Hoo-rah! Elizabeth Moon, former United States Marine Corps officer turned author, has brought to life Lt. Esmay Suiza, a woman whose talents as a leader of men and women had been hidden away until adversity brought them to light. The daughter of a powerful military and political figure back on her home planet of Altiplano, Esmay is not content with the home and hearth role that women are given. And so another heroine is born.

Previous to the opening of Once A Hero, Esmay has left home and completed her training in the Familias Fleet Academy. Although allied with the Familias Regnant, Altiplano maintains separate political bodies and a militia of its own, so to Fleet, Esmay is merely an intelligent and dedicated outsider who has no patrons to act as advocate or sponsor for her advancement. Therefore when she chose a technical track, no one was there to plead, demand, or say otherwise.

Esmay was happy. Fleet was happy. She should have lived a nice, quiet, normal life.

But then life rarely goes that way, right?

Unfortunately for Esmay a mutiny aboard her ship set off a chain of events that resulted in her becoming the senior officer onboard and successfully leading her people into battle. It caused Fleet to take another long look at this outsider and wonder how they might have missed her now legendary ability to lead and lead well.

All would seem to be going well for Esmay when she is assigned to the deep space repair ship Koskiusko where she is to continue her training as a tech. The only problem is that once again fate steps in and calls her to function according to her gifts; as leader, troubleshooter, risk taker, miracle maker, and hero.

Rules of Engagement finds Esmay back in training, this time with her courses doubled as she has finally decided to accept her true call to duty leaving little time to pursue her first ever romance with Ensign Barin Serrano whom she met during her adventures aboard the Koskiusko. To make matters worse, Brun Meager, the daughter of the Speaker of the Grand Council, the most powerful man in the Familias Regnant, decides that she and Esmay are destined to be the best of friends.

With little time, privacy, personal space, or self-esteem and with more than an inkling that the other woman is interested in Barin, Esmay finally has enough of Brun's careless and reckless disregard for others and tears her a new one causing the other woman to scurry off with her tail between her legs. It's a thing of beauty to read. Unfortunately Esmay's predictions about Brun's behavior prove all to accurate as one of her rash decisions leads her straight into an ambush. Every scathing word comes back to haunt Brun as first her guards are killed because of her foolishness and then she is taken prisoner by cultists.

The hell that Brun is subjected to at the hands of the cult members is more than any one person should have to endure. The subsequent hell that Esmay catches for her outburst almost sabotages the rescue effort by denying her the chance to contribute her many talents, but gains her a powerful ally. There are rescue missions plotted and executed, many satisfying ass kickings given, and, as in any good yarn, the good guys emerge triumphant.

My only problem with both books regards the issue of rape. While I am aware that it has happened, does happen, will probably always happen, its presence/mention in both novels puts me in mind of those cheap, pulp romance -- crotch novels as a friend called them -- where the heroine must suffer every indignity before she is allowed to find peace and happiness in her lover's arms. I fear that Moon considers this almost a rite of passage that every strong female character must overcome in order to find her true potential. I may have to investigate Moon's next "Esmay Suiza" novel, Change of Command, and her "Heris Serrano" series to see if this disturbing prediction runs true.

-- Linda M. Najera

Once a Hero and Rules of Engagement are published by Baen and are available in paperback. Change of Command is published by Baen and is available in hardback.

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