Customer Reviews

The Lost Fleet: Relentless: Relentless

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

First to note - The Lost Fleet series forms a saga that should ONLY be read from the beginning; if you are new to the series, then please, start with Dauntless. If not, then read on...

In the fifth installment of the Lost Fleet series, we get more of the same from Campbell. From the detailed space battles to traitorous conspirators to moral quandaries on both a personal and universal level, Black Jack Geary and his crew of confidantes have more than enough to keep them busy in Relentless, and there was so much going on that I found it difficult to stop reading until there were no more pages to read (again, nothing new here).

We get resolutions to some of the issues that have been troubling our heroes since the beginning, but - much as in real life - the resolutions merely open the path to new challenges. There are a couple of "bombshell" revelations that will advance the series in new and different directions in book six. Overall, this book is probably as important to the series as Dauntless was, and if you are at all a fan of "The Lost Fleet," you owe it to yourself to read this installment.

If you love the series half as much as I do, you will thoroughly enjoy Relentless, and join me in wishing to the Stars that book six is done in as short a time as possible after reading it.

Gotta admit - another good sequel. Well worth reading, as there is also nice sense of completion as a lot of the open issues are resolved and answered. I like series that have closure. And this was a particularly satisfying closure.
At the end though - though clearly this cycle is complete - the anticipation of the sequel that should start another series is almost palpable.
It's going to be interesting to see in which direction the next book goes - for sure it won't be endless battles with the Syndics. Campbell has this whole huge scenario he can pick and choose from, be it further battles, the intricacies of politics, the BEM's, romance with you-know-who, etc.

The Lost Fleet series is spectacular space opera, and "Relentless" is the best of all. It leaves you with that feeling you experienced when Luke Skywalker blows up the Death Star, when Nicholas Seafort defeats the "fish," and when they haul the "bug" out of its hole in Starship Troopers. You revel for the heroes, and mourn for the end of a series that has given you such joy.

"Relentless" is upbeat science fiction in the tradition of golden-age space opera, by authors such as Niven, Heinlein, and Burroughs. It is fiction that has not succumbed to the anti-male attitudes of the most recent SF authors such as Elizabeth Moon, who relegate all male characters into nothing but venality, and who elevate all female characters into near-goddess status. Yes, one of the characters, Victoria Rione is a thorn in the hero's side, but she's also important as a voice of his conscience, and an obstacle to overcome. And many of the leaders of the fleet are female. Most important, nobody has a lock on virtue, there are both male and female heroes and cowards.

In addition, this is hard SF, where the author pays attention to detail. Physics are taken seriously. The only scientific complaint I might have is that there's no mention of time-dilation, nor the effect that spending significant periods at one or two tenths of light-speed might have. (from what I can tell, they're not significant, but should have been mentioned).

Read this series from the beginning, and enjoy it. It's WELL worth the money, for those who love positive, golden-age-style science fiction.

Relentless as in the others before it is full of action packed space warfare and fun to read.

The only problem I have found with the Kindle version is the formatting. After downloading, I found that it skips lines and due to this it does not make the book flow very well. It is a publisher/Kindle format issue.

By realistic the time distortion and tactics and having to plan ahead based on the speed of light. Very interesting series.

Relentless is the 5th of a series of six books by Jack Campbell that collectively tell the story of Captain John Geary and his command of the space fleet which belongs to an Alliance of worlds occupied by humans. The books in series order are: 1) The Lost Fleet: Dauntless, 2) The Lost Fleet: Fearless, 3) The Lost Fleet: Courageous, 4) The Lost Fleet: Valiant, 5) The Lost Fleet: Restless, and 6) The Lost Fleet: Victorious.

The Alliance has been in a state of war for 100 years with another group of human worlds called the Syndicated Worlds, or Syndics for short. John Geary was thought to have been killed in the early opening attacks of that war. In reality, he escaped certain doom in a survival pod launched from his Heavy Cruiser. He was placed in a state of hibernation, with the expectation that he would be picked up in a few weeks, but something went wrong. The emergency beacon on his pod failed, and he drifted until he was accidentally found 100 years later by another Alliance Battle Cruiser.

He was revived and found himself thrust into command of the entire Alliance Fleet (which was lost deep behind enemy lines) and expected to miraculously get the Fleet home safely and to put and end to the war once and for all, and he was to do this against the overwhelming forces of the Syndicate Worlds.

Compounding his problems is the fact that he must deal with a group of rebellious officers among his own crew, a love relationship that can not be acknowledged, politicians at home who want to arrest him when he gets there for a crime he has not committed and for which there is no evidence to suggest that he ever thought of committing it. And if that were not enough, he also has to deal with an unknown enemy with unknown technological capabilities that is known to exist just beyond the border that marks the extreme edge of Syndic space.

If you like SciFi that's filled with space battles based on reasonably thought out tactical plans and strategies, this series may be for you. It is much closer to reality than the Lensman series, though I will not say that is a better or worse story line. That is for the reader to decide.

I was so looking forward to this book. Then it came and there is a double space between each and every paragraph. (on the Kindle edition) Since the action moves around, the formatting makes the story hard to follow, and only the die hard (like me) will want to bother.

It's a sad thing when a good book is so spoiled by formatting. But it is not the fault of the author or the story. This is a good book for any who have the energy to read it.

I've also emailed the author.

I was dragged into this series by the writer's use of realistic time references for reaction times in battles and when coming out of "stargates" and a "fleet manuever" styling worthy of some early Hornblower series books. Unfortunately, the combat tactics are taking a back seat to the other issues and the series is becoming tiresome,predictable and uninteresting. BUT THERE IS STILL HOPE THAT IT CAN BE SAVED.

These books become a bit repetitious and the characters don't seem to move that much. Luckily the problems and battles are new and different either time. This series could have been 4 or 5 books easily and some stuff moved around or edited. Jack Campbell has stated that the repetition is for people to pick up one book of the series and be able to get up to speed. Overall I continue to recommend this 'hard sci-fi' series to many people.

as you can get in space drama. I'm particularly happy with the communication delays and recon delays due to the enormous distances with which these books must deal.

Many books, even good sci-fi with space battles, tend to describe many battles in small terms or in a single plane forgetting all of the dimensions of space. Not this one.

The characters are easy to root for, but some are a little more easy to like than others. There aren't too many characters that act in the gray areas. Most are good or bad and not much in between, but that isn't all bad.

I've thoroughly enjoyed the series and the chronicles of Black Jack Geary. Where many space action-dramas are world bound, these books are about the open space, the struggle between systems and interpersonal/political issues that drive the on-ship relations.

The series is a ton of fun! Can't wait for the next one.