" Startide Rising " by David Brin, which was first published in 1983, is the second in the "Uplift" series of science fiction novels and that very rare thing, a sequel to a great book which is even better. It deservedly won both Hugo and Nebula awards. Brin attempts and achieves something really challenging: the Earth starship "Streaker" which is at the centre of the story is commanded and mainly crewed by dolphins, with just seven humans and one uplifted chimpanzee as the other members of the crew. Brin uses dolphins, humans, the chimp and various members of the fleets of fanatical alien races who are trying to capture Streaker as his various viewpoint characters, and manages to make their voices believeable. Like the first book in the series, "Sundiver," this novel thinks 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 ent...

 

"Mission of Honor" by David Weber is military SF novel which basically continues the story of Admiral Honor Harrington after the original "Ms Hornblower in Space" story arc was largely concluded in the previous novel, "At all costs." As the wars with Haven, which have lasted a generation and which Honor Harrington has been preparing for or fighting for her whole adult life, seem to be finally coming to an end, her nation, the Star Kingdom of Manticore (now the Star Empire) faces a new threat. The reader knows, though at the start of this book most of the characters do not, that there is a centuries old conspiracy to improve the human genome through genetic engineering. Now you may ask, what's so evil about that - and indeed, the people working for that aim genuinely believe they are working for the good of what they see as the human race, which makes them far more dangerous, as many of them will give their lives for that cause and they believe nothing ...

This is a piece of crossover fan fiction. It is a report, to Supreme Chancellor Sheev Palpatine, from Admiral Thrawn, about the "Imperium of man." E.g. the society which provides the backstory for the human Space Marines and other Terran forces from the Warhammer 40k universe ... 

Another fan fiction video in which the Grand Admiral discusses how Sheev Palpatine rose to be Supreme Chancellor and then Emperor.

Today is Armed Forces day in the UK. (See graphic below) As this is an internationally focussed blog, we're going to say thank you not just to the armed forces of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, but to those of every free nation, for everything you do to protect our countries, our civilisation, and our freedom.