Customer Reviews

Once A Hero

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I grew up with Heinlein and other male science fiction writers, and felt sometimes frustrated with male protagonists and story line focus. Some of the other reviewers have mentioned that they had trouble getting into the book because they felt that the rape storyline was something they could not identify with as men. Well, I have always had trouble enjoying books in which women were two-dimensional potential partners...It's nice to finally see books with female protagonists who are assertive and successful, and not focused on partnership! (Norton, while a great writer, always seemed to hook up her women at the end). I enjoyed Moon's characterization of Esmay, and Esmay's family and work entaglements and incidents. Esmay became a character I genuinely cared for- enough to buy the books that include her!

A reader below thinks most men would not like this book because it deals with rape, and they would have trouble "understanding" its affects. I find such comments very disturbing, especially when the audience for this book is science fiction readers: readers who presumably are interested in reading about and understanding people and situations other than themselves and what they have experienced. Rape is central to this book, and the author goes to a great deal of trouble to explain, very successfully, how it affects people, why it is so devastating, and what a person and those around the rape victim could do (and should not do) to help the rape victim get better. She even shows how a male could have a similar experience and problems. If a person -- male or female -- wants to have a better comprehension of rape -- and wants to read a pretty good military adventure story, too -- I would highly recommend this book.

Once A Hero (1997) is the fourth naval SF novel in the Familias Regnant series, following Winning Colors. In the previous volume, Esmay Suiza became the senior surviving officer of the RSS Despite after the crew learned that Captain Hearne was a traitor and mutinied against her. The captain fled the system when three Benignity warships arrived, but Esmay returned with the Despite and destroyed the Compassionate Hand flagship.

In this novel, Esmay and the other surviving junior officers are taken to Sector HQ and courtmartialed. Such trials are mandatory according to regulations and are somewhat pro forma. Still, Esmay and her fellow officers are facing some serious charges.

Each is being tried separately, but they also have to testify in each other's trials. Since Esmay was the acting captain, her recorded testimony will be acceptable in the other trials. Yet Esmay must first face a Board of Inquiry.

The Board examines every action that Esmay took during the battle. They decide that she is not sufficiently capable of handling a ship in combat to gain another command right away. Yet they see her potential and recommend further training and experience to remedy her deficiencies.

Naturally, Esmay already knows that she could have done better, so the Board's report was not a surprise. Yet their conclusions that she had the potential to become an outstanding commander is stunning. They see something in her of which she is not aware.

In this story, the court finds Esmay innocence of all charges. She is released and given a thirty day leave. She returns home to her family. There she finds the surrounding to be very comforting, but she feels like a fish out of water around her family. Moreover, she learns more about her childhood and becomes very angry. She is quite happy to return to duty.

Her next assignment is to the Koskiusko, a deepspace repair ship. She must have really irritated someone at headquarters. A DSR assignment is considered a punishment duty to most junior officers. She won't even get to use her technical skills in Scan. Indeed, she is assigned to Hull & Architecture, about which she knows very little.

Major Pitak is her immediate superior. The Major first sends her out on a three day examination of the DSR to reconcile the official deck plans with a cube that Pitak has made. Three days later, she comes back with one change that is on neither cube and many other differences between the cubes. The Major is pleased with her findings and Esmay learns that she is among the few with enough perseverance to check everything.

Although Esmay does not know about it, a team is busily replacing all weapons guidance codes under contract with the RSS. They also have a contract with the Bloodhorde to disable the ship's self-destruct device. With a little manipulation of the scheduling computer, they disable the device and also add a circuit to fake out any testing.

This tale involves Esmay in another covert action, this time by the Bloodhorde. A commando team gets onboard the Koskiusko and disrupts operations. Then they abduct Barin Serrano, who is rapidly becoming someone significant to Esmay.

It soon becomes apparent that Esmay has serious problems with her sense of self-worth. Everybody who knows her is puzzled by her reluctance to select the command track. She is also having nightmares about the bodies she has seen. Then she finally decides to accept therapy from the psychnannies.

Highly recommended for Moon fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of naval combat, political intrigue, family politics and personal issues.

-Arthur W. Jordin

I'm definitely hooked by the Familias Regnant books. _Once A Hero_ is the fourth, and it's in a way a direct sequel to the last Heris Seranno book, _Winning Colors_, though it starts off in a new direction. It continues the story of an important minor character from _Winning Colors_, Lieutenant JG Esmay Suiza. Esmay is a technical track officer from an out of the way planet who was thrust briefly into a command role, and became a hero, in _Winning Colors_. _Once A Hero_ picks up immediately with the Board of Inquiry and Court Martial which follow that action. Esmay is very insecure about her ability, and tends to try to melt into the background, hard to do when you're a hero. She goes off to her home planet for much-deserved leave, and finds out a terrible secret about her childhood. Then she is posted to a Deep Space Repair facility, explicitly to keep her away from combat and notoriety. All this is quite interesting, and it becomes a story about the growth and self-discovery process of this young woman. Very Heinleinesque, in a way. Esmay is very well depicted, and her slow process of learning to use her real abilities is nicely done. There's a bit of almost cliched "when will she =finally= see a psychiatrist about her childhood trauma" dithering, but that still works OK.

The thing is, that's only half the book. The other half (pasted into the middle, more or less, of the book), is a space opera plot about the evil Bloodhorde and their scheme to steal the DSR for it's technology. This part is pretty good standard action, with Esmay again becoming a hero and showing her command stuff, and with some very fun if kind of unbelievable action scenes. I liked it but it seemed uneasily grafted to the even more interesting story of Esmay's personal growth. I'd have preferred a quieter story with Esmay only slowly realizing her abilities, instead of having them thrust upon her by more desperate action. Still, it's great fun and I'll be looking up the next book, _Return Engagement_, real soon.

When I read Once A Hero, I searched through the book and never found a reference to it being a sequel to Winning Colors. Now I see it is a sequel to a trilogy. Well, I have plenty more reading to do now. This book introduced me to Moon and it looks like I am going to get to know her a little better. Some of the issues listed below by other readers don't seem to be the glaring plot holes they make them out to be. The guy that left Esmay's planet 30 years before got together with a member of fleet but it is never actually said that he joined fleet. The use of a mine and a commando unit simultaneously isn't that farfetched. The mine wasn't supposed to destroy the ship, just disable it. And I am sure the Blood Hoard would want to have soldiers on board to secure their disabled ship. And while I agree it always seems unreasonable that a small commando unit can infiltrate a secure area and pull off the unthinkable, it is something that they war-gamed and trained for. Granted the initial response of lets blow up the ship seems a little extreme, Moon did set some of this up by providing some history of this ship captain having multiple higher echelons giving him conflicting orders in a difficult command climate. It wouldn't have been my choice, but Moon is building an environment where something is rotten in the state of the Familias.

I purchased this book on impulse, as I was looking for new reading, and what the heck, it was only two dollars US.

I was pleasantly surprised. The book has a well-constructed, tightly woven plot. Esmay Suiza is much more interesting than Honor Harrington; David Weber's series is perhaps more technically perfect, but he often spends too much time dwelling on technical details and neglects to tell a good story. There is none of the "Oh, the heroine is perfect, superhuman, and can overcome anything" sense found in latter novels of the Honor Harrington series. Moon manages to keep the suspense going and her prose is quite lyrical at times. One can empathize with Esmay Suiza - she's kind of a female Miles Vorkosigan (no intent to imply unoriginality intended).

Moon also spends some time on the implications technology has for society (re: the rejuvenation technique, as she does throughout the novels set in the Familias Regnant universe), and this is one of my favorite aspects of science fiction. I'd say, definitely pick this one up.

On page 196 something finally happens. I enjoy Moon's writing style very much, and was introduced to her with the great Deed of Paksenarrion trilogy, a fantasy classic. The Heris Serrano trilogy was a fun sci-fi series with lots of action. But Once A Hero has little action and the thinking defects of the good guys (except for self-doubting Esmay)are all that can possibly enable any of the scant action by letting the twenty-five bad guys gain control of a gigantic spaceship crewed by twenty-five thousand good guys. But Moon's extensive, almost exhaustive info about the ship is interesting and enjoyable world building. Even though it was about as exciting as reading a shopping list, Elizabeth Moon has an engaging writing style that keeps me coming back for more.

This is a great book by a great author. This is the second copy I bought. I broke the binding of the first copy from frequent readings. Although this is technically the fourth book in the series, it is really a stand alone book focusing on a new character and you don't have to read the other books first. In fact, I did not read the other books before reading this one, and when I went back to read the earlier books, they did not add anything I needed to know. The book starts in the aftermath of a battle, where the protagonist Esmay Suiza is a very junior officer who has taken command of a war ship after a successful mutiny against a traitorous captain and led the ship into battle and detroyed a superior craft. At the start of the book, she is facing court martial for taking part in the mutiny and is dealing with PTSD from the mutiny and the battle. The book then follows her adventures in her next assignment, where she has to utilize the skills she obtained from the mutiny and battle. Although styled as a space opera, it is less stereotypical than the typical space opera, including the ealier books in the series. Unlike many main characters in space operas, Esmay Suiza is plagued by doubts and insecurities, and the climax of the book is followed by a long denouement where she learns to finally overcome her doubts.

I am constantly amazed and as a writer humbled by the mastery of absolutely convincing detail that Elizabeth Moon displays in her Vatta and Serrano series, without ever neglecting character or letting the detail get in the way of the plot. No matter how minute the detail (three leaky tubes of adhesive) it always goes somewhere (the disabling of an enemy ship and the complete rout of an entire barbarian horde). This is one of her best yet.

This book, as well as Moon's Herris Serrano series, are fun, well thought out, well written, and entertaining millitary space opera. While I usually read more fantasy than sci-fi, and very little military-based stuff, I loved this book (even though I didn't enjoy Moon's fantasy trilogy, The Deed of Paksenarrion). The main character, Esmay, is a deep, likable character who's actions are thoroughly believable and sympathetic, though she's not a boring carbon copy of the standard adventure heroine. While the Herris Serrano trilogy comes directly before this book, I read Once a Hero first, and had no trouble understanding what was going on (all though reading the Heris books did clear up a few things). It's one of the rare sci-fi books with ALL of the qualities of a great novel: a well-rounded and complete plot, intellegent writing complete with actual ideas, and believable and complex characters, and it is still easy and fun reading!