Courageous (The Lost Fleet, Book 3)
by Jack Campbell
|
List Price: Our Price: $4.13 You Save: $3.86 (48%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $0.33 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of Courageous (The Lost Fleet, Book 3)
Book Review: Repeating Himself
Summary: 2 Stars
Here are the things I still like about this series: the action scenes are fantastic. No other author writing today can imagine or describe a space based battle with such clarity and tension.
Here are the weaknesses: the author ignores the capacity of humans to change over time. Neither the hero "Black Jack" or the officers of the fleet he commands have learned anything. The author is still portraying Geary, who has successfully led his fleet to many victories, as a commander being challenged by his subordinate officers. This lends the intricate maneuvers described in other sections an air of unreality. Also Geary's relationship with the Co-President is a one-dimensional and fairly turgid slog through fake arguments and noble platitudes.
Normally, I don't discuss endings and I try to avoid spoilers, but the way this book ended was completely unfair to the reader. The publisher could have included the first chapter of the next book as a sample but chose not to do so. What happens is that Geary and his fleet fight a rousing battle with an unexpectedly much larger Syndic force. Three battleships sacrifice themselves to let the rest of the fleet escape. When he reaches normal space again, Geary takes stock of the situation and turns the fleet around to head back. He has decided that the fleet has to try to fight its way out. That's where the book ends. No resolution until the fourth book.
This is starting to feel like one of those endless series where there is no forward progress and each book just recombines the elements of the previous book. I had high hopes for it in the beginning and am truly divided on whether to give this author another chance or spend my entertainment dollar elsewhere.
Book Review: You could start reading the series with this one.
Summary: 5 Stars
You might want to read the books in THE LOST FLEET series in order. But if for some reason you can't get #1 THE LOST FLEET: DAUNTLESS or #2 THE LOST FLEET: FEARLESS -- you can start with this one without fear of being bewildered or confused.
Even the characterizations are crystal clear so that you aren't wondering why this person does this or "who" this other person is.
And after you've read COURAGEOUS, you'll still want to read the previous ones if you haven't already. In fact, you may want to reread the previous ones!
This series is Military SF at its best - but it's not all plot. It doesn't read like the worst of the Arthurian Legend novels, detailing one battle after another until you don't care who wins. Each battle is set up perfectly so that the personalities of the Captains commanding ships in Geary's Fleet figure into the orders Geary gives.
It even matters, politically, who Geary is sleeping with (and who not) all for good reasons rooted in character as well as politics.
If you've had a little too much Fantasy interdimensional battle novels lately, you should try this one.
The writing is clean, compelling -- and trust me, it's hard to write a mid-series novel that's as "transparent" as this one to the compelling forces detailed in previous novels without spoiling the current one.
This Series takes its place beside Edward E. Smith, Ph.D.'s LENSMAN SERIES, but unlike the Lensman Series, THE LOST FLEET is not "space opera" at all. It's more like the Dragnet, or Columbo of Interstellar Warfare with a dash of THE DRESDEN FILES plotting thrown in.
THE LOST FLEET: COURAGEOUS is just pure enjoyment.
Book Review: Repetitive. And redundant. And it repeats itself, also.
Summary: 2 Stars
I enjoyed the first two books; they were enjoyable space operas with well-designed space battles that combined real-world physics with engagingly written strategy. Unfortunately this third installment shows a pattern of formula that is becoming increasingly predictable.
The only two fleet clashes have the 2-dimensional Syndics being routed yet again; what little tension there is centers around dwindling resources. And enough with Rione, who went from an interesting character to a bi-polar shrew in one book flat; enough with "Ooooh, you're becoming The Great Black Jack Geary" nagging already. The hint of the triangle between Geary, Rione and Desjani has also fizzled into a gossip-fest; is this a war fleet or a junior high school?
The writing has also suffered; the dialogue between Rione and Geary was so mechanical I had to speed-read through it just to stay awake. And the revalation of Desjani wanting to be a book publisher and the slam on literary agents was a nerdy and downright embarrassing "inside joke" that detracted badly from the story.
Even the cover art went down a notch; did the artist even look at the previous covers? Geary went from looking like Lou Diamond Phillips to a crudely drawn Captain Reynolds from Firefly; what's up with that? (We all know Black Jack Geary looks like Hugh Jackman anyway. Or is it just me?).
The first two books are good enough to entice me into giving Book 4 a chance, and the "cliffhanger" ending of Book 3 gives some promise of this series getting back into gear, but one more "filler" book like #3 and I'm done.
Get it in gear, Black Jack Campbell! You owe me $5.
Book Review: Black Jack Geary finally makes a slip
Summary: 4 Stars
Spoilers ahead.
It isn't so much of a slip, really, more that the enemy starts to outguess him. It was inevitable, I suppose, that the Syndics would eventually manage to get ahead of him and his fleet. With mounting damage to his various ships, both from his own operations and the mutinous actions of some of his captains, the massive momentum he'd had since the original retreat (tactical redeployment, sorry) from the Syndic home system is starting to ebb. The space battles still manage to be top notch, as well as the realistic feel that the author uses with the science of his world (with relative speeds, sensor limitations, etc). I'm as always, impressed with this series.
Many interpersonal relationships are strengthened in his book, as well, if not in perhaps the most positive way. And I am also liking the way that the officers under Geary's command are not the "evolved" human beings that we've come to see in so much of sci-fi nowadays. They're just human beings who have been caught in a hundred years of endless war. They're unwilling to make changes, even beneficial ones, they're reluctant to better themselves as people and as officers just because a legendary hero comes back from the dead and tells them to, leading by example.
I was even surprised to see Captain Falco again. Though I thought he was a bit of a weak adversary for John Geary, he certainly played his role well.
I anxiously await the next book, though I know I have many months before that comes.
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 is 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 could not simply 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 must take a book that should be 300 pages, and turns it into a 600 page book. These books will have about 30 pages of action and 500 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.