We in the Grand Admiral's office are extremely excited by the forthcoming release of the latest book by arguable the world's greatest living science fiction writer, Larry Niven, and one of his long-standing co-authors, Stephen Barnes.  "Ice Vegas" is being released as an ebook and audiobook on 14th July.  The pro-publication blurb reads as follows: " Packed with Niven and Barnes’s trademark excitement and science-based extrapolation, this thrilling novel introduces readers to Ice Vegas, an extraordinary city of the future powered by nuclear fusion. Carver Reeves is head of security for BALDR, the massive nuclear facility that powers half of Europe, and by extension Ice Vegas, the glittering architectural fantasia of a domed city that has grown up beside it. It’s Carver’s last week on the job, and he can’t wait to clock out for the last time. He’s spending Christmas with his estranged daughter and meeting his grandson for the first time. Prime time for a disaster....

" Sundiver " by David Brin, which was first published in 1980, is the first in the "Uplift" series of science fiction novels.  It is that rare thing, a novel which thinks really big, asking huge questions about man's place in the universe and coming up with answers - true in the context of the novel - which are quite terrifying, yet it remains entertaining, accessible and easy to read, and manages to address issues of the ne3d to cherish our planet and environment without becoming in the slightest degree preachy.  "Sundiver" is set in a world a few centuries from now, in a world where those who have been assessed by an exam as having a propensity to violence have been classed as "probationers," had a radio transmitter forcibly implanted in their bum so the state can track them. and deprived of most civil rights including the right to vote. It's also a world where human spaceships found "Eatees" (e.g. ETs, Extraterrestials) and w...

Another fan fiction video, with Grand Admiral Thrawn explaining how to correct the errors which made it possible for the rebellion to overthrow the Empire.

"At All Costs" by David Weber is a massive doorstep of a novel which basically finishes the original "Ms Hornblower in Space" story arc with which the Honor Harrington series of novels started off. Just as Nelson died at Trafalgar at the moment of his greatest victory, David Weber has written that he planned all along for Honor Harrington to die in the battle which forms the climax of this book. No spoilers here - you'll have to read it if you want to find out whether he stuck with that plan and whether she does. A lot of this book is a story about military victory and how it might be achieved but there is more to it than that. The Honor Harrington stories are set a few decades after the invention of "Prolong," a technology which massively extends the lifespan of those who receive it early enough in their life. A lot of the major characters in the stories have received it: and a lot of others were already past the age of being able to benefit from it w...

Another fan fiction video in which Thrawn and Pellaeon discuss the fall of the Galactic Republic.

The UK Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer, lost his defence ministers yesterday: Secretary of State for Defence John Healey, and armed forces minister Al Carns both resigned because they did not think the PM and Treasurer had agreed to allocate enough resources to the defence of the realm. This is quite a serious matter, but the Sun Newspaper could not resist describing the position of the resigning minister in their inimitable way: "Thanks but no Tanks."