Book 7/50 : The Lost Fleet Fearless

Courageous is the third book in Jack Campbell’s Lost Fleet Series. It follows the first book Dauntless, and the second book Fearless. It continues the story of Captain ‘Black Jack’ Geary as he endeavours to get the alliance fleet home through enemy territory.

While the narrative continues on, it takes sometime to get going. Campbell continues with trying to flesh out the characters. While I understand why he’s doing this, part of the charm of the first book was the fact that apart from Geary the characters were paper thin. After all this is a military sci fi book you don’t need characters to be anything more than efficient/good/team-players , sloppy/insubordinate or just plain baddies. Sometimes the scenes between Geary and Victoria are rehashes of earlier scenes in this and the other books. Like he is trying to hammer home the format of their relationship so that everyone in the class fully understands. The fleshing out isn’t all negative the series does benefit from the view into fleet politics. Loyalties are shown not to be so black and white. It turns out those that support Geary aren’t all angels and those that don’t are not necessarily idiots.

The arc plot continues as Geary’s theory on a third party involvement in the hypernet is all but confirmed. Although the interesting nugget is added that maybe they aren’t alien rather they may be a third group of Humans, as there is very little evidence either way. While the impact of Geary’s previous victories on the syndicate worlds are shown. As its hinted that his good treatment of civilians is causing a softening of feeling towards the alliance and that this may lead to a revolution as syndic civilians seem to only be kept away from open revolt by their belief that there is no alternative.

I’m still really enjoying these books, I am however getting a little bit pissed at paying full price for each book. Lets not beat around the bush here, I’m on “book” 3 and while each "book" has a distinct start and finish its one story really. Add this to the fact you can easily read each book in a few hours and the only conclusion is that these books should have been published in omnibus form.

Book 6/50 : The Lost Fleet Fearless

Fearless is the second book in Jack Campbell’s Lost Fleet Series. It follows the first book Dauntless and continues the story of Captain ‘Black Jack’ Geary as he endeavors to get the alliance fleet home through enemy territory. Campbell brings to ahead several background plots of his earlier book, as a wrong headed but passionate POW is freed and tries to wrestle the fleet from Geary’s hands. The fleet continues its slow acceptance of Geary’s “strange” methods, as the benefits the fleet receives from adopting a more strategic approach become apparent. We also get some nice continuation of arc plots with regards to the mystery behind the Hypernet and Geary’s suspicions of a 3rd party being involved but unseen.

Like the last book its very pulpy, but enjoyable. Campbell tries to flesh out some of his characters, and introduces (possibly ill advised) love interests to the mix. For which I’ll withhold judgment for now, but I think as the characters are very 2d anyway its possibly an empty process. That said the action is very engaging and again a good way to spend a few spare hours.

7/10

Challenge update.

8 weeks in 6 books down. I’ve used all my surplus time already! I have to average a book a week for the next 44 weeks. Thankfully I’ve got another 4 of these books to go which should take 5 days at the most.

Book 2/50 : The Lost Fleet Dauntless

The Lost Fleet: Dauntless a mini review.

Jack Campbell real name John G. Hemry is a retired Lieutenant Commander from the US Navy. This really comes across in his writing. His prose is pulpy, and the universe he creates has some logical flaws that he has to cover through character exposition. This is easily countered by his exquisitely crafted space battles. He describes battles between large fleets of ships spread across distances that make the travel time of light a problem, with such detail and so believably you wonder if he hasn't actually been involved in such battles. His navy background is also easy to see as his thoughts on duty, honour and the necessity of following orders are very large parts of the plot.

This is my first delve into the Military Science Fiction subgenre and it was very enjoyable. Its not going to win any literary prizes and its most definitely the first book in a series (as nothing much is concluded,) but its a very good read. Rating 7/10.*

The Challenge Update

Just into week 2 and 2 books down. Helped in no short order by reading this book in less than 24 hours.

*I'm being necessarily harsh.