On Basilisk Station by David Weber

[R. Michael]

One of the thing weber gets particularly well is that it takes an competent, capable enemy to really show how heroic your protagonist is.

[Niels]

Capable, how?

I think one of Weber's biggest weaknesses is that he rely too heavily on enemy infighting and incompetence to save the day.

Yes, some individuals are very competent, but you don't get from caves to spaceships without at least a minimum of teamwork skills.

[R. Michael]

You have to read the series to see it, one of the conceits at the beginning is that the republic of haven is larger than manticore and it's people are every bit as potentially capable but because it has fallen into beurocratic malaise it has resort to the expansionist tactics like it pulls on Basilisk. However in doing so it sticks it's head in the tigers maw and we discover that beurocratic malaise does not survive in a (star)nation that is fighting for its life. Also one of the later opponents she faces is Lester Tourville who is an even better admiral than she is.

Contrariwise you also see manticore ripped by infighting and ocasionally incompetent. Part of what makes epic space opera is you get to see the complexity of human kind with all its shortcomings and failures on both sides. That hero and villain are not simple and unidimensional.

[Niels]

I guess I will see it then ;)