Theemile wrote:cthia wrote:
Good news!
I've been doting on OBS since I joined the forum. It's the greatest work Weber produced. For everyone who wasn't introduced to the Honorverse by way of OBS first. . . I'm sad for you. You don't know what you missed by losing your virginity out of turn.
On piracy: Isaac, piracy also makes sense when it gives you acess to goods that otherwise aren't available to you.
Sometimes piracy makes sense simply for the value of being a pain in the ass to your enemy.
P.S. OBS can make a strong case for the best Space Opera ever written, hands down.
2 quibs - 1st, piracy of an enemy during war is either Privateering or Commerce Raiding depending on the ownership of the unit doing it (and piracy with a letter of Marque or by a naval unit during peace is an Act of War). If you're not doing it officially, you are just a "petty" criminal (enemy or no), and can't truly call the other side the enemy, because in truth, pirates are the enemy of every civilized nation.
2nd - personally, I'd vote for HotQ as one of the Best - It just feels like David was more in his stride writing that and had worked off the rough edges of his style.
Your first quib is true enough, but I wanted to allow for the gray areas that came up in the 'Beowulf - the Karma Suitsya' thread . . . like peace, war, a de facto war or anything else in-between. Like footing the bill on some other navy doing your dirty work for you. Piracy by proxy.
I can understand HotQ being your choice for the blue-ribbon. Personally, I like every single book in the entire series. Yes, even that awful(?) AAC, kzt. The sympathy card I picked out from Hallmark is only meant for you if you didn't hyper in-system via the OBS junction first, before you landed in the HotQ sector of the galaxy.