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." 

We have reviewed a couple of books on this site by American fantasy author Michael Dalton. Two of the characters from one of his popular series, of "unconventional romance" novels, Ethan Hill's daughter Maddie and her fiance Kyle, are due to get married at the Edgewater luxury Hotel and resort in Southern Lake Tahoe, which seems remarkably like this venue , tomorrow (13th June 2026.) The Grand Admiral has asked us to convey his good wishes to Kyle and Maddie for their wedding tomorrow. Currently his flagship ISD Chimaera and the Eye of Sion intergalactic hyperspace ring are in orbit above Dathomir in what you call the Galaxy Far Far Away. In theory the Eye of Sion might be capable of making the journey to the Milky Way Galaxy for the Grand Admiral to pay his respects in person. Sadly however, due to the tragic death at the hands of Ahsoka Tano of Morgan Elspeth, the brilliant engineer and navigator who constructed the Eye and took her to the Peridia galaxy to rescue the G...

"I'd feel a lot better if I didn't know how many wars had started when neither side really wanted them to." The above quote which is spoken in the novel by Admiral Thomas Theisman perfectly encapsulates this story. It is one of the best fictional treatments I have ever read about how nations can stumble into wars nobody wants though a toxic mixture of  complacency,  overconfidence,  misreading the intentions of the other side, and  ambitious politicians playing political games for their own domestic advantage but failing to consider how the results of their actions may be seen by people in other nations (or their own.) NB - previous book spoiler alert ! There are no serious spoilers in this review for "War of Honor" but it is very difficult to discuss the setting for this novel without major spoilers concerning the ending of the previous book in the series, "Ashes of Victory," so if you have not read that yet and don't want it spoiled, stop rea...

Back from the dead ... Like the other stories featuring Honor Harrington, "Echoes of Honor" is set about two thousand years in our future. It begins a few hours after the end of the previous book, "Echoes of Honor" as the heroine has retuned home where everyone believed her dead after the "Peeps" (People's Republic of Haven) claimed that they had hanged her and broadcast faked footage of her execution. But she wasn't dead and has managed to stage a successful rebellion on the most secure, escape-proof prison in human history,  a planet nicknamed "Hell" for good reason, and making it home from 200 light years behind enemy lines with half a million escaped prisoners. Honor was badly injured during the escape attempt, and even with the wonders which the novel assumes medicine will have achieved in two thousand years, she's going to be on light duties for a while recovering, so her main role in this book is as a viewpoint character while ...

A fan fiction video supposing that Admiral Thrawn was about to take an Imperial expedition into the unknown regions. He discusses the area with his officers, including a Chiss navigational liaison.

82 years ago today, hundreds of thousands of Allied soldiers, sailors and airmen took part in the Normandy Landings as part of the liberation of Europe. The largest contingents came from the USA, Britain, and Canada, but heroes from all round the word also took part, with at least twelve other nations, some occupied by the Nazi powers,  involved. Some 54,000 Americans landed at the beaches at Utah Beach and Omaha Beach and about 15,500or were dropped by parachute into Normandy. About 61,700 British troops landed, mainly at Gold Beach, Sword beach or by parachute, and about 24,000 Canadians, mainly spearheading the assault at June Beach. There was also substantial Free French involvement at Sword Beach and some UK units supporting the Canadians at Juno.  An armada of nearly 7,000 vessels—comprising 1,200 warships, 4,000 landing craft, and support ships—was manned by over 195,000 naval personnel from eight Allied nations. The Royal Navy supplied the vast majority (nearly 79%) of...

Sheev Palpatine on the Saxophone accompanies Anakin Skywalker singing "I'm never gonna fight again" to the tune of "Careless Whisper."  Brilliant.

From X, posted today - and old exchange which is as funny today as it was during the pandemic ...

In the battle of North Cape, on Boxing day 1943, a British and Norwegian force defeated and sank Scharnhorst, a powerful and fast German capital ship. Scharnhorst was referred to by the British at the time as a battlecruiser because of her speed, but by the Germans as a battleship. Whichever word you use she was a powerful and dangerous unit. The video below refers particularly to the role of HMS Norfolk, a county class heavy cruiser a third Scharnhorst's size, which could never have defeated the German capital ship on her own but scored a critical hit which took out Scharnhost's forward radar. That hit was pivotal to the allied victory. However, this was a victory which would not have been won without teamwork and the contribution of several allied vessels were essential.   The video below does also describe some of the other units which took part in the operation, including the battleship HMS Duke of York which did much of the damage to the German ship, and the cruiser HMS B...

HMS Warspite was in some ways the most successful battleship of the 20th century. This is the story of how "The old lady" pinned the ears f the Italian navy back off Calabria in 1940.

In "Star Wars Rebels" and several of Timothy Zahn's books, the Grand Admiral was working to develop the Tie Defender, a fighter vastly superior to ordinary Tie Fighters (on any other fighter in space) which could have won th war for the Empire. In "Tales of the Empire" episode 2, "The Path of Anger" we learn that the brilliant engineer who designed this craft was Magistrate Morgan Elspeth, formerly a witch from Dathomir, and also how she became one of the then Admiral Thrawn's closest allies. In this fan faction video Grand Admiral Thrawn explains the Tie Defender and what it could have achieved for the Empire. Thrawn, Captain Pellaeon, and Colonel Tor Phennir dissect the failures of Imperial starfighter doctrine — and the starfighter that could have changed the entire Galactic Civil War.  

War, even more than politics or sport, is usually a zero-sum game; it is theoretically possible for both sides in a battle to meet their objectives for victory but it is extremely rare. However, on this one day of the year, I am always reminded of the one case I know of where both sides not only claimed to have won a battle, but both sides had a convincing case that they had succeeded in the objects for which they fought. On the "Glorious First of June" 1794, the Royal Navy Channel Fleet under Admiral Lord Howe (the prominent figure at left in the picture above) intercepted a French fleet under Admiral  Villaret-Joyeuse which was escorting a grain convoy. The battle took place about 400 nautical miles west of the French island of Ushant, near Brest. The French primary objective was to get the grain convoy through - there had been a poor harvest in France and there were serious food shortages causing much of the population to go hungry. The British primary objective was to est...