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It’s the Galactic Empire versus the Free Planets Alliance in Japan’s greatest space opera epic!
In the thirty-sixth century, humanity has conquered the galaxy and colonized countless star systems. The Galactic Empire, modeled along Prussian lines, and the democratic Free Planets Alliance are at war, and the fate of every human being in the universe hangs in the balance. This classic Japanese space opera, adapted into a legendary anime, is finally available in English for the first time.
Reinhard, under his Golden Lion banner, is setting out to bend history and the universe to his will. Meanwhile, with no flag of their own to raise, Yang and his compatriots have escaped the murderous hands of the Free Planets Alliance's government and dubbed themselves the “Irregulars.” Yang receives word that an Imperial fleet is closing in on the capital of Heinessen, and in a daring move, recaptures Iserlohn Fortress. In the meantime, Reinhard’s invasion of the Free Planets Alliance proceeds steadily apace. Standing in the path of the Imperial fleet is a fleet of FPA Navy vessels commanded by the elderly Admiral Bucock. An old lion roars out a life-or-death challenge, and a young lion answers it—the final battle of the Free Planets Alliance now begins!
In the thirty-sixth century, humanity has conquered the galaxy and colonized countless star systems. The Galactic Empire, modeled along Prussian lines, and the democratic Free Planets Alliance are at war, and the fate of every human being in the universe hangs in the balance. This classic Japanese space opera, adapted into a legendary anime, is finally available in English for the first time.
Reinhard, under his Golden Lion banner, is setting out to bend history and the universe to his will. Meanwhile, with no flag of their own to raise, Yang and his compatriots have escaped the murderous hands of the Free Planets Alliance's government and dubbed themselves the “Irregulars.” Yang receives word that an Imperial fleet is closing in on the capital of Heinessen, and in a daring move, recaptures Iserlohn Fortress. In the meantime, Reinhard’s invasion of the Free Planets Alliance proceeds steadily apace. Standing in the path of the Imperial fleet is a fleet of FPA Navy vessels commanded by the elderly Admiral Bucock. An old lion roars out a life-or-death challenge, and a young lion answers it—the final battle of the Free Planets Alliance now begins!
254 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 1, 1986
20 people are currently reading
321 people want to read
About the author
Yoshiki Tanaka
479 books145 followersYoshiki Tanaka (田中 芳樹 Tanaka Yoshiki) is a Japanese novelist. He was born in Kumamoto Prefecture and took his doctorate degree in Japanese Language and Literature in the Graduate School of Gakushūin University in Tokyo.
His major works include the fantasy novel series Arslan Senki, also known as The Heroic Legend of Arslan, and the sci-fi space opera novel series entitled Ginga Eiyū Densetsu, also known as Legend of the Galactic Heroes, both of which were adapted as anime and manga. His fantasy works also include the novel series Sohryuden: Legend of the Dragon Kings that was also adapted as anime.
Tanaka is an avid fan of Chinese history and wrote some novels set in China. He also published two arranged-translations of Chinese literature: "Sui Tang Yanyi" ("Stories of Sui and Tang Dynasties") and "Shuo Yue Quan Zhuan" ("Telling the Complete Biography of Yue Fei") as "Gakuhi-den" ("The Story of Yue Fei"). He is also familiar with Persian history, which Arslan Senki is based on.
His major works include the fantasy novel series Arslan Senki, also known as The Heroic Legend of Arslan, and the sci-fi space opera novel series entitled Ginga Eiyū Densetsu, also known as Legend of the Galactic Heroes, both of which were adapted as anime and manga. His fantasy works also include the novel series Sohryuden: Legend of the Dragon Kings that was also adapted as anime.
Tanaka is an avid fan of Chinese history and wrote some novels set in China. He also published two arranged-translations of Chinese literature: "Sui Tang Yanyi" ("Stories of Sui and Tang Dynasties") and "Shuo Yue Quan Zhuan" ("Telling the Complete Biography of Yue Fei") as "Gakuhi-den" ("The Story of Yue Fei"). He is also familiar with Persian history, which Arslan Senki is based on.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
November 8, 2018
I still maintain, 7 books into the 10 book series (plus extras, which will hopefully be translated as well..), that the Legend of the Galactic Heroes remains one of the most engaging, interesting and thoughtful science fiction series to date. It really is that good.
July 25, 2025
The map changes, yet the war wages on! Another solid addition into the book series. The usual wishes of more detailed battles, characterization, and dialogue are there. However, the bones of this series are strong. A worthy read indeed!
November 29, 2024
The rebels continue their fight for democracy. That takeover of Iserholn. So whimsical and like Yang
Legend of the Galactic Heroes, Volume 7 - Yoshiki Tanaka (Highlight: 31; Note: 0)
───────────────
◆ CHAPTER 1: UNDER THE GOLDENLÖWE
▪ Everything they had done, all their courageous deeds, had been to multiply the rays cast by an enormous star named Reinhard von Lohengramm.
▪ The existence of a number two capable of replacing the number one could never be tolerated.
▪ Human beings had a thing called capacity, which was different for everyone in both size and shape.
▪ “Be that as it may, Your Majesty will lack a permanent dwelling until your palace is completed,” said Wittenfeld.
Reinhard, who had started for the door, stopped and turned around, his luxurious mane of golden hair stirring the air. Then, the graceful lips of the young king and conqueror shot back the words which future historians would never fail to reproduce when assaying to write Reinhard’s biography.
“I need no palace,” he said. “The royal palace of the Galactic Empire is wherever I am. For now, my throne shall be ensconced on the battleship Brünhild.”
A thrill of exultation that was almost a shudder went shooting through the admirals’ central nervous systems. That was the kind of spirit which revealed their praiseworthy kaiser’s true self. The kaiser did not reside in palaces; he was a man of the battlefield.
◆ CHAPTER 2: DEFYING EVERY FLAG
▪ The man known as Yang Wen-li was an organism composed of innumerable contradictions. While detesting the military, he had risen to the rank of marshal; while avoiding battle, he had stacked victory on top of victory; while doubting the significance of his state’s continued existence, his contributions to that state had been many; while ignoring the virtue of diligence, he had accumulated incomparable achievements.
▪ All the universe is a stage, and history a farce with no author.
▪ A life of subordination, of following someone else’s orders, was just easier. This was the psychological soil from which had sprung man’s acceptance of dictatorships and absolutism
▪ Democracy had always been worth counting on. After all, hadn’t it been in the denial of states’ and power structures’ infallibility that democratic government had originally begun? Wasn’t the strength of democracy found in its willingness to call its own wrongs wrong, to examine itself, and to purify itself?
◆ CHAPTER 3: AGAIN, RAGNAROK
▪ At one point along the way, however, a tiny formation of about ten FPA navy vessels had been detected approaching in a provocative manner.
The destructive power of the Schwarz Lanzenreiter could have reduced a weak force like that to so much space dust in the blink of an eye. However, from Senior Admiral Wittenfeld on down, the officers and soldiers of the “Black Lancers” made it a point of pride to earn their reputations battling large enemy forces
▪ If Yang is defeated, it won’t be by the outstanding genius of Reinhard von Lohengramm.”
It would be by Yang’s fixation on his own ideals. At Vermillion, he should have ignored the government’s cease-fire order. Bucock couldn’t come out and say so, but for Yang’s own good, that was what he should have done.
◆ CHAPTER 4: RELEASE, REVOLUTION, CONSPIRACY, ET CETERA
▪ The hawk and the sparrow have different points of view. One gold coin isn’t worth picking up to a billionaire, but to a poor person it can mean the difference between life and death
▪ What could not be allowed was the whole universe being ruled by a naive system of government dependent on the talents and qualities of a single individual.
▪ Rather than having the justifications of a solitary, absolute god forced upon them, it was infinitely better to have lots of insignificant people waving about their own petty, foolish justifications and hurting one another.
▪ Merge all colors into one, and everything turns black; a chaotic jumble of many colors was preferable to colorless purity.
▪ This was how the “Irregulars” became the “Revolutionary Reserve.” Commander Olivier Poplin would later say of the matter, “Winter clothes in the wintertime, summer clothes in the summertime. Whichever you wear, though, what’s inside doesn’t change
▪ The human race has forty billion people, and half of them are women. If half of those are either too old or too young, and half of that number I disqualify based on looks, that still leaves me five billion eligible romantic interests. I can’t afford to waste even a second
▪ Still, if you don’t scatter any grass seed because it’s just going to wither eventually, the grass won’t ever grow. We can’t not eat just because we’ll get hungry again. Isn’t that right, Boris?”
Boris Konev softly clucked his tongue.
“Your metaphors are lame, but they’re also right.”
▪ Reinhard, however, due to his truly exceptional gifts, became the greatest enemy of the republican democratic system. Within the strict confines of the republican democratic system, Reinhard could never have exercised his gifts to their fullest. It was only dictatorship to which his immense genius was suited.”
▪ He also knew that the majority of dictators had appeared because they were wished for, and that their source of popular support was not the people’s loyalty to a political system, but to an individual
◆ CHAPTER 5: THE PRODIGALS RETURN
▪ It was the confusion itself that Yang aiming for. If all he had wanted to do was get Lutz to mobilize, there would have been no need to resort to these tricks. It was in making Lutz realize that he was resorting to tricks that Yang’s odds of success improved.
▪ I believe that the order to deploy was a false one sent by Yang Wen-li. ‘Draw the fleet away, and steal the fortress during the opening.’ Isn’t that the sort of trick Yang would play?”
Vice Admiral Wöhler’s eyes opened wide. “Then, even knowing that, Your Excellency still intends to mobilize the fleet, and leave the station empty?”
“I do, Vice Admiral. I’m going out with the entire fleet. I’m going to make Yang Wen-li think I’ve fallen for his plan. We, however, will be the ones who are fooling him.”
▪ For health and beauty, have a cup of tea after every meal
▪ one cup of russian tea. not with jam, not with marmalade; with honey.
◆ CHAPTER 6: THE BATTLE OF MAR ADETTA
▪ He wanted to be number two or lower, but had never been blessed with any quality number ones to follow
▪ The reason being, if I may speak so arrogantly, that democracy is a mode of thought that makes friends who are equal—not one that makes masters and servants
▪ The elderly marshal gestured toward the screen, as if making a toast.
“I want good friends, and I want to be a good friend to somebody else. But I don’t think I want a good lord or good vassals. Which is why you and I weren’t able to follow the same flag. I appreciate your courtesy, but you’ve no need of these old bones anymore.”
The paper cup tilted where the old man’s mouth was.
“To democracy!”
▪ A fireball exploded in the midst of the screen. More than a dozen beams, focused on that solitary vessel, had been fired. In that instant, the Free Planets Alliance Armed Forces, which had boasted a two-century history, was extinguished, along with its last commander in chief and general chief of staff.
◆ CHAPTER 8: THE LONG ROAD FORWARD
▪ You mean compromise with the kaiser’s autocracy? I can’t believe those are really the words of democracy’s fighting champion, Yang Wen-li.”
“The coexistence of diverse political values is the essence of democracy. Wouldn’t you agree?
▪ Ultimately, conspiracies and terrorism can’t make the flow of history run backward. They can make it stagnate, however.
▪ while military power might give birth to democratic government, it can’t get away with being proud of that accomplishment. That isn’t unfair. That’s because the essence of democracy is in the self-restraint of those who hold power
▪ Democracy is the self-restraint of the powerful, codified in law and systematized in its institutions.
Legend of the Galactic Heroes, Volume 7 - Yoshiki Tanaka (Highlight: 31; Note: 0)
───────────────
◆ CHAPTER 1: UNDER THE GOLDENLÖWE
▪ Everything they had done, all their courageous deeds, had been to multiply the rays cast by an enormous star named Reinhard von Lohengramm.
▪ The existence of a number two capable of replacing the number one could never be tolerated.
▪ Human beings had a thing called capacity, which was different for everyone in both size and shape.
▪ “Be that as it may, Your Majesty will lack a permanent dwelling until your palace is completed,” said Wittenfeld.
Reinhard, who had started for the door, stopped and turned around, his luxurious mane of golden hair stirring the air. Then, the graceful lips of the young king and conqueror shot back the words which future historians would never fail to reproduce when assaying to write Reinhard’s biography.
“I need no palace,” he said. “The royal palace of the Galactic Empire is wherever I am. For now, my throne shall be ensconced on the battleship Brünhild.”
A thrill of exultation that was almost a shudder went shooting through the admirals’ central nervous systems. That was the kind of spirit which revealed their praiseworthy kaiser’s true self. The kaiser did not reside in palaces; he was a man of the battlefield.
◆ CHAPTER 2: DEFYING EVERY FLAG
▪ The man known as Yang Wen-li was an organism composed of innumerable contradictions. While detesting the military, he had risen to the rank of marshal; while avoiding battle, he had stacked victory on top of victory; while doubting the significance of his state’s continued existence, his contributions to that state had been many; while ignoring the virtue of diligence, he had accumulated incomparable achievements.
▪ All the universe is a stage, and history a farce with no author.
▪ A life of subordination, of following someone else’s orders, was just easier. This was the psychological soil from which had sprung man’s acceptance of dictatorships and absolutism
▪ Democracy had always been worth counting on. After all, hadn’t it been in the denial of states’ and power structures’ infallibility that democratic government had originally begun? Wasn’t the strength of democracy found in its willingness to call its own wrongs wrong, to examine itself, and to purify itself?
◆ CHAPTER 3: AGAIN, RAGNAROK
▪ At one point along the way, however, a tiny formation of about ten FPA navy vessels had been detected approaching in a provocative manner.
The destructive power of the Schwarz Lanzenreiter could have reduced a weak force like that to so much space dust in the blink of an eye. However, from Senior Admiral Wittenfeld on down, the officers and soldiers of the “Black Lancers” made it a point of pride to earn their reputations battling large enemy forces
▪ If Yang is defeated, it won’t be by the outstanding genius of Reinhard von Lohengramm.”
It would be by Yang’s fixation on his own ideals. At Vermillion, he should have ignored the government’s cease-fire order. Bucock couldn’t come out and say so, but for Yang’s own good, that was what he should have done.
◆ CHAPTER 4: RELEASE, REVOLUTION, CONSPIRACY, ET CETERA
▪ The hawk and the sparrow have different points of view. One gold coin isn’t worth picking up to a billionaire, but to a poor person it can mean the difference between life and death
▪ What could not be allowed was the whole universe being ruled by a naive system of government dependent on the talents and qualities of a single individual.
▪ Rather than having the justifications of a solitary, absolute god forced upon them, it was infinitely better to have lots of insignificant people waving about their own petty, foolish justifications and hurting one another.
▪ Merge all colors into one, and everything turns black; a chaotic jumble of many colors was preferable to colorless purity.
▪ This was how the “Irregulars” became the “Revolutionary Reserve.” Commander Olivier Poplin would later say of the matter, “Winter clothes in the wintertime, summer clothes in the summertime. Whichever you wear, though, what’s inside doesn’t change
▪ The human race has forty billion people, and half of them are women. If half of those are either too old or too young, and half of that number I disqualify based on looks, that still leaves me five billion eligible romantic interests. I can’t afford to waste even a second
▪ Still, if you don’t scatter any grass seed because it’s just going to wither eventually, the grass won’t ever grow. We can’t not eat just because we’ll get hungry again. Isn’t that right, Boris?”
Boris Konev softly clucked his tongue.
“Your metaphors are lame, but they’re also right.”
▪ Reinhard, however, due to his truly exceptional gifts, became the greatest enemy of the republican democratic system. Within the strict confines of the republican democratic system, Reinhard could never have exercised his gifts to their fullest. It was only dictatorship to which his immense genius was suited.”
▪ He also knew that the majority of dictators had appeared because they were wished for, and that their source of popular support was not the people’s loyalty to a political system, but to an individual
◆ CHAPTER 5: THE PRODIGALS RETURN
▪ It was the confusion itself that Yang aiming for. If all he had wanted to do was get Lutz to mobilize, there would have been no need to resort to these tricks. It was in making Lutz realize that he was resorting to tricks that Yang’s odds of success improved.
▪ I believe that the order to deploy was a false one sent by Yang Wen-li. ‘Draw the fleet away, and steal the fortress during the opening.’ Isn’t that the sort of trick Yang would play?”
Vice Admiral Wöhler’s eyes opened wide. “Then, even knowing that, Your Excellency still intends to mobilize the fleet, and leave the station empty?”
“I do, Vice Admiral. I’m going out with the entire fleet. I’m going to make Yang Wen-li think I’ve fallen for his plan. We, however, will be the ones who are fooling him.”
▪ For health and beauty, have a cup of tea after every meal
▪ one cup of russian tea. not with jam, not with marmalade; with honey.
◆ CHAPTER 6: THE BATTLE OF MAR ADETTA
▪ He wanted to be number two or lower, but had never been blessed with any quality number ones to follow
▪ The reason being, if I may speak so arrogantly, that democracy is a mode of thought that makes friends who are equal—not one that makes masters and servants
▪ The elderly marshal gestured toward the screen, as if making a toast.
“I want good friends, and I want to be a good friend to somebody else. But I don’t think I want a good lord or good vassals. Which is why you and I weren’t able to follow the same flag. I appreciate your courtesy, but you’ve no need of these old bones anymore.”
The paper cup tilted where the old man’s mouth was.
“To democracy!”
▪ A fireball exploded in the midst of the screen. More than a dozen beams, focused on that solitary vessel, had been fired. In that instant, the Free Planets Alliance Armed Forces, which had boasted a two-century history, was extinguished, along with its last commander in chief and general chief of staff.
◆ CHAPTER 8: THE LONG ROAD FORWARD
▪ You mean compromise with the kaiser’s autocracy? I can’t believe those are really the words of democracy’s fighting champion, Yang Wen-li.”
“The coexistence of diverse political values is the essence of democracy. Wouldn’t you agree?
▪ Ultimately, conspiracies and terrorism can’t make the flow of history run backward. They can make it stagnate, however.
▪ while military power might give birth to democratic government, it can’t get away with being proud of that accomplishment. That isn’t unfair. That’s because the essence of democracy is in the self-restraint of those who hold power
▪ Democracy is the self-restraint of the powerful, codified in law and systematized in its institutions.
January 3, 2026
I'm incredibly happy that we switched translators. Daniel Huddleston doesn't make me realize the translation is butchered while reading it, not that there isn't a rare mistake here and there. But that's miles above having to rely on my memories of the original OVA to put the damned story back together.
In the previous entry into the series, The Free Planets Alliance continues its inevitable downward spiral, attempting to purge Yang Wen-li due to the (ultimately justified) suspicions of the local Imperial overseer that Yang was up to no good. After kidnapping the Chairman João Lebelo of the Alliance, then allowing said leader to sell out Imperial commissioner Lennenkampf (in charge of making sure the Alliance behaves itself), Yang flees into space, setting off a series of consequences, including the death knell of the Alliance. Disgusted with the Alliance's ongoing degeneration and incompetence, Kaiser Reinhard declares a return to open warfare, his goal the final unification of space. Honestly, Lennenkampf got the right answer for all the wrong reasons, and his actions actually worked out in favor of the Empire since it prevented Yang from getting the time he needed for his little democracy plot.
There are several battles in this volume, done with their usual style, but there's also a great deal of "setting the board." The many pieces in play are positioned just right for the next four volumes, where things are going to get very hairy. The foreshadowing is significant, so it pays for the reader to pay attention. I'm looking forward to the rest!
In the previous entry into the series, The Free Planets Alliance continues its inevitable downward spiral, attempting to purge Yang Wen-li due to the (ultimately justified) suspicions of the local Imperial overseer that Yang was up to no good. After kidnapping the Chairman João Lebelo of the Alliance, then allowing said leader to sell out Imperial commissioner Lennenkampf (in charge of making sure the Alliance behaves itself), Yang flees into space, setting off a series of consequences, including the death knell of the Alliance. Disgusted with the Alliance's ongoing degeneration and incompetence, Kaiser Reinhard declares a return to open warfare, his goal the final unification of space. Honestly, Lennenkampf got the right answer for all the wrong reasons, and his actions actually worked out in favor of the Empire since it prevented Yang from getting the time he needed for his little democracy plot.
There are several battles in this volume, done with their usual style, but there's also a great deal of "setting the board." The many pieces in play are positioned just right for the next four volumes, where things are going to get very hairy. The foreshadowing is significant, so it pays for the reader to pay attention. I'm looking forward to the rest!
November 11, 2021
Books this short (250 pages) usually don't take me 4 weeks to go through, this one however was quite a slog - and the first one in the series that didn't work for me. Apart from characters being moved like chess pieces on a board not much seems to happen. Maybe this is all done to get them into position for the last stretch of books? Possibly. I just wish it could have been done in a more exiciting way.
Also, this is the book in which the stiff translation really comes to a head. At times it reads as if Google Translate had just given up and does with the proverbs and metaphores whatever it wants. "His face seemed as though it were made up of inorganic pieces of a jigsaw puzzle." What does that even mean?? Why 'inorganic'? Why, what?
Honestly wish they could have gotten somebody else to do this.
Also, this is the book in which the stiff translation really comes to a head. At times it reads as if Google Translate had just given up and does with the proverbs and metaphores whatever it wants. "His face seemed as though it were made up of inorganic pieces of a jigsaw puzzle." What does that even mean?? Why 'inorganic'? Why, what?
Honestly wish they could have gotten somebody else to do this.
March 29, 2020
This is the weakest of the books so far. It really doesn't have a lot of action and it seems the purple prose is ramped up to take up space where action would be.
Also this is when all the women that have been cool are now baby incubators. Everyone is talking babies. They are of course gendered male as Katerose is the only daughter who exists to be a romance partner for Julian (who is 19 where Katerose is 16!!!!) THere's also the 80s bad science sent hurling into the future where a woman can't abort due to some dark ages reasons when we are in a future of hyper jumps and space ships.
THough she only exists to give Mittermeier a baby, via Reuntal . She of course wants nothing to do with it and disappears afterwards.
Also this is when all the women that have been cool are now baby incubators. Everyone is talking babies. They are of course gendered male as Katerose is the only daughter who exists to be a romance partner for Julian (who is 19 where Katerose is 16!!!!) THere's also the 80s bad science sent hurling into the future where a woman can't abort due to some dark ages reasons when we are in a future of hyper jumps and space ships.
THough she only exists to give Mittermeier a baby, via Reuntal . She of course wants nothing to do with it and disappears afterwards.
December 20, 2018
Of all the LotGH books, I found this one to be the biggest slog to get through. It felt like a rehashing of plot points we'd already read earlier in the series. At least Von Reuenthal got some cool plot development.
February 2, 2022
As the rating implies, "it was ok". At this point in the story, the reader is still interested more so due to the beginning of the story, than what it has devolved into, as political correctness destroys what good the initial volumes had.
September 9, 2018
I'm anime trash so I KNOW everything that happens plotwise and I'm STILL losing it over the prose. And the characterization, and the maneuvering, and the collage style of narrative.
September 11, 2018
Most of the focus this book is politicking, with a little bit of space combat.
September 20, 2018
I don't know why I keep forgetting that these novels are based on the history of European wars during the 19th century, but...whatever. One left to go.
May 26, 2025
much slower than the previous books
however, I can see the stage being set for the final show down.
however, I can see the stage being set for the final show down.
June 11, 2025
que buen y misogino libro
December 26, 2018
A well thought out book, giving insight into each character.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews