25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Solid but not Spectacular Series Ending, February 10, 2001
_Against the Odds_ is the seventh and apparently final book in Elizabeth Moon's series about the Familias Regnant. The Familias Regnant is the term for a large area of colonized worlds in a future galaxy in which humans seem to be the only intelligent species. There are several other confederations of worlds. Familias space is ruled by a number of aristocratic families, fairly but not entirely benignly. The novels cover a period of perhaps a decade, or a bit less, in which radical changes occur in the Familias government, moves in the direction of greater democracy.
On the whole, I found the series very good reading. There are weaknesses: Moon tends to paint her villains too blackly, for one thing; and her plots seem to be driven a bit much by coincidence. But the stories are very exciting, the action is well described, and the main characters are very engaging, we really care about them. Bad things happen, usually with real costs, as well. The first book (_Hunting Party_) is nice but a bit light. I felt that the series hit its stride with the second book (_Sporting Chance_), and maintained a high level through the following three books (_Winning Colors_, _Once a Hero_, _Rules of Engagement_). The sixth book, _Change of Command_, was a serious disappointment. By this time Moon had several significant plot threads from previous books that she wanted to track, all involving different characters. Plus she added an important new thread, a mutiny with the Fleet by disaffected officers of extreme villainy. _Change of Command_ is a very disjointed book, jumping from thread to thread, sometimes with essentially no sense of connection.
This final book, _Against the Odds_, is something of a return to form. It's still not as good, in my opinion, as the four central books, but the thread gathering in _Change of Command_ has by _Against the Odds_ at least resulted in the major threads all being sufficiently well associated so that even though this book also jumps all over the place, the various plot threads are all pretty much linked. The basic action of this book is the attempt to suppress the mutiny that began in _Change of Command_. In addition, some political assassinations which happened in that book have left an unsettled political situation, which needs to be resolved. And finally, Esmay has been discharged from the Navy for basically silly reasons, and she wishes to get reinstated and join the fight against the mutineers. There are still some structural hiccups: the Free Trader plot sort of peters out halfway through the book, while the closing segment of the book is really a separate, late-introduced subplot, which at least serves to unite Esmay and Heris for the final action, but which otherwise seems a bit of an arbitrary addition. And there are quite a number of, I thought, unlikely coincidences. But all that said, the book is a solid and fun read, and it does a good job of closing off the main series threads, while not wrapping everything up too tidily.
I certainly recommend the entire series for anyone who likes colourful space opera, with engaging characters and neat action.
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18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
YES! A much better effort than _Change of Command_, December 18, 2000
This installment of the Familias Regnant series has redeemed my faith in Elizabeth Moon. The previous book (Change of Command) was spotty and was more of a "set-up" for the events that take place in this book. I must agree with one of the other reviewers, they should have been one book. We get to see more of the irrepressable Cecilia deMarktos, and Heris Serrano of course. This book is about youth growing up -- the younger characters (Brun, Barin, and Esmay) all come into their own, parallelling the maturing that occurs in the Familias Regnant as the issue of the "diamond ceiling" of rejuv is tackled. I was very surprised by some of the events that occured in this book, and found the ending to be rather touching.
I was hesitant about this book because the previous one just wasn't up to standard; however, I figured that _Change of Command_ was setting the stage for the next installment, and took a chance. Am I glad I did!
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12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Adequate but not Stellar, January 15, 2001
This is another one of those books, which I expected to enjoy far more then I did. I am probably one of the few people reviewing this book who thought that Change of Command was a superior novel to this one. I did enjoy the novel but had several issues with it.
My first major issue was probably the time lapse since Change of Command. One of the problems with reading a series as it is written is that you have lag time that fogs your memory of the detail of the previous novels. The only way to avoid this issue is to either reread the previous book(s) whenever a new one comes out or to wait to read the series until it is finished. I am pretty sure that I would have enjoyed this book more is I had read it one week after reading Change of Command rather then 3 months later. Elizabeth Moon weaves a universe that if nothing else is complex.
The other major issue I had was with character believability. I had a hard time understanding or believing the motivations for the actions of many of the characters, especially secondary characters. These character issues led to problems I had with the plot. When the characters no longer behave in a believable manner then the plot ceases to make sense. Many of the actions seemed so pat and trite. I know the closing bar scene was supposed to be stirring but I found nothing short of silly.
Overall I was not completely satisfied with the novel and can't say that I am sad to see this series come to an apparent end. An adequate novel I do not regret reading but I am sure I will not read again.
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