Legend of the Galactic Heroes, Vol. 1: Dawn (1)

For fans of Japanese science fiction, the last few years have been like a dream come true. Miracles we hesitated to even dream of have fallen onto our laps with very auspicious regularity. Vertical has published sterling translations of Yoshikazu Yoshihiko’s Gundam: The Origin manga, Discotek has released his classic mecha adventure Giant Gorg, The Vision of Escaflowne is getting a new dub thanks to Kickstarter (though that may be a bit more on the fantasy rather than scifi side)…the list goes on.Haikasoru has given us yet another reason to be happy with its release of the first novel in Yoshiki Tanaka’s epic space opera series, The Legend of the Galactic Heroes. To understand why anime and sci-fi aficionados would be overjoyed at this development, a bit of background is in order: The Legend of the Galactic Heroes, or LoGH, was adapted into a 110-episode original video animation (OVA) series in the late 80s and early 90s. It was given fan-made English subtitles by the intrepid Central Anime group some time later, where it quickly gained a reputation as one of the best anime (sci-fi or not) ever made among English-speaking fans. Though such fans were never massively great in number up until now—it’s hard to get the word out for an unofficial translation when you can’t really advertise for it, and 110 episodes of abstruse politics can be pretty tough to swallow at first—the excellent characters, wonderful music, pulse-pounding depictions of space strategy and warfare, and fantastic, realistic, utterly engrossing political drama made us as fervently devoted as any fans you might find anywhere. However, we had always heard that the anime we so loved was actually based off of a series of novels back in Japan. Some of us had made a few attempts to translate them, but never met with much success—until now. For the very first time, a dream arguably decades in the making has been fulfilled thanks to Daniel Huddleston and Haikasoru’s translation of Tanaka’s first entry in his novel series, Dawn. As you might imagine, our expectations were very high. Did Tanaka’s novels have the same magic as the series did, and if so, did the translation manage to capture it?Short answer: Yep! Longer answer: Keep reading!For laymen coming across this review, one more time, allow me to give a bit of background information in the form of a brief summary (I’ll try to avoid spoilers from here on out). LoGH takes place a millennium into the future, in the 3000s and succeeding centuries by our calendar’s reckoning. Humanity has colonized part of the Milky Way, which resulted in the formation of the Galactic Federation in 2801 and the replacement of our A.D calendar with the SE (Space Era). Eventually, however, the Federation declined and an upstart dictator, Rudolf von Goldenbaum, seized power! In SE 296, he turned the Federation into an empire—a Galactic Reich—and begins to oppress the people, stomping on free speech and passing “genetic purity” laws redolent of those the Nazis were known for. He even overthrows the Space Era calendar and replaces it with his own Imperial calendar, and founded his own dynasty, of course. A century later, in Imperial Year 164 (SE 460, AD 3261), prisoners in an asteroid mine led by a visionary named Heinessen secretly built a spaceship made of ice and snuck away from their captors—after decades of incredibly harsh travel where more than half their number perished, they finally landed on an uninhabited world and founded the Free Planets Alliance, restoring the Space Era calendar (in SE 527) and dedicating themselves to the ideals of the Galactic Federation: Democracy and freedom!As you can imagine, it didn’t take long for the Free Planets Alliance and the Galactic Reich to run into each other and go right to war, and in that context LoGH truly begins. The year is SE 796, Imperial Year 487. The FPA and the Reich have been at war for over two hundred years—natural increase along with a steady stream of refugees from the Empire have expanded the Alliance population from a few hundred thousand to billions, enough to contend with the Imperials. But all is not well in the FPA—this isn’t just a simple “brave rebels versus evil empire” story! The democratically-elected rulers of the Alliance have forgotten the founding ideals of Ahle Heinessen, and are more concerned with winning re-election than anything else. They disregard the welfare of their people and spend more and more money on the war with the Empire instead of seeking peace, which stretches their society to the breaking point. The Empire, meanwhile, has grown decadent and corrupt, with the present Kaiser being completely lacking in ambition and energy. In an era of venal, mediocre leaders, two bright stars begin to shine brightly on the galactic stage: The great admirals Yang Wen-Li of the FPA and Reinhard von Lohengramm of the Empire. Yang Wen-Li, despite being as lazy as he is lovable, is a genius tactician who can pull a victory out of even the longest odds, and is resolutely dedicated to the democratic ideals his politicians have forgotten. His counterpart, Reinhard, is an equally gifted tactician, but his ambition burns brighter than a sun. Reinhard’s beloved sister, Annerose, was sold to the present Kaiser as a concubine, so Reinhard wants to overthrow Goldenbaum’s decadent empire and become Kaiser himself—but his rule would be as benevolent *and* autocratic, where human rights would be upheld, racial discrimination abolished, and people would advance based on merit and skill rather than Goldenbaum’s silly notions of “racial purity.” Reinhard’s plan is to advance up the ranks of the Empire’s military, aided by his best childhood friend Siegfried Kircheis, perhaps becoming Kaiser by marrying into the family when his military exploits have secured his reputation (and place in the Reich’s peerage), but nothing is ever so simple, and the plans of both the FPA and the Reich fall under the shadow of Phezzan, a minor planet sitting at the gateway between the two space nations whose economic influence—and presence in all number of shadowy galactic conspiracies—is far, far larger than its humble military might suggest.The beginning volume of Legend of the Galactic Heroes tells the story of how these two stars rose to power, how they won the space battles that catapulted them to fame, the opposition they face from unscrupulous social climbers in their own factions, and how Galactic history has changed thanks to their actions. A previous reviewer mentioned that this book compared favorably to Asimov’s Foundation series. Blunted stated, I heartily agree. In my opinion, as a novel judged on its own merits, even without thinking of the anime series, Legend of the Galactic Heroes: Dawn represents the very best of science fiction. The fictional history Tanaka has built is compelling and believable, a perfect backdrop to explore the themes of decadence, civic duty, and the role ambition (or the lack thereof) plays in human affairs. His exploration of those themes is as nuanced and sensitive as it is well-considered, and he spares nothing in critiquing the flaws of both the democratic Free Planets alliance and the monarchial Galactic Empire. Thanks to the strengths of Yang and Reinhard’s characters, and the way the plot is framed through their eyes and experiences, the criticisms of both forms of government never come across as boring or preachy. Tanaka does an excellent job of establishing the major characters, though the minor ones can seem to blur into each other. He illustrates the defining characteristics of Yang and Reinhard very well without making them caricatures: Yang is lazy and lacks ambition, but Tanaka gives him some excellent dialogue that illustrates both how strongly principled and intelligent and knowledgeable he is. Tanaka similarly portrays Reinhard’s burning ambition and ruthlessness very strongly, but also adds some sweet scenes with his best friend, Kircheis, to let the reader know he is a human being capable of the most tender emotions. The story draws the reader into the galactic panoply it’s constructed and refuses to let them go—I’m sure I’m far from the only one who absolutely can’t wait for the next novels in the series! Good science fiction is supposed to make the reader think, and any reader with even a modicum of education will find themselves with a great bit of food for thought as they go through the magnificent tapestry Tanaka has weaved out of the various threads of history, political science, character-driven drama, and space-fighting action.As a historian (or something of a historian, I suppose) myself, my only quibble, if it could be called that, would be that LoGH sort of falls into the “Great Man” category of history—the implication that history is moved by the actions of individual actors, with larger social and technological forces playing a secondary role, if any at all. Still, this is understandable for a novel. You need a cast of compelling characters and a focus on that cast to really keep a reader’s attention, which is harder to do if you choose to write about impersonal social forces, technological change, economics, etc. as opposed to selecting a small number of vividly drawn heroes for your fans to sympathize with. So it’s not really a criticism at all, just something for other historically-minded folks to keep in mind.Comparing the books to the anime offers similar material for consideration, though I can’t say I can really criticize either medium. The book (at least so far) does a few things better than the anime, and the anime does a few things better than the book. I’ll try to avoid spoilers, but let me say this: there’s much more background on some scientific and social matters in the books than there is in the anime. While the anime had some history episodes, the book is packed to the brim with little tidbits of worldbuilding. Small asides on terraforming, galactic economics, and even displays of conspicuous consumption in the Reich not present in the anime really give the reader a better idea of how human society has stayed the same even as it’s changed drastically in a space-faring age. Similarly, the portrayal of tactics in space battles is a little better in the book, I’d say. While many LoGH fans have poked some light-hearted fun at the space battles of the anime as being essentially Napoleonic ground battles, or even less favorably, “triangles being caught in circles and destroyed,” the battles tend to make more sense written down. For instance, in the first big setpiece, the Battle of Astarte, it’s easier to grasp from Tanaka’s description that the larger force was destroyed by a much smaller one due to poor coordination and slow response from its three component fleets—this was something the anime didn’t get across quite as well with all the ships blowing up and tactical overlays.On the other hand, several fan-favorite characters from the anime aren’t present in the books (I hear the beloved Dusty Attenborough shows up in the later novels, but Yang’s cat is entirely absent). There are also several instances where the visual nature of the anime shines even brighter than the action scenes in the book would allow. Again, I’ll try to avoid spoilers, but there’s a battle over a space fortress that’s quite cool in Dawn, but positively breathtaking in the anime, which gave it a sheath of liquid metal armor and a Death Star-esque weapon instead of just the gun batteries in the novel. So I think you can say the novel and the anime complement each other rather than supplant each other—in my opinion, there are few real criticisms to be made of either, at least in a comparative sense.Alas, I can’t say the same of the translation—I do have some criticisms of it. Fortunately, however, they are far outweighed by what I found to praise! First, the bad. Many readers have mentioned that the translation can be somewhat awkward at times, and I have to agree. While I don’t mind a bit of flowery language, the sentence construction can be a little off-putting at times. Huddleston seems to favor the passive voice quite a bit, and while that might be closer to the original Japanese grammar or word order, it doesn’t sound as good in English. I also detected some spelling errors, like “space srmada” on page 47, and “thank to these things” (it should be “thanks to these things”) on page 101. Minor flaws, but they do detract slightly from the experience.Despite these criticisms, I don’t think Mr. Huddleston has received enough credit for what he did right in the translation. His dialogue is almost invariably spot-on. I could almost hear Yang’s voice from the anime in my head whenever I read his lines! It’s the truest test of a translator to see how well he can convey a character’s personality from one language to another, and Huddleston has passed that with more than flying colors. He also has a knack for describing a character’s physical appearance. There are no spoilers here, so I’ll directly quote a passage I rather liked from the book, a description of Reinhard:“Reinhard was a handsome young man. One might even say his good looks were without peer. His white, oval face was adorned on three sides with slightly curling golden hair, and his lips and the bridge of his nose had an elegance that brought to mind a sculpture carved by the hands of some ancient master craftsman.“But what could never be captured in lifeless sculpture were his eyes—ice-blue eyes that shone with light like the blade of a keenly polished sword, or the gleam of some frozen star.”“The gleam of some frozen star.” What a fantastic image, especially fitting for a scifi novel! That’s the kind of imagery you don’t see much of even in the best of better known contemporary SF. I personally feel that Huddleston deserves very many commendations for giving us lovely translations like that. So I definitely believe the strength of his work outweighs his weaknesses overall. Thus, I would tell him not to be discouraged. I know he’s probably heard a lot of complaints about a “stiff” translation, but I’d say he’s done a reasonably good job, he could just improve on a few things, and I’m sure he will as he continues to translate more and more of the novels. If I could advise him, I’d tell him to try and make the narration seem more natural in English, while keeping the magic he successfully captured in the dialogue and descriptions.One last minor point—and really, this is so silly it shouldn’t even have come up, but a Publisher’s Weekly review mentioned it—concerning female characters. The PW claimed the book “hadn’t aged well” because the cast was relatively male-dominated, but honestly, this is a nonsense critique. As several wiser female reviewers themselves have noted in the Amazon reviews before mine, the lack of female characters can be attributed partially to the male-dominated “Space Prussia” nature of the setting, and also to the fact that this is just the first book in a series of novels. Characters like Frederica Greenhill are certain to play a larger role in the story as it goes on, and there are other important female characters that are very likely to show up as well—though again, to avoid spoilers, I can’t say any more! So the PW review was quite silly and off-base, and if you hear any SJW-esque bellyaching about female representation, tell them they’re insulting characters like Jessica Edwards and Frederica Greenhill.All in all, I have no reservations about giving this book 5 stars. Huddleston’s translation, while sometimes stiff, still shines in other areas, and even a handful of minor copy errors can’t overshadow the magnitude of Tanaka’s accomplishment. I cannot overstate the extent to which I encourage any sci-fi, or even any fan of quality literature, to buy this book. I’ve never been happier with a purchase in quite some time.

For the uninitiated, Yoshiki Tanaka's sprawling science-fiction epic, "The Legend of Galactic Heroes" is a massive saga spanning 10 main novels and several side-stories. It has been adapted into multiple mediums, including animation, film, manga, audio drama and ballet. My review will be brief and--please do not worry--spoiler free.On the series as a whole....Much like the venerable "Mobile Suit Gundam" franchise, the Legend of the Galactic Heroes is sometimes referred to as the "Star Wars of Japan." Though, personally, given the scope, scale and themes of the story I find Frank Herbert's Dune to be a more suitable analog.The Legend of the Galactic Heroes is best described as a "Historical Epic / Space Opera." Tanaka writes less as a storyteller and more as a historian. Characterization is sparse (but adequate) and the story moves at a fairly swift space whose course is charted just as much by the (sometimes anticlimactic) whims of history as the dramatic arcs of its characters. As is so often the case in our own histories, the cast of relevant characters is enormous, though many find themselves mere bit players. The focus of the narrative is on two protagonists: Reinhard von Lohengramm, a brilliant admiral serving the autocratic Galactic Empire; and his equal-but-opposite, the genius Yang Wen-li, in the democratic Free Planets Alliance. The galaxy-spanning war between these two nations serves primarily as a backdrop for the conflict between these two men who, despite their many similarities, adhere to opposite political ideologies.First published in 1982, the Legend of the Galactic Heroes is one of the few series in science-fiction truly deserving of such adjectives as "epic" and "classic." The adherence to fairly realistic "hard science fiction" technologies and tactics makes the battles--and the imaginative, unorthodox tactics frequently used to end them--a joy to behold, and the ideological and thematic conflicts add a great deal of depth and significance to the trials and triumphs of Reinhard and Yang as they struggle to fulfill their personal ambitions.On Volume 1: Dawn....Where Tanaka's masterpiece may fall short for some readers is in its overall style: with its focus on the historical narrative instead of the personal narrative, the story (like history) never really reaches an end point--there is always the question of, "and then what happened?" The text can also be a bit dry, particularly the forward to the first book, which is a 15-page overview of galactic history prior to the events of the novel proper. More problematic, perhaps, is the series' frequently-criticized depiction of women. Despite the very large cast of characters, there are very few women--only two of whom are important characters. While a more shallow reading of Tanaka's work might cause one to label the text as outdated, or its author as misogynist, I think it's important to view these things within the context of the work. The setting of the Legend of the Galactic Heroes is deeply conservative, and modeled after authoritarian states in our own history. Where the Galactic Empire embodies aspects of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Nazi Germany, the Free Planets Alliance takes its cues from Imperial Japan and the McCarthy-era United States. Both societies originate from the same source: a rigid totalitarian regime where women were subjugated, homosexuality outlawed, and birth defects, genetic disorders and physical disabilities punishable by death--a state that spent centuries weeding out "undesirable" elements of the population with zero moral compunctions.The Legend of Galactic Heroes is not Star Trek--neither political state is set upon a Utopian pedestal. Both societies are deeply, fundamentally flawed--and these flaws become an integral part of the unfolding story. It is easy to callously dismiss the lack of female characters (or non-white characters, or gay characters, or disabled characters) as bigotry on the author's part, or as a sad social relic of a story written in an older, less enlightened era, but doing so is both lazy and inaccurate. It is vitally important to recognize that these aspects of the story are deliberate, integral parts of the setting designed to help define the setting, juxtapose the two opposed nations, and demonstrate the inherent problems in the societies that both of the heroes are fighting against. It is extremely important to recognize the difference between an author depicting specific social or political ideologies and actually advocating specific ideologies--and one of the greatest aspects of the Legend of the Galactic Heroes saga is that Tanaka presents a wide variety of different opinions, ideologies and institutions, using the narrative to illustrate both the good and bad of each system, while leaving the reader to make up his or her own mind about the validity of each.Daniel Huddleston's translation is very faithful to Tanaka's original Japanese, which is both a good and bad thing. Translation in general is a very difficult task that requires a great deal of fluency, imagination and (perhaps most importantly) a respect for the original work as well as the willingness to change it. Much of the English prose is very well written, but occasionally suffers from excessive verbosity or unclear syntax. Sometimes the word-choice can be very questionable, especially in the first volume. For example, the opening pages repeatedly use the (extremely) clumsy word "enthronement" instead of more common synonyms, even in cases where it doesn't literally make sense (for example, "enthronement" is NOT a synonym for the word "reign." Fortunately this questionable word choice is mostly confined to the translation of the first book, and subsequent books--even if occasionally stilted--read much more naturally. Thankfully the text is mostly free of editing errors (though I did notice a small number of typos) and reads easily and well.In the grand scheme of the Legend of the Galactic Heroes saga, Book I: Dawn is, perhaps, the least important, least memorable story. Here is an introduction to the chief characters, and the worlds they inhabit. Make no mistake: the pace of history proceeds at its usual breakneck pace, and the cycle of war, peace and revolution is fully present in Book I: Dawn. The story is absolutely enthralling, and at its conclusion the reader is left with a burning desire to know what happens next as one riveting, climactic arc rolls deftly into another. Dawn accomplishes its goal of establishing the galactic status quo in a fiercely interesting story, so when that status quo is turned upon its head at the end of the first novel, we are left desperate with anticipation for what the future will bring.To summarize: the Legend of the Galactic Heroes, Volume 1: Dawn is a science-fiction epic of enormous scope and scale that weaves a complex narrative involving compelling characters, conflicting social and political ideologies, and the immutable, intractable forces of history. This book is often inspiring, always enthralling, and one I absolutely recommend to anyone fond of great science fiction or historical epics.POSTSCRIPT:For fans of the very thorough animated (1989-1996) adaptation of Yoshiki Tanaka's epic making their way to the novels for the first time, Book I: Dawn covers the events of episodes 001 to 016. Because the OVAs incorporate subsequently-written stories, be warned that the novel may skip or gloss over certain events you may remember. For example, in the OVA series the Kastrop Rebellion occurs in the same timeframe as Book I, yet is not mentioned until Book II, and then only in passing.

Over ten years ago someone introduced me to the OAV for Ginga Eiyu Densetsu... it was one of the properties I fell in love with which was not at that time readily available in English(or a readable attempt at such!) - because of this I decided to learn Japanese and dispense with the awkward/undesirable middlemen. I have the books in Japanese, spent years mastering a third language - and NOW someone releases them in English! After all that effort! However I cannot be less than elated - I finally get to offer them to my other half who thus far has been unable to experience this great series.Many longer and erudite reviews have gone into exhaustive detail about the series, so I won't waste bandwidth by repeating it here - but for those of you who still love intelligent, thought-provoking SF that holds a mirror up to our own times and conceits, these are a must-read. (Given the subject matter, the additional irony of their release in this year in the US is purely icing on the cake!) I can only hope sales of books 1-3 will be good enough to see the remaining 7 novels published.(I also recommend the series - once described as the "Best Science Fiction TV you'll ever read" by one wag online (yes, there's a LOT of dialogue!) - a labour of love and a veritable who's-who of male voice actors from the 70's and 80's - as well as a few (then) newcomers who are now industry stars. The late, great Kei Tomiyama turns in what is probably a career best performance as Yang Wen Li, but the cast around him are equally amazing.)Thirty some years late to the party - but welcome all the same!

Engaging throughout and a easy breeze to read, definitely recommend for sci-fi and space opera fans. The translation is flawless.

I'd seen one episode of the anime, and picked this up on a whim without knowing what to expect, but ended up finishing it the same day.

Bought for son and he enjoyed it,

Great