James Nicoll Reviews

First published under the title Ginga Eiyu Densetsu volume 7, 1986’s Tempest is the sixth volume in Yoshiki Tanaka’s Legend of the Galactic Heroes 1. Daniel Huddleston’s translation was published by Haikasoru in 2018. 

All hail the glorious Kaiser Reinhard, who has either conquered or neutralized all enemies of his galactic empire. Having unified the galaxy, it’s odd that the Kaiser is not a happier man. 

The Free Planets Alliance’s military genius Yang Wen-li has been for years the most consistent impediment to Reinhard Lohengramm’s plan to overthrow the Empire’s Goldenbaum Dynasty and replace it with something better. One might expect therefore a certain level of dislike for Yang. On the contrary, Reinhard respects his opponent. 

The Free Planets, defeated in a previous volume, sought to appease the Empire by orchestrating Yang’s execution on trumped up charges. This had two extremely undesirable consequences. The first is that Yang fled in to exile, accompanied by a well-armed, well-trained cadre of soldiers. The second was that while Reinhard would willingly evaporate Yang if he met his enemy on the battlefield, he doesn’t care for underhanded methods. He is also upset that one of the results of the FPA kill-Yang gambit was the death of a high-ranking Imperial official, Admiral Lennencamp. The FPA government is astounded and alarmed to find itself in the cross-hairs of Reinhard’s very public disapproval. 

As far as the Kaiser is concerned, the FPA has violated the terms of the armistice that ended the Vermilion War. This means he is free to crush and annex the FPA, which he does in short order. FPA officials attempt to placate the irate Kaiser by scapegoating and then assassinating FPA Chairman Lebello. To their astonishment, Reinhard rewards this gambit by ordering the assassins’ execution. 

Yang is still free, although his resources are laughably tiny compared to the Empire’s. Step one on his plan? Retake Iserlohn Fortress. Given how heavily defended the fortress is and how few resources Yang has, this should be impossible. But Yang isn’t known as Miracle Yang for nothing. He has planned ahead for this day. 

~oOo~

The cover says this was translated by Daniel Huddleston. The copyright page credits both Daniel Huddleston and Tyran Grillo. 

The logical solution to the conflict between Yang and Reinhard is for Yang to work for Reinhard and the two of them to conquer the galaxy together, transforming the galaxy from one evil autocracy, one corrupt democracy, and a religious conspiracy into… a somewhat more meritocratic autocracy? For as long as Reinhard is around, anyway. This isn’t going to happen because as diffident as Yang is, and despite the fact he’s never personally experienced a democracy that wasn’t pretty troubled, he’s adamant in his loyalty to a republican form of government. 

There are a couple of major battles in this book — the destruction of a considerable part of the FPA navy and the attack on Iserlohn — but no real conclusion. For the most part this feels like Tanaka is carefully positioning pieces around the board for an upcoming work. I guess one can do that when the interval between instalments is only six months. Still, if you decide to read this, be aware it is an episode, not a standalone story as such. 

Tempest is available here (Amazon) and here (Chapters-Indigo).

1: Past reviews of this series: 

My review of Dawn can be found here.

My review of Ambition can be found here.

My review of Endurance can be found here.

My review of Stratagem can be found here.

My review of Mobilization can be found here.

My review of Flight can be found here.