"I've studied a little history. That's how I learned this: In human society, there are two main schools of thought. One says there are things that are more valuable than life, and the other says that nothing is more important. When people go to war, they use the former as an excuse, and when they stop fighting, they give the latter as the reason."



This little paragraph towards the end of this book sums it up nicely.

This is a story about how humanity can't stop being the way it is. This story star

"I've studied a little history. That's how I learned this: In human society, there are two main schools of thought. One says there are things that are more valuable than life, and the other says that nothing is more important. When people go to war, they use the former as an excuse, and when they stop fighting, they give the latter as the reason."



This little paragraph towards the end of this book sums it up nicely.

This is a story about how humanity can't stop being the way it is. This story starts so far into the future that humanity has left Earth (now a useless rock in space, devoid of all resources), consists of over 30 billion people and has developed so far technologically, that the only way forward was backwards aka they've re-instated the monarchy, completely with baroque looking palaces. It's a weird kind of mix, but it somehow works for the most part?



There are now two main fractions: The Empire with their emperor and nobles running everything and The Alliance, which prides itself for being a democracy.

Both are run by people who are either openly ambitious and warmongering or secretly corrupt.

Both are telling their people that everything they do is for some higher purpose, devine power or to liberate the people.

As a reader, I wasn't really surprised to see all of this happening on the Empire's side, but was surprised (in a positive way) that the Alliance wasn't all that different, after it got introduced as that underdog who just wants to be free. While it certainly wasn't nice to see, I thought it was very realistic that a growing group of people wouldn't stay idealistic for too long.



"But just as humans must eventually grow old and infirm, perhaps so, too, their nations must eventually grow corrupt and decadent."



We follow the lives of two characters - one for either side of the conflict. They couldn't be any more different if they tried. On the side of the Empire we have Reinhard von Lohengramm, who is driven not only by personal ambition, but also by hatred for the people he's supposed to serve. He's cold and calculating, but not cruel to everyone who is not his sister or his childhood friend Kircheis.

And on the side of the Alliance we have the genuinly kind Yang Wen-Li, who loathes being a soldier, but had no choice but to go down that path due to money problems. Since he keeps beating impossible odds, his wish to retire get rejected again and again.

Both of these men have only two things in common: Their tactical genius and their ability to inspire loyality in their subordinates.



They're both fascinating characters, even if Yang definitely is the more likeable and relatable of the two. I especially found his insights about human nature and war to be very interesting and very relevant right now.



"It's because of men like this that the war can't end. I've had enough. Enough of dealing with men like this."



There are of course other characters who get some focus. Some to just die a few pages later, but others you get the sense will stay around for a long time to scheme their way to the top. Curious to see what will become of them (I did watch the anime a long long time ago and remember the most memorable fates, but others I genuinly have no clue about).



So yes, the characters were fine to great. The world building was a bit wonky, but not distractingly so. The one big problem I had was that these characters are supposed to be genuises, but it wasn't believably written. There are writers who can create a genius character without being geniuses themselves by researching a lot or writing around it. Here the strategies seem all very obvious? I don't know if we're supposed to think that humanity forgot all about tactics beyond bigger = better or if the genius is supposed to be that they do that stuff with several million soldiers on the battlefield.



The other thing I had big issues with was the writing - or rather the translation. I can't really comment on the original, but do you know the feeling you sometimes get when reading a book not in its original language? How you can tell that it's a translation, because the flow doesn't feel natural? It was a major factor why I couldn't get into the story for almost 2/3 of the book. I probably would have given up, if I didn't have nostalgic feelings towards the anime and wanted to power through.

What makes a good translation is that if you didn't know it was one, you would never notice. Sadly, this was not one of those. There were some super interesting ideas and memorable moments, but most of the time I had to concentrate really hard to stay focused, so I wouldn't miss anything important.



"In battle, it was impossible to sacrifice no one. Yet at the same time, the effect of victory was lessened in inverse proportion to mounting losses. It was in finding the point that made both proportions compatible that tactics as a discipline found it's raison d'être."



Another facet of this is the fault of the original, though: The mangled German. Dear God, I was cringing so hard at points. I'm kind of resigned of seeing my first language being used in weird ways by anime/manga by now, but in this instance, it was just really... unfortunate.

It just doesn't work when you know that these names are supposed to be strong sounding, masculine and powerful but in reality there are either people running around being called things like "von Büro" (aka von "Office") or with names that kind of sorta vaguely sound German, but like someone run them through google translate a few times and then put a "von" in front of half of them.

In my opinion they cheapened the seriousness of the story a bit.



There were also few really odd moments, like the one guy who somehow managed to climb the hierarchy despite having an actual diagnosed disorder which makes it impossible for him to accept any kind of personal failure and own up to it ... or a space ship made out of ice ... or wrapping my head around the pure scales of the battles (you're really trying to tell me what just a few hundred people can control billions of civillians at all times?) etc that I thought didn't work.

(Also not a friend of having to wonder if the Empire is some sort of "If the Nazis won. In space." thing...)



I do wish I could have given this one more than three stars, but will continue to read this series (despite knowing that the next book will likely break my heart), simply because it did manage to grab me at the end and because of nostalgic feelings for the anime. Maybe it will find it's groove later.





