Courageous (The Lost Fleet, Book 3)
by Jack Campbell
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Book Reviews of Courageous (The Lost Fleet, Book 3)
Book Review: Rione shoved into space, any objections?
Summary: 2 Stars
This series is starting to seriously frustrate me! I feel like it is going nowhere at a painfully slow pace. The idea behind the story is brilliant, but the pace is awful and I want to strangle some of the characters. The first two books were great, so what happened?
I have a gigantic list of gripes. First, can I seriously just open a ship door and shove Rione out into space? For real! She is the most redundant, narrow-minded, anal, annoying, and impossible female character I think that I have ever come across. She seriously has two lines in the whole novel, "I'm not going to let you turn into Black Jack," and "I'm an important politician, you need to respect me while I butt in on your area of expertise." Seriously, it portrayed women very badly like frivolous, entitled, and air-headed banshees. (We are only banshees on Fridays, dang it.) I swear that 75% of the novel was just her nagging and griping at poor John Geary.
Next, there were a lot of a repetitive scenes and lines. I counted John saying the same lines (verbatim) more than 3 times. I almost had deja vu when I read then like, "did my bookmark move? I swear I've already read this." The same is true with the long-winded conferences. I think you could seriously just read the first 20 pages, 10 pages in the middle, and 20 at the end and know what went down and be less frustrated.
Next, I swear nothing happened. Okay, a few things happened, but this book should have probably been combined with another one. It could easily be told in 35 pages. (All you would have to do is take out Rione griping, seriously.)
There were still some specks of the things that made me fall into obsession with this series in the first place. The author is unrivaled in his ability to write understandable combat scenes. I am very ignorant about that type of stuff, and I understand the movements very well. The characters (some of them) are great and very human. There is a slight underlying tension to the story that keeps propelling that story. It was just covered in tons and tons of repetitive blah in this particular book.
All that being said, I am going to continue with this series because I believe it will go back to being an awesome space opera. (And I've already purchased the next one, heh.) I love this series, but this book, to put it in bluntly, sucked, sucked, and then sucked some more at times.
Book Review: Here is why the concept started to wear thin
Summary: 3 Stars
I really liked the battle sequences and the main character Black Jack (despite my better judgment)
The book also deserves recognition because it is the first book wherein we get a listing of the ships in the fleet. Wonderful idea but why wasn't this list in the first book?
If you can past your dislike of Rione which I am sure everyone who has read this book now despises your only real problem should be realizing that except for a few instances we don't really have developed characters here. I hung around until the end of the series hoping for this to develop but somehow it never did.
This is really unfortunate because battle scenes are great and a list of the ships in the fleet are great but the fact that five capital ships were whipped out in the last engagement never changes your feelings because no one on those five ships are developed enough to care about.
I really liked the first two installments of the series the last book finished so strongly that it makes the Rione character even more confusing. At the end of book two John and Rione seemed to realize that they could help each other and that they needed each other if they were going to make it back to Terran space alive. Within the first chapter of book 3 this is forgotten for some unknown reason and conversations are carried on between the two like this
Rione: You're not infallible John!!
Black Jack: I know that. I've been saying that for the last 10 chapters where were you?
Rione: You're not infallible John!!!
And it carries on like this. Does the Woman have some verbal tick she can't get rid of?
Overall-If you had asked me my opinion of the last book I would have said that this series would be remembered 10 years from now. If the third book is any example this series will take its place among other space operas that have cool ships and good battles but no real characterization and unfortunately David Weber already has a lock on those.
Book Review: Lost Fleet Still Lost--but I'm still enjoying this series--so that's OK by me.
Summary: 5 Stars
I don't know what it is, but I'm hooked on this series. It's true that the Lost Fleet is still lost. But in the first two books I liked seeing the beleaguered Captain have to deal with his own insecurities, his odd situation of being a hero come back to life 100 years after he supposedly died, having his captains be rebellious, having his lover threaten to kill him if she needs to AND having to still get his fleet out of enemy space--and that's what he's still doing in this book.
True, things haven't changed much from book 2, but I enjoyed book 2, so why shouldn't I also enjoy book 3? Maybe I have a bit more patience than some of those who complain about the plot not developing a bit more? Perhaps Campbell is playing it a bit too safe and not throwing in some more unexpected twists and developments? But really--the first book and the second were short, sweet and simple, so why should the third suddenly be different?
In the second book Geary has his fleet head into enemy territory, since going forward to friendly space would probably mean being gradually worn down by engagements until the fleet was destroyed. So by this book, the fleet is still fairly intact, aside from losses due to some captains not following Geary's orders, but going off with the mad Captain Falco--but also no closer to home. To shake things up a bit, Geary tries to run to Alliance space. Of course, it isn't easy--and it is revealed that it's not just the Syndics who have made things difficult. So a bit more about possible Alien involvement in the course of the war is revealed. Like in previous books, it's only a small revelation.
If that's not enough for you, then this isn't the book for you. But if you liked the battles of the first books, and yes, more of Geary trying to deal with the two important women in his life as well as trying to keep the rest of those in his command happy, then read on. I am waiting (not terribly patiently!) for the next book, myself!
Book Review: Enjoyable but I am getting annoyed
Summary: 4 Stars
This is my first space opera series and it was fun. The premise is good, excellent. My complaint is in the extreme irritation in an author who continues to repeat sections via wholesale cut and paste. It is almost as though 20% of the book feels as though its a repeat. I find myself rolling my eyes. The characters who whine is ridiculous. The hero who is not asserting leadership and lets knuckleheads walk over him is ridiculous. The author who produces cardboard love scenes so stiff they could break like uncooked spaghetti is kinda amusing but I give him a wave for trying. It feels he was commanded to do so by his publisher.
The battle scenes were extra long. The bitchout sessions by his lover were getting tedious. This was not going in a positive direction at all by books end.
On a scale 1 to 5, Five is Best:
Villian: 4
Plot: 3
Creativity: 3
Uniqueness: 2.5
Humor: 1
Bringing the sexy: 0
Passion: 3 stars (for duty & honor )
Dullness setting in on Series: 3
Laughs & Amusement factor: 1
Silly Whiners getting on your nerves: 5
Lazy Author repeating too much from prior chapters: 5
The investment has been made now and I want to know what is going to happen next. I bought the first 3 as as books on tape (audiobooks). Now that I know the author has been a little lazy, I will not invest in an audiobook on book #4. I will buy that as paperback because I do want to know what happened but not at $24.00.
If the pattern continues, there will be a lot of cut and paste, not a lot of plot advancement and the characters chasing their tails and not going anywhere except someplace pretty durn depressing.
For that I can read in an afternoon in Barnes and Noble and not even buy the paperback for #4.
Book Review: Perfect Mix of Action and Characterization
Summary: 5 Stars
All three books of The Lost fleet are excellent. Campbell has the perfect mix of action and characterization. I find that I cannot wait until the next volume comes out.
Most of the new sci-fi I pick up these days suffers from various problems. In the worst case, many of the books are so badly written they are borderline nonsensical. I cannot count the times I picked up a book , attempted to read the book and simply could not understand what the heck was going on. That's usually when I get angry and write a review on Amazon. Then, there are the books that although rational, are incredibly boring, because the author feels he turn a book that should be 300 pages, it into a 700 page book. These books will have about 30 pages of action and 600 pages of boring conversation. Lately, David Weber and Harry Turtledove's books have been like this. Often the problem is that the author, in an attempt to write a series (usually at least three books), simply uses filler to stretch out the books. Each individual novel will leave the reader feeling cheated and empty.
Campbell is a gifted writer, and is not guilty of any of the above sins. His books are military Sci-fi and extremely well written. Although, he spends a lot of time describing the thought processes of the main character and hero, Jack Geary, I found it quite fascinating. The characters are very lifelike, and interesting. The only complaint I have ,is that we never meet the Syndics, who are the humans Geary is fighting against. We are told very little about them. There also should be more backdrop about what the human civilization is like. Evrything takes place on the battleship, so we really learn very little about what human culture is like in that era.