January Book Vote and last month's results

The first book vote of 2016 is focusing on the New Vanguard series, with the editor providing 5 fascinating topics that could be covered. To give you a little help in making your decision, we have also included a rough synopsis of what the editor thinks each volume could cover. Please note that they are very early ideas and as such are subject to change.

NVG: Fireships and Hellburners
Before the invention of the self-propelled torpedo, the fireship was the way to destroy an enemy’s ships from a distance. If packed with gunpowder rather than just flammable material, the fireship became the ‘hellburner’ – a floating time-bomb, used to devastating effect in the siege of Antwerp. This NVG would concentrate on the fireships – both purpose-built and converted – of the age of fighting sail, but also look at other examples of fireships and how they were used through history. 

NVG: South American Dreadnoughts
The great race to rearm navies with dreadnought battleships was not confined to Europe. Brazil’s order of its first British dreadnoughts sparked an arms race with its rivals Argentina and Chile, as each vied for the upper hand in South American waters. This would cover the politics of the arms race as well as the technical detail of the battleships, and how they served their navies for decades.

NVG: Soviet Fast Missile Boats of the Cold War
The USSR’s fast missile boats were the Cold War equivalent of the torpedo boat – fast and cheap, and with armament capable of sinking the largest warships, but short-ranged and vulnerable. They were sold around the world, and fought the world’s first naval missile battles – in the Arab-Israeli and Indo-Pakistan wars.

NVG: The Royal Scots Navy
From the Middle Ages until the 1707 Acts of Union, the independent Kingdom of Scotland relied on its own naval power. James IV built new shipyards and ordered a fleet that included the then-biggest warship in Europe – the Great Michael, twice the size of the Mary Rose. Over the next two centuries, Scottish warships sailed the Atlantic, quelled rebellious lords in the Highlands, took part in European conflicts, occasionally fought ships of the English Royal Navy, and its privateers preyed on merchant shipping.

NVG: The Modern Chinese Navy
The People’s Republic of China is becoming one of the world’s major naval powers. Its large surface fleet, amphibious capabilities, and development of carrier aviation, coupled with tensions in the South China Sea and Taiwan Strait, mean that the world’s attention is focusing on China’s power at sea. This NVG would be an examination of the current technology and capabilities of the Chinese Navy’s warships, as well as its plans for the future. 

Head onto the homepage to cast your vote!

Now lets look back at last month's Book Vote, which offered a number of different series looking at World War II topics. Here are the results:

The Duel title on British Battleship vs Italian Battleship: Mediterranean 1940-43 stormed to victory in December with a whopping 34% of the votes, leaving MAA: WWII Allied Battlefield Medics and FOR: Czechoslovak Border Fortifications trailing by a decent margins and NVG: Precision-Guided Munitions of World War II and WAR: US Navy Seaman 1941-45 falling even further behind.