She's the Boss

Military science fiction is a lot more crowded with lead female characters than you might think. Elizabeth Moon's Heris Serrano and Esmay Suiza try to straighten tangled political webs in the Familias Regnant universe. David Weber's Honor Harrington kicks behinds and takes names as she rises in rank through the Royal Navy of the Star Kingdom of Manticore and foils the plots of the evil Republic of Haven. Tanya Huff's tough as nails Confederation Marine Sgt. Torin Kerr knows the way to keep more of her people alive is to make more of the enemy dead and so she goes about that task with businesslike efficiency.

Over the course of six books now, Mike Shepherd has fashioned a place in that corps for his wealthy heiress/princess/United Sentients Naval Lieutenant Kristine Longknife. The most recent entry, Kris Longknife: Intrepid, finds Lt. Longknife, her Jill-of-all-trades (including assassination and espionage) maid Abby, her bodyguard Jack and her increasingly sentient personal computer Nelly part of a crew pretending to be a merchant ship in the far reaches of inhabited space. Their mission is to lure pirates to attack the seemingly helpless vessel and get summarily blasted for their pains by its powerful hidden weaponry.

But Kris has a knack for finding more trouble than she actually signed up for, so she and her crew, along with a company of United Sentients Marines, find a couple of more things on their to-do list. After they help a planet of farmers tackle an invading mercenary force, Kris has to take some big risks to save a man who's been one of her family's biggest enemies.

Over the course of the series, Shepherd has found a good mix of dry wit and action to keep his story humming, and toned down some of the comic elements from the initial Kris Longknife: Mutineer, which was broad enough to skew close to satire. Shepherd uses the same setting as he did for his Longknife family trilogy (written under his given name, Mike Moscoe), but lightens the tone a good deal.

Kris Longknife's most obvious counterpart is Weber's Honor Harrington. But where Weber has come down with a serious case of bestseller's bloat, Shepherd seems to be steering his heroine's ship using an editor to pilot him much more swiftly and cleanly through his stories. Although Kris & Co.'s humor and confidence in the face of danger is appealing, they don't reek to excess of sang-froid the way Harrington and her cast have in the last four or five of their adventures.

According to the book titles, we've learned that Kristine Longknife is a Mutineer and a Deserter, as well as that she's Defiant, Resolute, Audacious and now Intrepid. Here's hoping Shepherd keeps adding adjectives to her resumé for several years to come.