Rules of engagement - Elizabeth Moon

Esmay Suiza, one of Fleet's most gifted young officers, and Brun Meager, daughter of the Speaker of the Grand Council, have a lot in common - they're both bright, brave, likeable and adventurous. But far from becoming the best of friends, a string of misunderstandings leads to a very public argument, and their enmity is soon the talk of Copper Mountain training base. When Brun falls into the hands of a fanatical religious militia movement Esmay finds herself in disgrace, suspected of conniving in Brun's abduction. Far from hating her, however, Esmay understands Brun better than anyone else, and knows that she has the best chance of coming up with a plan to save her. But will anyone in Fleet listen long enough to give her a second chance?

RULES OF ENGAGEMENT is the fifth volume of The Serrano Legacy, an action-packed science fiction series from this highly acclaimed author. More information on this book and others can be found on the Orbit website at www.orbitbooks.co.uk

Elizabeth Moon served in the US Marine Corps, reaching the rank of 1st Lieutenant during active duty. She has also earned degrees in history and biology, run for public office and been a columnist on her local newspaper. She lives near Austin, Texas, with her husband and their son. Twenty-six of her books are in print, and she won the Nebula Award with her science fiction novelSpeed of Dark(also shortlisted for the Clarke Award), and was a finalist for the Hugo in 1997.

"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 serie s' 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

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 suffer
David Langford, AMAZON.CO.UK REVIEW