Customer Reviews

Fearless (The Lost Fleet Series)

5 star:		(31)
4 star:		(27)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I applaud Mr. Campbell for taking naval fiction into the future instead of yet another rewrite of the Napoleonic war. He has obviously given great consideration to what a space battle would entail--no other science fiction author has, to my knowledge, dealt with the issues presented by ships that can travel at appreciable fractions of the speed of light.

To fully understand these books one must realize that they are not primarily science fiction; rather, The Lost Fleet is a book about leadership, honor, morality and the fighting of war. A Fleet that had lost the nuances of military strategy, with commanders who vote on strategy and then undertake heroic but idiotic frontal assaults has been taken over by a survivor from a prior battle who possesses an understanding of lost tactics and strategy as well as an outdated sense of honor and morality that has been sacrificed to expediency in the endless war.

Book Two adds a couple new wrinkles not the least of which is our hero's realization that there is a very, very dark side to an advanced technology developed during his hibernation. In the same fashion that nuclear weapons changed warfare; "Black Jack" Geary figures out that a new power has emerged and must decide what to do with the knowledge he possesses.

Campbell focuses on his leader and while ostensibly about space battles this author is merely developing a fascinating character. Like O'Brian's Captain Aubrey, John Geary's faith in his training and leadership skills unites a fleet and provides for some excellent adventure. These works are very well written and are a cut above most offerings of the genre to which they supposedly belong. I look forward to following Geary's adventures.

This is the second book in the Lost Fleet series that follows the adventures of Black Jack Geary. I loved the first book and I loved this one, for the same reasons mainly. The story is original and intersting, you believe the characters are real people with real decisions to make, and great action. Jack Campbells view of space travel and space warfare much more like I'd actually expect to see. Space may free you from gravity, but not physics. This book is also very character driven for a military sci-fi book or really any sci-fi book. That is, with out doubt, my favorite part of the book. Fearless is a very interesting and fast read. Don't take that the wrong way, fast in a good way. The story doesn't suffer, but you'll actually have time to read it!

Fearless is the second book of the Lost Fleet series following the debut book titled Dauntless.

Captain "Black Jack" Geary has managed to do the impossible. In the first book, he saved the Alliance fleet from almost assured destruction by the Syndicate worlds military space fleet who had lured the Alliance into a trap. Jack Geary, an alliance hero who was found in cryo sleep on a malfunctioning escape pod from a war 100 years earlier, had assumed control of the alliance fleet and through a series of stunning displays of military tactics took an undisciplined Alliance fleet and turned them into an effective and coordinated unit. The alliance fleet found themselves on the run back to their home system, unable to use the Hypernet gates that would get them there quickly and in possession of the key to the syndic worlds own hypernet gates. The Syndic force is in relentless pursuit and it is only through Jack Geary's military cunning that the alliance force has been able to evade destruction.

This second book has the Alliance force on the offensive as they attack a syndic worlds systems and also facing new problems from the inside as another hero to the alliance is found alive on a sydicate worlds labor camp.

Jack Campbell has created a believable futuristic landscape utilizing believable physics in his universe of science fiction warfare . I am not normally a reader of science fiction and I happened to pick the first book up as it caught my eye. I read "Dauntless" in short order, was hooked and was excited to see this second book on the bookstand. This book was another thriller.

Jack Campbell deserves a wide audience for this book, if not for it being a fun series to read, then for his intellectual prowess for envisioning realistic battle scenes and strategies.

The first book is not a necessity, but it is recommended.

I wholeheartedly endorse this book.

You've been stranded in space, locked up and kept in stasis in a rescue pod. Then there's a fleet, picks you up, welcomes you on board as a legendary hero. Obviously someone didn't keep his mouth shut when they left you to die in defense of their retreat... But had they known you would have survived, they might not have mythologized you quite so much. Anyway... All command officers are executed by the enemy and you have to sort it out.

This is the second book. In the previous one, you save your fleet from annihilation. In this one, you start pounding away at the enemy.

What is rather strange is that it's quite difficult to stop reading. It's not written terribly well. There's too many long monologues. There's not quite enough actions. The space battles sometimes make you think of the early books of R.A. Salvatore, losing himself in descriptions of fights of which you knew they wouldn't end with the death of the hero. There's not much psychological development of the main character (or actually, of any of the other characters). There's a little too much omnipotence of Jack Geary (obviously, because the author Jack Campbell sees himself as a Jack Geary in real life).

So. This story is really a tale of morals on why the military has the rules it has (discipline, order, military justice etc. etc.). The enemy is the bad guys mainly characterized by the fact that they aren't good military (i.e. don't have any honor, mistreat prisoners etc. etc.).

And yet... It's not really bad either. And quite difficult to stop reading. I think I'll have to buy the 3rd book in this series as well.

This book is a little better than the first. I liked the plot. How Falco showed up in the story was very believable. Geary's plan and how unpopular it was was also good, and it was nice to see how it unfolded.

The parts dealing with the hypergate interaction was nicely done and interesting, and how it is fitting into the overall story is excellent too. I wouldn't say the same about how Geary dealt with the information regarding it. Is that really what a military officer would do with that info? Hand it over the to nearest civilian?

Geary's relationship with the Co-President is less than inspiring. The attempt at adding some emotion to story simply by having them hook up fell flat with me. A romance involves some time spend admiring and then sharing some moments, and the feelings grow and the daydreams start. In this book the romance was about as enticing as reading a duty roster. There was nothing ever in anything the Co-President ever did, said or looked like to make me see her as desireable. And since we only ever see anything from Geary's perspective, we also don't know what Rione would see in him.

As far as his job as Fleet Commander, he seems more like a combat strategy analyst. As far a realism goes, you can imagine that if you have a fleet of 30 or 40 ships, which most of them damaged, you are going to have a steady, endless stream of reports of problems and requests for this and that. You would have some smart people who aren't getting interrupted every 5 minutes to work on battle strategies. Apparently these damaged ships don't ever need any guidance, or have to make requests for permission for anything. The book says that Geary doesn't even have any staff. Therefore he's the only one who really would know the status of every ship in the fleet. Wouldn't that take some time? And yet, he always off to take a nap, or a stroll around the ship chatting with sailors or 'pretending to eat'. It just seems fake to me.

What bothered me more than anything else was a scene where some friendly ships came through a jump point, and the Fleet Commander doesn't even ask them anything. Is anybody chasing you? Are there more friendlies coming? Anything else I need to now? And this was a moment when that information was critical. Instead Geary just gives a bunch of administrative one-way commands and doesn't ask for even a response. It was a yelling-at-the-screen moment that you sometimes experience when watching a dumb movie on cable.

This book was pretty good, it held my interest. I can't understand how anybody could give it 5 stars. If you gave this book 5 stars, what would give the Dune series by Frank Herbert?

I consumed Dauntless and Fearless on a recent airplane trip. They're OK but not great. Character development seems to be the missing ingredient. Relatively few characters have common sense and that's just not natural. Everyone but the main character is binary and uncompromising at random, critical points in the narrative. Other than the main character, there's no one else that I found likable or entertaining.

If you've read the first novel in this series this one is more of the
same. I thought the first novel was in the same class as many of
Weber's books or Steve Whites. In both books the action is on the
same order.

This book had several places where the actions of Geary are just
nonsensical - completely unbelievable. The setup of the mutiny is
just weak.

Frankly the series needs more characters and Campbell really needs to
give Geary a staff and someone on the staff to mentor. Minimal
character develop all around.

Does a nice job of crafting syndicate actions and the space warfare
scenes are well done.

If you like space warfare books you'll have to read it and it's worth
reading. Hopefully the next book will step it up a notch.

Campbell can write. This is not so much sci-fi as it is just a good military adventure story set in space. Concerns fleet commander, lengendary "Black Jack Geary" who's forced back into command after being found in deep space adrift in an escape pod after a century of "sleep" so to speak. Campbell can write, and anyone who enjoys a good military yarn, be it with Horatio Hornblower or Teddy Roosevelt in charge, will enjoy the on-going trials and tribulations of Campbells character. This is the second in the trilogy and I can only hope there's more to follow.

Jack Campbell offers readers two great reasons to love this book (and the entire Lost Fleet series): unique space combat and an interesting hero.

Campbell's battles resemble ponderous navel engagements rather than high-flying dogfights. Governed by the laws of physics, the action is unlike anything I've seen or read before in the genre.

The protagonist, John "Black Jack" Geary is a man out of time, revived after 100 years in suspended animation. Now he must lead a fleet of ships trapped behind enemy lines and struggling to survive. The author gives us access Geary's innermost thoughts and fears and questions, creating a compelling character.

The book moves quickly and while this book is entertaining in its own right, one can sense that bigger and better things are to come.

I liked Dauntless ever-so-slightly better, but this was still a solid read and highly recommended if you like space operas ala David Weber. Great premise and action packed. A little predictable at times as you are told "something didn't look right" and you knew there would be something that wasn't right and that Black Jack Geary would figure it out and win, but this is fun sci-fi - not Old English Literature - so it accomplishes its goal.

My biggest complaint about this book is the early exposition which is to bring you up to speed if you haven't read the first book in the series (Dauntless) or if you haven't read it in a while I guess. That is tedious and it pops up from time to time in the book. But I suppose that is one of the challenges to writing a series.

I'm definitely pre-ordering Courageous (Book 3) and Valiant when possible. Highly recommended if you like space operas.