- Library Binding
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1439570345
- ISBN-13: 978-1439570340
- Product Dimensions: 16.5 x 10.4 x 2.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
Hunting Party (Serrano Legacy)
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Elizabeth Moon is best known in Britain for her Paksennarion fantasies; Hunting Party (1993) is the first of her Serrano Legacy SF novels. Its heroine Heris Serrano has suffered a familiar military-SF predicament--forced to resign her command in the space navy thanks to the machinations of a wicked admiral. Her new life as captain of an eccentric lady aristocrat's private space-yacht is handled with originality, charm and a thoughtfulness about how things work that's reminiscent of Robert A. Heinlein's better SF.
Both captain and owner emerge as interesting personalities. Following a voyage enlivened by various accidents plus sabotage attempts by a spoiled brat on board, Hunting Party lives up to its title with episodes of horsemanship and fox-hunting on a lord's planet-wide estate. Here, secretly, darker entertainment is also going on--a sadistic armed hunt for human quarry. As a former US Marines lieutenant, Moon is grimly plausible about guns and their effects. Perhaps a little less plausible are the coincidences that bring together numerous unexpected characters, including Heris's personal nemesis and an old flame, for satisfying final confrontations.
The story reads well and is self-contained: Heris's adventures continue in further novels, Sporting Chance and Winning Colours. --David Langford --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
Review
'A highly entertaining adventure ... thrilling' LOCUS
--This text refers to the
Paperback
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First Sentence
Heris Serrano went from her room in the small but respectable dockside hotel on Rockhouse Station to the berth of her new command convinced that she looked like an idiot. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
Heris Serrano went from her room in the small but respectable dockside hotel on Rockhouse Station to the berth of her new command convinced that she looked like an idiot. Read the first page
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
For someone who likes science fiction, horses, strong female characters and military novels this is a gift. After picking the book up quickly at a railway station I was gripped and spent the next fortnight looking for the rest of the series. Yes there are some unlikely plot coincidences but for pace, adrenalin and sheer entertainment you would be hard pressed to find better. I was interested to find Moon's writing compared in another review to the better Robert Heinlein because he was a favourite author when I was younger. Keep the books coming.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I love good space-opera novels, and am prepared to read a few not so good ones on the way. I really don't know which category to put the Serrano novels in.
On the positive side the some of the characters, such as the Yacht's owner and members of the crew are well realised and interesting, others are painful caricatures. Such as the evil nemesis admiral, with whom, as others have commented, the final encounter is just too pat; and the ‘rough’ crewman who can be relied upon to know every shifty deal and win every brawl as well as the flighty dilettantes that find wealth and privilege don’t buy them everything.
My biggest gripes are that as somebody not interested in horses, and someone with no liking at all of fox-hunting, there were large passages in this book I ended up skipping just because they were too dull. Lots of jolly aristocrats out leaping hedges etc. To be fair it reads like Ms Moon knows her stuff but unless you’re into horses too it’s hard work.
I know Sci-fi is often full of clichés and ‘borrowed’ concepts, but it doesn’t mean I have to like it. The whole ‘they’re hunting people!’ plot line read as tired and uninspired. It’s such an old, old, old theme it really needs some spark to give it a fresh feel. ‘Hunting Party’ didn’t have it.
It does have some nice touches however, the starports and life on the yacht, the impression of a social and political theatre around the main protagonists are all alluded to well. There’s some nice foreshadowing of events in later books as well.
The next book, A Sporting Chance is far superior, and as such I’d consider ‘Hunting Party’ worth reading as a prelude, and for some of it’s better points
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I began searching out Elizabeth Moon books because I am an Anne McCaffrey addict. I found 'Hunting Party' to be absorbing and believable. The only thing I found odd is the blond on the cover bears no resemblance to the description of Herris Serrano: short, dark, middle-aged. A strong ex-military woman with a lot of combat experience who hasn't undergone 'rejuv' yet would not be so 'dewy' in appearance.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Entertaining and ejoyable classic science fiction
The plot for this book is well described in other reviews so I won't rehash it here. The coincidences that bring all the protagonists together in the end are indeed far fetched... Read more
Published 3 months ago by S. Murphy
Herris Sarrano - Need one say more?
I read the entire Serrano Legacy at least once a year. The books are simply brilliant and Elizabeth Moon an inspired writer. Read more
Published 16 months ago by CLIVE MCCOMBE
An enjoyable read.
I bought this book because, to be honest, there were few books on show that I hadn't read, and was pleasantly surprised. Read more
Published on 18 April 2003 by "tory_galloway"
1 trick pony
Poor read. Mostly spoilt by the over zealous use of coincidences, for enemies and friends of the heroine to assemble on a small island given it's a big galaxy, stretches credulity... Read more
Published on 26 Dec 2002 by Patrick Mullane
entertaining & great fun to read
I enjoyed reading this book and am now buying the rest!The plot had characters I liked and enough suspense and twists to keep me going to the end. Read more
Published on 15 Mar 2002
An edge of your seat story
I picked this book up on the spur of the moment and was not expecting to read it in one sitting. Elizabeth Moon has created a hero that everyone can enjoy. Read more
Published on 10 Jun 2001
Why fox-hunting?
I agree with everything that's been said below about this book as a work of SF; it's well plotted, strong female leads, interesting ideas, etc. Read more
Published on 10 Mar 2001
A Good start to series
Although this is begins as a fairly slow story, once the action begins from halfway in it never stops. Read more
Published on 1 Jan 2001 by B. Green
A brilliant mixture of naval and space fiction
Once started, I found it very hard to put the book down. The characters were so believable, the situations they got themselves into so likely and the pace at times nearly took my... Read more
Published on 25 Aug 2000
On leaving the main character.
A previous review wrote that this was not some of Elizabeth Moon's best work because she left the main character to talk about other characters that were not so likable. Read more
Published on 17 April 1998
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