Starship: Pirate
Mike Resnick
PYR, December 2006, $25.95, 300 pp.
ISBN: 1591024900

Three millennia in the future the Republic is at war with the Teroni Federation, and the commander of the Teddy R is one of the Republic's most decorated officers. His actions saved five million people, but he exceeded his orders and was awaiting a court martial when his crew broke him out of jail and escaped on the Teddy R to the inner frontier. Wilson Cole and his crew are going to become moral pirates, only stealing from other pirates.

On his first foray into piracy he steals a fortune in diamonds and jewelry, but when he goes to fence it David Copperfield only offers him a pittance of what it is worth. He "sells them back to the insurance company", but when he tries to do the same stunt with the jewels, he is recognized and his visage is broadcast to the Republic. On a frontier planet, he meets the pirate Val, a pirate whose ship was stolen by Hammerhead Shark. She wants it back, and Cole makes a deal with her. If she teaches him the ins and outs of piracy, he will help her get her ship back. He finds her ship, as it is being chased by three other ships because Hammerhead Shark raided another pirate's headquarters, killing that pirate's minions, destroying his estate and merchandise. Cole has to figure out a way to deal with both pirates without destroying Val's ship or getting himself killed.

There is so much action in this fabulous space opera that readers will find themselves caught on a roller coaster ride they can't leave. The hero is a decent and honorable man who got sold out by the Republic, and he knows he can never return there. He feels for the men who left their families behind to join him in exile, but he finds piracy morally repugnant, yet he doesn't know what to do until Copperfield gives him an idea. Mike Resnick is a brilliant storyteller who never disappoints his fans.