I feel like I'm walking backwards through Elizabeth Moon's universe. I started with the Vatta series, then read Suiza. I finally got my hands on the Serrano books and was left more than a little underwhelmed. 
 I think if it was an author other than Moon I may have given less stars. 
 Hunting Party starts rather raggedly. I kept looking to see if I missed a book about Serrano. The way she is dumped into the book felt like there was already a book about her past with the R.S.S.. But, alas there isn't. 
 The book starts with Herris Serrano hired by Lady Cecilia to captain her ship. The ship's first voyage is taking Lady Cecilia and her nephew and his friends to a planet for... fox hunting. 
 Despite the holes, the book begins with some promise. Serrano finds a rag tag bunch of crew, and starts whipping them into shape. In fact, the book is quite enjoyable, right up until we get to Lord Thornbuckle's and the fox hunting. OK, I can take the whole horse simulator on a ship. But the fox hunting went a little long for my "Science Fiction / Space Opera" likes. 
 Spoiler free, the book wraps up a lot of questions from the start towards the end, but there's a ghastly middle with way too much zzzzz. 
 I think I'm going to take a break from this series before trying Sporting Chance.