Crest of the Stars is the first installation of a series of Japanese space opera novels written by Hiroyuki Morioka. As a space opera, it shares many common themes and elements as George Lucas's Star Wars saga, so if you are a fan of Star Wars, this is something you might want to take a look at. I have never read any of the books or graphic novels, but have seen the anime adaptations, and have always planned to read the novels once the series is complete, due to the richness of the world it depicts.
The story is set in, presumably, the Milky Way galaxy, probably several thousand years in the future. The Human race was able to explore and colonize the galaxy due to the discovery of something called Planar Space. Humans in this Universe discovered that space has five dimensions; the three-dimensional space that we usually reside in is connected to a two-dimensional space through portals scattered throughout the Universe. Humans discovered that they could take shortcuts through the Planer space to get to distant planets, and through this means populated the galaxy.
Since three-dimensional Humans cannot survive in a two-dimensional world, Humans had to innovate a technology that generates a small pocket of three-dimensional space around their spaceship when travelling through Planar space. The Planar space introduces some very interesting subplots, due to the fact that the portals are strategic military points, as well as the fact that battles in Planar space require a totally different military strategy than in three-dimensional space. For example, an enemy ship can be easily surrounded in Planar space, and in order to attack an enemy ship, either one must merge with their three-dimensional bubble, or fire a weapon which generates its own three-dimensional bubble. Planar space battles play a major role in the storyline of Crest of the Stars.
Also, at some point in history, Humans experimented with genetic engineering. They engineered a new race of Humans who were better suited to living in outer space; these Humans had superior three-dimensional reasoning, higher tolerance to the radiation of outer space, and were better adjusted to living in zero-gravity. They also were engineered to have additional organs which allowed them to connect directly to spaceships and pilot the ships with their minds. These Humans were treated as slaves to mine minerals from asteroids in the early days, and were by some considered to be subhuman abominations. These people rebelled against their masters and fled into outer space not to be seen for centuries.
After centuries of silence, these people returned to the eyes of planet dwelling humans, transported by a fleet of spaceships far superior to those of the planet dwellers, and proclaimed themselves as the Abh People. The Abh then begun a peaceful, yet forceful militaristic occupation of most of the Human worlds, forming the Abh Empire in a matter of decades. This expansion was motivated by their vision of bringing order to the galaxy, driven by their egotistical and elitist views of Mankind. Those planets which resisted occupation formed an allegiance known as the United Mankind, which despised the Abh Empire, but was not foolish enough to start a war with them.
The story of Crest of the Stars begins with the home world of a boy named Jinto being occupied by the Abh Empire. Jinto is the son of the president of this planet, and when his father released control of the planet over to the Abh, Jinto became the official representative of his home world. Jinto leaves his home world to undergo Abh education. Many years later, we find Jinto leaving school to begin his required military service. He meets the Abh princess Lafiel, who is serving her military time learning to be a pilot. She is tasked with transporting Jinto to the Abh home world (a large network of space stations), so he can begin his term.
During the trip through Planar space, their transport is ambushed by ships belonging to the United Mankind. Their ship is destroyed, but Jinto and Lafiel escape on a smaller ship out of Planar Space, and land on a planet controlled by the United Mankind. They uncover a plot to start a war with the Abh Empire, and need to find a way off the planet to warn the Abh home world of the ensuing attack. Their presence on the planet is discovered, and an exciting chase ensues eventually leading to their escape from the planet, and rescue. Upon being rescued by an Abh ship, they discover to their dismay that the war has already begun, setting the stage for the next installments of the series, which focus more on the war.
Hopefully I've peaked your interest in this immense universe, and hope you will look into it sometime.
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