By L. Neil Smith
December 5, 2018 - When I wrote the celebrated space pirate novel Henry Martyn, way back in 1988, I wanted it to be about an ancient star-spanning civilization, not entirely unlike our own, based on euphemism - a culture in which nobody ever said exactly what he (or she) meant. In that society, it would be considered ill-mannered - and a moral confession in a milieu where, just as a single example, arranged, profitable, and politically advantageous marriages, are forced on innocent young women in a custom known as “gavage” - the process by which geese are force-fed to render their ruined livers a gourmet delicacy.