Working through a list of books for which we will be posting reviews. This week there has been a lovely exchange on X between a reader who posted about " Ender's Game " by Orson Scott Card, and the author. Social media is so often an outpouring of rage and hate, but every so often it redeems itself, and this was an example. We also read that book many years ago, and loved it, and have since read he other three books of the "Ender" quartet and other works set in the same universe, so we have added " Ender's game " to the list of books we will be reviewing on this site.

In 1951, the great SF writer Arthur C Clarke published the short story "Superiority" which is narrated by the former Supreme Commander of the forces on one side in a space war, describing how a strategy of relying on their scientific superiority for victory went horribly wrong. To quote from the description in Mike Vendetti's audiobook version of the story,  "The crux of this story lies in the concept of "superiority"--not just in terms of technology but in understanding how that technology can be effectively employed. Clarke explores the hubris inherent in underestimating one's enemies and the danger of overreliance on assumed technological advantages. The protagonist reflects on their miscalculations, emphasizing that true military prowess extends beyond mere possession of advanced weaponry. As the protagonist attempts to clarify the real reasons for their defeat, we see them confronting not just the failure of their forces but also a broader commenta...

 

It has been announced that 7th July 2026 will see the publication of the fifth novel in the "Manticore Ascendant" Honor Harrington universe prequel saga, which will be " A call to deception " by David Weber, Timothy Zahn and Thomas Pope. We are enormously looking forward to this as the "Manticore Ascendant" books have been some of the most entertaining in the "Honor Harrington" military SF series (or "Honorverse").  Originally the Honorverse companion book "House of Steel" stated that in 1538 PD (e.g. 3641 AD/CE) there had been an attack on the Manticore system by a force of mercenaries hired by a huge interstellar corporation called "Axelrod of Terra."   That book went on to say that, quote, " Examination of one of the ships captured after the battle" then "revealed the true reason for the attack: Axelrod had realised the Manticore binary system was almost certainly home to a major wormhole junction. ...