Type of bind: Hardcover
Format: Bargain Price
Label: Baen Books
Manufacturer: Baen Books
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 400
Printing Date: December 01, 1998
Publishing house: Baen Books
Sale Popularity Level: 363335
Studio: Baen Books
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Editor's Notes and Comments:
Amazon.com:
'The Serrano Legacy,' an entertaining SF sequence with strong female leads and a realistic space-military flavor, began with Hunting Party. Young lieutenant Esmay Suiza came to center stage in book 4: Rules of Engagement is book 5, 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 series' most plausibly nasty villains to date, a murderous, Bible-thumping militia that controls several planets where women are kept down and--if they protest--are surgically deprived of their voices. Moon remarks:
... it would be not only useless but dishonest to pretend that the New Texas Godfearing Militia did not derive its nature from elements all too close to home, in Waco, Fort Davis, and even Oklahoma City.
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 story lines cover Suiza's wrestle with her public and private life, Brun's sufferings and determination, Serrano's ups and downs with unwritten rules of command, and eventually a risky rescue mission into a Nutex solar system. Things work out excitingly and as they should. This is enjoyable interstellar adventure that is more harrowing than previous episodes. The subsequent and final volume is Change of Command. --David Langford, Amazon.co.uk
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers 
-
If you haven't read everything she's written, at least give it a try.....
I have...
Rated by buyers -
This is by far the best of the Seranno/Suiza stories. It concerns Brun, the spoiled rich girl, from the Seranno series and Esmay Suiza, the heroine of ONCE A HERO. It also includes as fine an assortment of nut jobs as has graced the page.
Esmay is a young naval professional set to further her career and a series of training courses. Brun is the spoiled daughter of the very first minister of the government. She has had her own adventure but has never learned a sense of discipline. Brun wants to be Esmay's buddy but Esmay is taking a double class load. Even more damning, Esmay sees her as a rival for her "boyfriend". The two have a loud argument and Brun stalks off.
Such behavior is unprofessional and frowned upon by the brass but would be nothing worse if Brun hadn't immediately gotten herself kidnapped by some nut cases with very archaic views of women. She is effectively taken as a slave and breeder and the Speaker is livid. He blames Esmay. Others with their own agendas blame her as well and she is disgraced. Some even suggest that she worked in collusion with the cultists. Now, the only way for everybody to be happy is for Brun to be rescued and Esmay is the best suited to take part. Due to the political ramifications, though, her services are not wanted. She just has to do it anyway.
The characters is this story are much more engaging than in the previous ones. The story is more gripping as well. The previous books were enjoyable but this one was exciting. I look forward to more.
Rated by buyers -
Oh, dear. Another series has me hooked, and this one's got - gasp! - seven books in it. What's worse, I've begun reading them out of order since "Rules of Engagement" is the second of four Esmay Suiza novels which follow (and in a sense continue) the Heris Serrano trilogy. Author Moon has created a believable universe, the kind in which a speculative fiction reader who's particularly fond of strong-but-flawed female protagonists can't help but get immersed.
I have two complaints about "Rules of Engagement." First, it told me repeatedly how Esmay and Brun compared to each other when I could and did figure that out for myself from their actions and their words. Second, I'm getting tired of the obligatory female war hero who needs remedial instruction in (shades of Nancy Kwan) how to enjoy being a girl. Despite those two peeves, though, I loved this book. It delivered action, a textured background, and a varied cast of characters with each functioning as an individual. I'm looking forward to reading more.
Rated by buyers -
__________________________________________
Rules is the sequel to Once a Hero (97), and shares some supporting
characters with the "Heris Serrano" trilogy (1993-95). It's reasonably
self-contained, though you'll enjoy it more if you've read some of
the preceeding books, all of which I've liked.
Esmay Suiza (the Hero) is a likeably nerdy young officer. Her heroic
exploits overshadow her difficult childhood, her love life is terrible,
she's had a bad-hair *life*... When Brun, rich, spoiled & beautiful,
breezes into her life with hairdressing tips, & then goes after Esmay's
secret beau... Well! Another reviewer (alright, Christina Schulman)
comments that "these confident, decisive people behave like
insecure teenagers when they're thrown together at Command
School..." Ah, but I think that's precisely Moon's point -- Cupid's
tardy arrow will turn someone like Esmay, a seriously repressed
overachiever, to instant mush. Personal resonance here: Ms. Moon
and I were classmates at Rice in the mid-sixties (though I don't
think we ever met), and I'm willing to bet she was a TRG, just as I
was a TRB -- earnest, nerdy, bad hair, socially-awkward, sexually-
repressed... oh god, it's excruciating just to think about those times...
Anyway, Moon's delightfully Wodehousian aunts-in-space arrive
just in time to save Esmay's butt (and career), and young love
prevails... As usual, Moon's fast-&-furious action, meticulous
military-medical backgrounding, and formidable storytelling skills
carry the day. There's another Suiza-Serrano-Familias novel
coming, and I'm looking forward to it.
Rules is Moon's fifth book set in her Familias Regnant
universe -- a rather implausible interstellar plutocracy with
corruption/kleptocracy/rejuvenation problems -- threatened
by, eg, the Bloodhorde barbs-in-space (Hero) and the NuTexas
Godfearing Militia (Rules). This background was light
entertainment for the Heris Serrano series, but Ms. Moon seems
to have a bit deeper intentions for the Esmay Suiza books, and the
backstory creaks ominously under the load. After this OCC (obligatory
critical carp), I should note that she is simply carrying on an historic
space-opera convention, and the the scratchy backstory will interfere
little (if at all) with your reading pleasure.
Happy reading!
Pete Tillman
Rated by buyers 
-
After finishing Once a Hero and thoroughly enjoying it, I immediately purchased Rules of Engagement. In this novel, the story is split between Esmay Suiza, her potential love interest Barin Serrano and Brun Meager, the beautiful, spoilt, headstrong daughter of a rich and influential political leader.
Brun latches onto Esmay at Copper Mountain, a military training facility where both are taking classes. Esmay simply doesn't have time to play friend, tutor and mentor to this very pushy, outgoing yet charming woman because she has switched from technical to command track and has to double up on courses. Esmay does like Brun and tries to be pleasant, but Brun also flirts with Barin, the young man Esmay likes. Esmay doesn't know how to handle liking Barin or Brun flirtations and it strains their relationship to the point of an explosive argument between the 2 women. Esmay is disgraced and Brun storms off and gets kidnapped by a radical group of villains whose beliefs allow them to oppress and mistreat women.
The rest of the novel jumps between characters...the reaction of Brun's father to her kidnapping, the rescue effort, Esmay, Barin, Brun, her fellow captors, the villains, the villains wives...I found there were pages I wanted to skip because I just didn't care or find the information relevant. I always enjoy the parts of the story when Esmay is on Altiplano, but that is a small part of this book. I also don't understand why in a book about a completely made up future universe, Moon would decide to pick Texas, a place that exists in America yesterday and make our descendents evolve into crazy extremists in her book. Why offend her readers when she could just as easily have made these villains based on a fictitious culture? I did think the book was readable, but I can't recommend it and I won't continue with the other books in this series.
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