © 2007 Branislav L. Slantchev

This is one of the best in the series. After a promising start and a somewhat dissatisfying sequel, Moon finally hits her stride with the third novel in the Serrano Legacy series. Recall that the monarchy of the Familias Regnant fell upon revelations of illegal conduct by the king, and that now the Familias are in political turmoil. Heris is still Lady Cecelia's captain and although now she owns Sweet Delight, the rejuvenated Cecelia is effectively using it as her exclusive charter. They take off to the obscure Xavier where Cecelia can look for horse sperm. The planet does not have much going for it except that it is strategically placed for invasion by the Benignity. There is no doubt that the Compassionate Hand will plan their attack to coincide precisely with Heris's presence in that system!

Leaving aside the astonishing coincidence (surely a hallmark of subpar plotting), that part of the story is actually the more fascinating one. Finally Heris gets to display some of that remarkable tactical skill that everyone's talking about but which has not been in much evidence in the first two novels (aside from some references to her run-in with Lepescu). That she destroys a decoy raider with her souped-up "yacht" is not surprising. What she does next, however, is pretty darn gutsy. When her own Navy battle group (well, three ships really) shows up in the system, she is at first relieved that the R.S.S. is sending help in response to her request. But then it turns out that these three ships are commanded by traitors who are here to facilitate the Benignity invasion.

What is one to do except kill the traitors, take over their command, and fight off the invasion fleet against odds so long that one could walk on them back to Castle Rock? Although she's not quite up to Weber battle standards, Moon can hold her own and does so here in a flurry of excitement not in the least diminished by the fact that I knew how it would end (having read about Esmay Suiza's exploits on the Despite in the fourth book in the series that I read out of chronological order). There are also a few chuckles squeezed in between the fights (as in Heris recalling some oddball captain who reprogrammed the battle sound simulator to emit sounds of classical instruments instead of explosions).

The other potentially strong sub-story that, unfortunately, goes unfulfilled is the rejuvenation problem. This is the books in which it is discussed at length and although Moon notes various social problems that it may cause, there is very little about how one might go about resolving it. We are told that the Guernesi have a stable society despite it (apparently due to strict birth control) but all I can tell from what's happening in the Familias, is that the only plausible course to relieve the pressure is expansion. Precisely what scares the Benignity, which is perhaps why they are so busy infiltrating Fleet and meddling with the rejuv drugs. Moon could have explored this in more depth, I think: a society pushed toward war of conquest because of the insatiable need of its wealthier citizens to live forever. That, or internal revolution. But Moon, so thoroughly enthralled with the aristocrats and their fox-hunting horse-loving hobbies, would have none of that.

The third strand in the story is mostly a red herring. Ronnie and George are sent to the Guernesi to figure out of someone has tampered with the rejuv drugs. They meet the two surviving clones of the non-surviving Prince (yeah, like that's bloody likely), who kidnap them in order to preserve the secret of their existence (biosculpt would have made it so much easier). When Lord Thornbuckle packs off Raffa to find the disappeared youths (yeah, no more competent and trustworthy agent to send), she stumbles across the King (talk about coincidences) and the clones (ok, this is getting a bit too much now). She then finds Ronnie who has been temporarily released by the clones and manages to convince said murderous clones not to murder anyone (the argument with cookies, no doubt, as it could not have been logic). Then all of them run into the aunt of a girl who had earlier been killed by some anti-rejuv workers on the planet that provides some source materials for the rejuv drugs (that's three incredible coincidences right here), and for no discernible reason the trio decides to go investigate.

It seems that Moon ran out of steam with that subplot and so the ending is such a hash, one may think it was ghost-written by someone waiting in a lounge to board his flight in 10 minutes. The trio goes to the pesky planet where they nearly get themselves killed by said disgruntled workers. They survive because during the murder attempt George googles the description of his assailants and discovers that one of them is wearing contact lenses to pretend he has blue eyes (genetic trait for those workers). That said workers would have missed this little fact for so long not only stretches credulity but, since credulity has already been stretched past its breaking point, merely rips the pieces to shreds. At any rate, there's a final flurry of activity as three (count 'em, three, and, if you include Vida Serrano, four) aunts straighten out fiscal, political, military, and love matters with an efficiency that would put any totalitarian state to shame.

Despite this atrocious and worthless subplot (whose ramifications will sort of become semi-important later on), the book is a jolly good read, especially if one skips the damnable horse breeding descriptions. I wish Moon would just lay off the horses but no such luck. I think I will not read more of her stuff until somebody produces a cogent argument about the Vatta Wars series... and proves beyond reasonable doubt that Moon won't be sneaking in any horse motifs.

March 28, 2007