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銀河英雄伝説 [Ginga eiyū densetsu] #9
銀河英雄伝説 9 回天篇 [Ginga eiyū densetsu 9]
It’s the master tactician of the ruthless 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.
The irregulars of the Iserlohn Republic, still loyal to the ideals of their former leader Yang Wen-li, rally around Yang’s successor Julian as he strives to live up to his inherited responsibilities. Meanwhile, in the empire, Kaiser Reinhard survives an attempt on his life only to be confronted with the devastating sins of his past when he learns the true identity of his would-be assassin. Despite rumors of treason on the part of Neue Land governor-general Oskar von Reuentahl, the kaiser pays a personal visit to that territory, where an even greater shock lies in store.
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.
The irregulars of the Iserlohn Republic, still loyal to the ideals of their former leader Yang Wen-li, rally around Yang’s successor Julian as he strives to live up to his inherited responsibilities. Meanwhile, in the empire, Kaiser Reinhard survives an attempt on his life only to be confronted with the devastating sins of his past when he learns the true identity of his would-be assassin. Despite rumors of treason on the part of Neue Land governor-general Oskar von Reuentahl, the kaiser pays a personal visit to that territory, where an even greater shock lies in store.
239 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 1987
11 people are currently reading
308 people want to read
About the author
Yoshiki Tanaka
595 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 - 8 of 8 reviews
April 23, 2024
What a penultimate book in the series.
It’s so interesting, the characters in these series aren’t written in a way that you immediately get behind them. But, as the series goes on and you are told how they are remembered based off of their actions, you suddenly care.
The scope is so big that you can’t possibly be invested as other series because each book would be bigger than a high fantasy novel.
I’m feeling already the onset of post-series blues. Like finishing Friends or Parks and Rec, I know already I will miss the series and the universe that has been faithfully “recounted” to me.
It’s so interesting, the characters in these series aren’t written in a way that you immediately get behind them. But, as the series goes on and you are told how they are remembered based off of their actions, you suddenly care.
The scope is so big that you can’t possibly be invested as other series because each book would be bigger than a high fantasy novel.
I’m feeling already the onset of post-series blues. Like finishing Friends or Parks and Rec, I know already I will miss the series and the universe that has been faithfully “recounted” to me.
August 14, 2025
Smartly, this novel shifted a majority of its focus over to the empire. With autocracy comes political and military intrigue. And boy, that delivered in spades for this story. Honestly, I found more of the engaging moments in this series to be on the empire’s side. Them being given even more to do was a smart writing decision in my opinion.
December 24, 2024
Legend of the Galactic Heroes, Vol. 9: Upheaval - Yoshiki Tanaka (Highlight: 17; Note: 0)
───────────────
◆ CHAPTER 1: ON THE FRONTIER
▪ The greatest miracle in the story of Yang Wen-li is not his string of victories in the face of superior numbers but the fact that, even after his own death, there was no struggle for power among his followers”
▪ The frontier is closest to the horizon, he told himself, and the horizon is where the new age dawns.
▪ Yang would probably not find his family’s current situation entirely to his liking. His wife had become the leader of a revolutionary government, his ward the commander of a revolutionary army, and he himself a kind of patron saint of democracy, drafted into service even after death to provide spiritual succor and ensure Frederica and Julian’s legitimacy.
“ ‘Can’t I even rest when I’m dead?’
◆ CHAPTER 3: RUMBLING
▪ The ultimate victors are those who can endure the indolence of peace.
▪ The emperor asked: What grievance has turned you against me? And the rebellious minister replied: I have no grievance. I simply wish to be emperor. At this, the heterochromatic youth had murmured to himself, “No other reason for rebellion could be as just.
▪ The right judgment depends on the right information and the right analysis
◆ CHAPTER 4: BURGEONING
▪ The fact that Lang himself was the source of this information was part of the plot’s craft. Von Reuentahl was capable of utterly unsentimental strategic observation, but he did not realize that Lang’s exaggerations and fabrications were specifically for von Reuentahl’s benefit. Because he was by nature a ruler, he thought of rebellion as purely negative for those in power. The idea of inciting a revolt intended to be suppressed was alien to him.
◆ CHAPTER 5: THE URVASHI INCIDENT
▪ To borrow Admiral Müller’s expression from earlier, as governor-general of the Neue Land, Marshal von Reuentahl is responsible for guaranteeing Your Majesty’s safety. And yet these are the events that have come to pass. Unfortunate as it may be, I cannot agree that he is unworthy of criticism for this.
▪ When Reinhard’s five companions formed a wall around him, his dazzling golden mane caught the soldiers’ eyes.
One, standing directly in front of them, gasped, “The kaiser!” His awe was evident not just in his voice but in his entire body. He kept the barrel of his weapon raised, but the finger on the trigger seemed to weaken even as they watched.
Reinhard took a step forward. “You have retained some portion of your senses, then,” he said. “Indeed, I am your kaiser.”
Müller tried to stop him, but the kaiser held him back with one arm as he opened his jacket before the soldiers’ weapons. In that moment, light and darkness themselves seemed his subordinates, existing only to emphasize the young emperor’s beauty and authority.
“Shoot me, then. There is only one Reinhard von Lohengramm, and only one man will go down in history as his killer. Who will become that man?”
“Your Majesty!” Müller tried once more to interpose himself between Reinhard and the soldiers. Reinhard quietly but firmly pushed his loyal admiral back.
◆ CHAPTER 7: LIVE BY THE SWORD…
▪ Mittermeier felt the same excitement. A voice whispered inside him, asking, Isn’t it the heart’s desire of every warrior to square off with a brilliant commander like von Reuentahl? But, in addition to the bitterness of fighting to the death with a friend, Mittermeier had concerns of a different nature.
▪ Fahrenheit had enjoyed the confidence of his fleet, and some of his former troops who were now in the Black Lancers had indeed served under him in the Lippstadt War three years ago—battling von Reuentahl and the rest of Reinhard’s forces. Now, reassigned to Wittenfeld’s command, they were fighting von Reuentahl again, this time on Reinhard’s behalf. This must have inspired no small number to reflect on the bitter ironies of fate.
▪ The decision was thus made, but many of Julian’s staff officers were disappointed. Von Schönkopf made a public counterproposal, not even bothering to keep it quiet.
“Julian, let me go back to Heinessen with Admiral Murai.”
“To visit your lovers?”
“That would be the main purpose of my visit, but there’s something else I want to do while I’m there.” He grinned with the dangerous dignity and power of an aristocratic, man-eating tiger. “Pose with von Reuentahl’s head in my left hand, Trünicht’s head under my left foot, and a tomahawk in my right hand, take a photograph, and sell it to the media.”
Poplin leaned forward. “Count me in on that one,” he said. “You can have von Reuentahl’s head. I’ll settle for Trünicht’s.”
“I thought you might say that. Always angling for the easy job.”
◆ CHAPTER 8: DIE BY THE SWORD
▪ In other words, the enemy’s a pack of sentimentalists, just like us,” said von Schönkopf with a sideways glance at Julian. “ ‘Sacred resting place,’ was it? I suppose, commander, that this shared sentimentalism is where you expect to reach an understanding and find our hopes for the future?”
“Something like that. But I don’t expect the path to be a smooth one.”
▪ All the galaxy was a stage, as Yang had once said. Players trod the boards of space-time in tragedies and farces, large and small. The curtain went up, the curtain came down, and one lead gave way to the next.
▪ But while the histories of later ages would describe Bayerlein as the “successor to Mittermeier; a capable soldier of honesty and integrity,” Grillparzer was deemed a “despicable traitor.” He would join that unfortunate group whose entire legacy is dismissed due to their actions at the very end of their lives—less than one percent of their allotted time.
▪ Grillparzer would disgrace himself five times in the end. The first time was his initial support, however feigned, for von Reuentahl’s revolt against the kaiser. The second was his betrayal of von Reuentahl after having sworn fealty to him. The third was his choice of the worst possible time to enact that betrayal. The fourth was the failure of the betrayal itself, which saw him defeated by von Reuentahl’s forces. And the fifth came when, having achieved nothing, he asked permission to surrender to a man who thought such acts despicable.
◆ CHAPTER 9: REQUIEM AETERNAM
▪ Though he himself did not realize it, toppling the Goldenbaum Dynasty was, for him, the equivalent of overcoming his father in his formative years. With that father figure eliminated, to battle and defeat powerful foes became the meaning of life itself for him. Reinhard knew war, but not love,
───────────────
◆ CHAPTER 1: ON THE FRONTIER
▪ The greatest miracle in the story of Yang Wen-li is not his string of victories in the face of superior numbers but the fact that, even after his own death, there was no struggle for power among his followers”
▪ The frontier is closest to the horizon, he told himself, and the horizon is where the new age dawns.
▪ Yang would probably not find his family’s current situation entirely to his liking. His wife had become the leader of a revolutionary government, his ward the commander of a revolutionary army, and he himself a kind of patron saint of democracy, drafted into service even after death to provide spiritual succor and ensure Frederica and Julian’s legitimacy.
“ ‘Can’t I even rest when I’m dead?’
◆ CHAPTER 3: RUMBLING
▪ The ultimate victors are those who can endure the indolence of peace.
▪ The emperor asked: What grievance has turned you against me? And the rebellious minister replied: I have no grievance. I simply wish to be emperor. At this, the heterochromatic youth had murmured to himself, “No other reason for rebellion could be as just.
▪ The right judgment depends on the right information and the right analysis
◆ CHAPTER 4: BURGEONING
▪ The fact that Lang himself was the source of this information was part of the plot’s craft. Von Reuentahl was capable of utterly unsentimental strategic observation, but he did not realize that Lang’s exaggerations and fabrications were specifically for von Reuentahl’s benefit. Because he was by nature a ruler, he thought of rebellion as purely negative for those in power. The idea of inciting a revolt intended to be suppressed was alien to him.
◆ CHAPTER 5: THE URVASHI INCIDENT
▪ To borrow Admiral Müller’s expression from earlier, as governor-general of the Neue Land, Marshal von Reuentahl is responsible for guaranteeing Your Majesty’s safety. And yet these are the events that have come to pass. Unfortunate as it may be, I cannot agree that he is unworthy of criticism for this.
▪ When Reinhard’s five companions formed a wall around him, his dazzling golden mane caught the soldiers’ eyes.
One, standing directly in front of them, gasped, “The kaiser!” His awe was evident not just in his voice but in his entire body. He kept the barrel of his weapon raised, but the finger on the trigger seemed to weaken even as they watched.
Reinhard took a step forward. “You have retained some portion of your senses, then,” he said. “Indeed, I am your kaiser.”
Müller tried to stop him, but the kaiser held him back with one arm as he opened his jacket before the soldiers’ weapons. In that moment, light and darkness themselves seemed his subordinates, existing only to emphasize the young emperor’s beauty and authority.
“Shoot me, then. There is only one Reinhard von Lohengramm, and only one man will go down in history as his killer. Who will become that man?”
“Your Majesty!” Müller tried once more to interpose himself between Reinhard and the soldiers. Reinhard quietly but firmly pushed his loyal admiral back.
◆ CHAPTER 7: LIVE BY THE SWORD…
▪ Mittermeier felt the same excitement. A voice whispered inside him, asking, Isn’t it the heart’s desire of every warrior to square off with a brilliant commander like von Reuentahl? But, in addition to the bitterness of fighting to the death with a friend, Mittermeier had concerns of a different nature.
▪ Fahrenheit had enjoyed the confidence of his fleet, and some of his former troops who were now in the Black Lancers had indeed served under him in the Lippstadt War three years ago—battling von Reuentahl and the rest of Reinhard’s forces. Now, reassigned to Wittenfeld’s command, they were fighting von Reuentahl again, this time on Reinhard’s behalf. This must have inspired no small number to reflect on the bitter ironies of fate.
▪ The decision was thus made, but many of Julian’s staff officers were disappointed. Von Schönkopf made a public counterproposal, not even bothering to keep it quiet.
“Julian, let me go back to Heinessen with Admiral Murai.”
“To visit your lovers?”
“That would be the main purpose of my visit, but there’s something else I want to do while I’m there.” He grinned with the dangerous dignity and power of an aristocratic, man-eating tiger. “Pose with von Reuentahl’s head in my left hand, Trünicht’s head under my left foot, and a tomahawk in my right hand, take a photograph, and sell it to the media.”
Poplin leaned forward. “Count me in on that one,” he said. “You can have von Reuentahl’s head. I’ll settle for Trünicht’s.”
“I thought you might say that. Always angling for the easy job.”
◆ CHAPTER 8: DIE BY THE SWORD
▪ In other words, the enemy’s a pack of sentimentalists, just like us,” said von Schönkopf with a sideways glance at Julian. “ ‘Sacred resting place,’ was it? I suppose, commander, that this shared sentimentalism is where you expect to reach an understanding and find our hopes for the future?”
“Something like that. But I don’t expect the path to be a smooth one.”
▪ All the galaxy was a stage, as Yang had once said. Players trod the boards of space-time in tragedies and farces, large and small. The curtain went up, the curtain came down, and one lead gave way to the next.
▪ But while the histories of later ages would describe Bayerlein as the “successor to Mittermeier; a capable soldier of honesty and integrity,” Grillparzer was deemed a “despicable traitor.” He would join that unfortunate group whose entire legacy is dismissed due to their actions at the very end of their lives—less than one percent of their allotted time.
▪ Grillparzer would disgrace himself five times in the end. The first time was his initial support, however feigned, for von Reuentahl’s revolt against the kaiser. The second was his betrayal of von Reuentahl after having sworn fealty to him. The third was his choice of the worst possible time to enact that betrayal. The fourth was the failure of the betrayal itself, which saw him defeated by von Reuentahl’s forces. And the fifth came when, having achieved nothing, he asked permission to surrender to a man who thought such acts despicable.
◆ CHAPTER 9: REQUIEM AETERNAM
▪ Though he himself did not realize it, toppling the Goldenbaum Dynasty was, for him, the equivalent of overcoming his father in his formative years. With that father figure eliminated, to battle and defeat powerful foes became the meaning of life itself for him. Reinhard knew war, but not love,
December 27, 2019
I was really prepared to just coast until the end of the book series after book 8's spoileriffic development, but this book held its own. I'm looking forward to and fearing moving on to the 10th book.
June 16, 2025
honestly, a bit of a drag. Julian had a quiet year, I don't blame him for that. Just glad to have finally get to the final book.
October 14, 2020
I love these so much.
Yes, I watched the OVA; none of the plot is a surprise. However, Tanaka's attention to the mental states of his characters isn't something the anime can capture completely, and the frame historical-criticism mechanic provides so much more depth to the story.
Yes, I watched the OVA; none of the plot is a surprise. However, Tanaka's attention to the mental states of his characters isn't something the anime can capture completely, and the frame historical-criticism mechanic provides so much more depth to the story.
March 11, 2021
to be continued
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews