Book 3), Courageous (The Lost Fleet

I had thoroughly enjoyed reading the previous two books but this one got lost in the tiresome and irritating Senator Rione. I grew irritated with her behavior at about 1/3 and simply disgusted with the space devoted to her and her foibles.
Unfortunately, she won't get lost or improve with time, so this is the last of the series I read. I'm reading for an action/adventure story, not touchy-feely relationship logbooks.

In this book, Campbell has tried to make Black Jack Geary almost too human. And to be honest, his continual battle against the rebels and idiots in his fleet is becoming tiresome.

Let's face it, these are space operas and I'm far more interested in reading about a HERO than a conflicted leader who second-guesses himself in every leadership role.

It is also starting to become tiresome waiting for the fleet to wrap this up. Book three ends up offering no new revelations, and really just more of the same "jump into a new system, find a way to win the battle and pick another system to jump to next" that you were treated to in the first two books. At least with book one you had the clever twist of Black Jack finding that the fleet had atrophied and needed his old leadership style and in book two you discovered some rather interesting plot twists regarding the net. Book three offers nothing but battles.

Frankly, I could have skipped it and moved on to book four - assuming book four isn't more of the same.

The series drags on with this one. I'll bet you could simply skip it and move to book four without ever missing a beat.

The first two books in this series were very good. The overall feel is that of the Aubrey/Maturin series of naval tactics and strategy and a friendship/rivalry between the Captain and a trusted advisor.

This book seems to have fallen off in terms of writing style and its story line. The fleet continues to make its way home, and is faced with increasingly difficult choices. But the nature of the relationship between Jack and the Co-President seems less real in this book, owing to the multiple swings in the mood between them. The battle scenes are still good, but seemed shorter and less rich than in the previous books.

I still like this series, and look forward to a resolution of the fleet's fate. But just as Jack cannot afford a war of attrition, this series needs to find a way to restore its winning ways or it will wear out its welcome before the final book.

Pity poor Jack Campbell.

He writes two military sci fi books in a market chocabloc full of similar books and both score consistently high ratings, which is why I bought and read the first two books in this series. The second ends on a precipice and many readers, like myself, are sitting on the edge of seats waiting to pick up the third.

Alas, the third comes and goes, and I cant help but feel my good mate jack has let me down. Just more of the same. More running, another internal Captain raises their head to spite ol' Black Jack Geary, and there's still the tantalising hint of aliens in the background pulling Humanity's strings.

I heartily recommend this "Lost Fleet" series, but as a stand alone book, this third installment is rather bland.

I guess even the more talented authors out there run out of puff from time to time. But never fear, for I shall be there for the next book.

I notice most of the "we found this review useful" ratings are for those who rated the book highly and those who gave 3 stars or lower arent rated at all.

Dudes, this is not a popularity contest.

A believable main character with flaws as well as strengths, plausible scenarios and technologies, good hard science and a classic tale of the retreat of an army (or fleet in this case) from enemy territory.

Loved this, and now loving the rest of the series

Though extremly well written and graphically depicted beyond all expectations, i did find that much of what happens in the book must be simply accepted. For instance, HOW BIG are some of these ships, compared to actual objects, foot ball stadium? and is there artificial gravity or do they float around inside the ships. What's the propulsion system? does it have a name, is it gravity fed, ect, ect... Though these questions seem incredibly important, the books seem to glance off of the implied incredibly well.

Well written with exiting military fighting sequences. Manyy interesting characters, but sometimes inconsistent.
If you like David Webers "Honor Harrington" or David Drakes "RCN" series, you'll enjoy this series.

Yes you read the title correctly. The author takes a time out to.... Oh I don't know what he is doing here exactly. I reviewed the first two novels by comparing them to a John Wayne movies. You know the first was a wagon train in Indian country and the second one was the navy in WWII. This one is... a soap opera. The author takes time to set up the dealings of the characters and their desires. You know: Will Geary sleep with Capt. Desjani? Will Rione stop sleeping with Geary because her husband maybe alive? Will the screct commanders who are working against Geary topple him? Can the fleet ever get enough supplies? Will Geary become Black Jack and become dictator of the Alliance? You know the usual stuff that takes place in your everyday space fleet. What about the aliens that know one knows about? Can the fleet always win a battle? Which there is only one or two good ones in this novel. Only in the last three pages does the author finally take off in a direction or rather reverses himself in a direction. Look if you have read the first two then you will read this one. The characters are becoming clearer in their personalities and actions. Themes are revisited and restated. Is it a good book? Only in the sense that I want to read the fourth one to see what the he_l is going on. It is not as good as the first two, but it is a bridge to rest of the upcoming stories. So it is only a 3 star book.

Courageous (The Lost Fleet, Book 3) continues the action, suspense, and great battle sequences of the first two books in the series, while expanding the characterizations to a new level. It's another great read.

Can't wait to devour Book 4!!!

Courageous is another enjoyable addition to Jack Campbell's Space Opera series and you won't be disappointed. Jack Campbell's (John Hemry) writing style improves and solidifies with each book and his storytelling remains consistently strong. As far as the technical knowledge and military expertise wrapped into his novels, Campbell/Hemry is one of the best!

I continue to enjoy the way he mixes his expertise in military tactics with the problems and challenges of military leadership. He obviously draws from his own past experiences in the military, but adroitly adapts these "lessons-learned" to the unique universe he has created with the war between the Syndics and the Alliance.

The aspect of this current installment that has improved the most (in my opinion) is the way Campbell discusses the personal lives and relationships of his Officers. The writing style dealing with personal issues in this current novel is much more fluid and woven more tightly into the overall novel.

As always, I now look forward to the NEXT installment! Get busy and publish the next one Jack!!

Just stay away. The series just goes downhill from the first book, and even that one wasn't especially good. For each installment in the series I found myself reading less and less of the book as I skipped over the awful parts. By this stage I was down to only readying around 20%. Characters continue to grow either more one-dimensional or more schizophrenic.

I have really enjoyed the series so far and looked forward to new releases. The premise is interesting and the execution is fairly unique. What I didn't like about this installment is that it hardly advances the storyline at all. Cutting out the entire middle section would have been a great improvement. I'm very sorry to say that, but its true. Instead, the middle hashes, rehashes, superhashes the same old hash we've dealt with earlier in this book as well as the other books. I literally screamed at it several times. And don't even get me started on the "ending." The book stops in mid-battle.

I'm not ready to give up on the series. I like the first two books a lot. This one, however, could be skipped and you probably wouldn't notice.

This is the third in this series that is exploring a variety of human issues in the context of a military science fiction setting. As those who’ve read the first two book know, John Geary was the Captain of a space ship that was destroyed while fighting a rear guard action to save the rest of the fleet. Geary managed to escape just before his space ship exploded and his escape pod kept him in suspended animation for one century until he was discovered by another Alliance space ship that revived him. In the intervening century, his reputation had blossomed so that he is seen as an incredible galactic hero and someone who should be emulated while the Alliance that he belonged to has deteriorated as they are still fighting the same war that he was involved with. Circumstances bring him to commanding the whole fleet that is trapped behind enemy lines and the first two books were focused on him getting command of the fleet and leading it through enemy territory and back towards his federation of planets.

In this installment, the saga continues with Geary continuing to try and outguess his enemies known as the Syndics (short for syndicate). Geary has to walk a fine line between turning into the hero that his reputation makes him out to be – which would lead to him changing into a dictator who must be immediately obeyed – and being completely overtaken by the other officers in the fleet who have their own ideas and thoughts about what to do. As such, this is an interesting study in command dynamics and interpersonal relations. Adding to the mix, there is a very powerful female politician aboard the ship who counsels Geary from her own vantage point who is struggling with her own issues. Geary, as the Fleet Commander, does not command the ship that he is own, that is captained by a very competent female Captain by the name of Desjani. In this volume, the relationships between Geary, Desjani and Rione (the politician) becomes a kind of love triangle that is used to either poison or build the characters of the different personalities depending on your point of view.

As far as space battles go, there are a few. Geary is shown as a good tactician and commander who is very sensitive to the losses he incurs while guiding his fleet across various star systems and baffling the enemy fleets that are trying to corner him. Interior rivalries between the different factions in the fleet are captured nicely in the story telling, and, of course, there has to be at least one rogue Captain who decides to do things their way, rather than Geary’s way. The outcome of that was a bit too pat for me, but it was appropriate to the overall message of the book and series.

Ultimately, this is a book about how to command people. Especially people who either worship you, or cannot stand you and want to take over your role. For those parts, it is a very interesting study (even if this format leads to a rather simplistic treatment of the topic). Geary always makes the right decisions and handles everything just so …

One thing that really bothered me was the cover art. It shows someone who is presumably Geary in some sort of space suit combat gear flanked by a bunch of space marines in full armor. Not sure where that image came from as it conveys nothing that is actually in the story itself. Geary never leaves the spaceship that he is on, and there would be no reason for him to wear any kind of armor. Nor, does the book mention him wearing or using a side arm? I suspect the artist tasked with this was only told of the generalities of the series and was left to his own devices … too bad…

Overall, this was a fun book to read. I can see that this is the third book out of five in this series, so I reached the half way point, and it’s good to know that the apparently endless saga does have an end. For all the positive elements in this book, I give this book a four star rating.

Previously published at TheQwillery.com

I picked up my copy of Courageous on a whim at my local used bookstore about a month ago mostly because I liked the cover, and I enjoy military science fiction more than any other sub-genre. It wasn't until I got home that I noticed it was book three in a series, which can be a daunting read. I have never read anything by Jack Campbell and I hate reading books out of order because I can never be sure how lost I'm going to be in the story or how long it'll take to get into the book. Campbell quickly put my mind at ease. Within a few pages, I knew all the basics of what was going on and even some clues as to what had happened before. All the major key points in the story were explained clearly and even the characters were introduced with enough information from the get go to keep the confusion down to a minimum.

Courageous has a wonderful pacing and description that made me feel like I was on the space ship Dauntless with Captain John “Black Jack” Geary, a futuristic mix between Rip Van Winkle and King Arthur, as he struggles to find a safe way home in enemy space. Campbell eludes to the past history of the Navy as far back to ships powered by sail, which adds a nice romantic touch to the past that blends well with futuristic ships in space.

At the heart of the story, Courageous is a chase book—Captain Geary commands a fleet of alliance spaceships that are being attacked by enemy ships at every turn. Campbell shines as he explores the reality and drama of everyday military ship life. While there are great battles between the warring ships, there's more drama in the struggle to keep the fleet up and running and working as one.

Captain Geary is an interesting character, a man who awoke to find himself in the future and called to lead. He struggles with the myth of who he was prior to his sleep and who he truly is. At times he takes advantage of his myth, but for the most part he almost forces himself to reject this “Black Jack” who everyone loves. Campbell does a masterful job of exploring this topic and the struggle. The supporting cast is well developed and helps balance out the story.

It's a straight-forward science fiction novel with future technology in a human-only universe—so far. The book hints there may be an alien civilization lingering on the edge of the universe. None of the technology is mind-blowingly different than what you'll find in other science fiction books, but I did enjoy some of the military tech used in the battles.

My only criticism would be that at times I felt a little bogged down in the descriptions of the actual directions the ships were going in the midst of the battles. I feel this is more my fault as I have little understanding of navigation, however it does add a sense of realism. The only other complaint I have is I would have liked to know the characters better by the end of the book. I was thoroughly engaged in their struggles, but I don't feel as if I know them personally that well. Granted, this is book three in a six book series so there's a chance the characters were established more fully in the previous two books.

Courageous is a top-notch military sci-fi novel with a heavy emphasis on the Navy. There's plenty of realism mixed with future tech. I found the struggles engaging and the end of the story rewarding. There are plenty of great battles and thought-provoking ideas to keep anyone entertained. As it is a military novel, there is violence but nothing graphic, light to no language and only implied adult situations so I can recommend it to teen and adult readers. This is definitely a book to check out at the library or borrow from a friend. If you enjoy it, you should have no problem finding the rest of the books in the series. I enjoyed myself so much that I'll be keeping my eye out for more books in the series on my next trip to the bookstore.

Too much repetition, a snail slow plotting pace, and paper thin characters have finally doomed this series for me.

When I first started reading the series, the author's fresh and realistic take on space combat and the issues of time and space in said combat had me hooked. The characters weren't great, but they were ok, and a lead character who's looked up to as practically a god by some of his fleet while being very embarrassed and feeling unworthy and overwhelmed by such hero worship was an interesting twist. The rest of the characters were pretty shallow, but I thought they would be fleshed out.

Nope.

Co-president Rione vacillates between amorous, bitchy, morose, distant, comforting, abrasive, and pretty much any other personality trait from scene to scene and even within scenes. She might be the least coherent main character in a book I've ever seen who wasn't certifiably insane and even most of the insane characters I've seen in books at least attempt to act non-crazy.

Desjani, the captain of the ship that Jack Geary commands the fleet from, is still a hero worshipper whose first instinct is to attack first, attack second, and keep attacking even when the odds are bad. Even though the man she worships has proven time and again that his methods are better. He can do no wrong in her eyes, but she continually is portrayed as surprised at actions that don't involve immediate attack before 'remembering' that there might be a better way.

The other main characters are even less fleshed out because you only see them when Geary holds a conference before a major event/battle.

Geary's every scene has some reference to him being uncomfortable with the hero worship, and wondering whether he just shouldn't take advantage of said hero worship.

Yeah, ok already, we get it. We got it the first 10 times it was written that way in the first book, we got it in the 2nd book, and we most certainly aren't allowed to think anyone's changing his/her attitudes in the 3rd book (except Rione who changes it every paragraph).

The battles feel a bit more confusing in this book, and it's getting really hard to even tell how close the fleet is to escaping to home space or how much they've been whittled down. A map in the book would have gone a long way towards the first point. The time/space elements also got confused a bit in one battle when Geary and Desjani are wondering why ships they see just arriving in a system 5 light hours away aren't already turning to attack them. Sure, it's 5 hours later for the enemy ships than what Geary sees, but he's not seeing them 5 hours later. He's seeing them at the moment the enemy sees HIM. They would need some time to react and even if they had already turned and accelerated 15-30 minutes after seeing his fleet, he wouldn't see it for 15-30 minutes after his fleet sees the enemy.

There's also a mention on the back cover about how the mysterious alien race will have more discovered about them, and this was one of the main reasons I did break down and buy the book. This part of the book is tacked into the last chapter and takes up a grand total of 10 pages where Geary and Rione somehow take one piece of intelligence and come up with a major conclusion about these mysterious aliens in one conversation. Lots of huge leaps are made about their capabilities and motivations.

It's too bad that the author doesn't really seem to have progressed in the art of writing as he continues, because the space battles are some of the best in the genre. But the rest is getting progressively thinner and unable to hold my interest in the storyline together,

I have finished three of the Lost Fleet books, so it's time for a review. I'll give you the good, the bad and the ugly.
The Good
The author does an excellent job of including real-world physics in his books. Indeed, I think that's the best thing about the books. He writes about the time-lag of perception for two fleets flying at significant fractions of the speed of light. This makes the battles much more "real."
The fact that highly-developed tactics and strategies of space war have been lost owing to the severe attrition in the officer's ranks is an interesting twist. Their ships are getting better, but the crews are getting more ignorant. That makes a man like Geary, who has been trained in space battle tactics, particularly dangerous.
Added to that, the battles are described in a way that you can see the "ballet" of the battle unfold in your mind. This is very well done.
Finally, the main character, Black Jack Geary, is excellent. What a cool construct: He's been asleep in a life-pod for a hundred years, so at first, he's as much a fish out of water as the reader. Many things have to be explained to Geary, so the reader learns about them in an organic way.
The Ugly
Much has been written about how the politician/love interest Rione is a bipolar shrew; this can't be emphasized enough. This character is TERRIBLE ... unbelievable ... ludicrous. She's a politician, and yet she hates the idea of a strong leader who might use fame to become leader of the Alliance. Tsk, tsk.
So large portions of each book are Rione's tediously haranguing Geary. In any sane universe, he would have kicked her off his ship in book one. In this universe, not only does he keep her around for more berating, but he also beds her.
The Bad
Aside from the trainwreck that is Rione, the other characters are not as good as Geary - basically two-dimensional.
Also, these books are short. Add in the fact that they're padded with Rione's yap-yap-yap, and I was dissatisfied, or would have been if I paid full price for all three.
Instead, I got the first book for 99 cents, the second at full price, even though it was electronic, and the third 20% off.
Finally, the books do get repetitive. There are more books in the series, but I won't be buying them.
Overall: You should read at least one of these books to see how real-time, real-world physics would work in a space battle. But don't pay full price. It's worth 3.5 stars, but that's impossible under the store's system. It's a ripping good space yarn weighed down by some unbelievable characters and tedious berating by a space-going harpy.

Originally posted at FanLit.

In Courageous, the third book in Jack Campbell's LOST FLEET series, the Alliance fleet is still wandering from star system to star system, trying to get back home by some path the Syndics won't predict. It seems like a hopeless situation, but the legendary Black Jack Geary, who's been revived out of cold sleep after his suicidal mission 100 years ago, is just the hero they need. He's proved himself so capable so far that some of his commanders want to help him secure a dictatorship when they get home, and others just want to get rid of him. Geary could decide to be a dictator, get rid of the people who are causing him problems and do things the way he thinks they should be done, but then how is he different from their enemies?

Geary isn't as confident in his own abilities, however. He's still uncomfortable in this new military where the pursuit of self-glory is tolerated and the best commanders are put on the ships most likely to be destroyed. No wonder discipline is shattered and the war has been going on for so long. Geary is starting to understand how the Alliance fleet got this way. He's also learning more about their enemies -- the Syndics -- and the possibility that an unknown alien race may be manipulating both the Alliance and the Syndics. A scary thought.

Meanwhile Geary's lover, Victoria Rione, who used to be reserved, reasonable, and icy, has turned into a fickle drama queen. This subplot is tedious and exasperating and it feels contrived to elevate the tension. It's clear that Campbell is setting things up for a romantic change of venue for Black Jack, though our hero isn't aware of it yet. After listening to Victoria rant and rave for so long, readers will be eager for a change.

I love the hero of the LOST FLEET series -- Captain Geary is awesome and Campbell has done a great job with his development over the series so far. Geary is what keeps me reading LOST FLEET because I don't much like anyone else in the book, or at least I don't know them well enough to like them.

At this point, though, I'm starting to wonder why the series needs six books. It could have been cut in half. The truth is that even though I like hanging out with Black Jack Geary, not much new happens in Courageous. They're wandering around at the beginning and they're still wandering around at the end. In the last chapter of Courageous, Geary and Victoria make some really wild speculations about what might be happening with the alleged alien race and though I thought it was far-fetched that they would jump to those conclusions, I want to know what happens. Campbell leaves us with a cliffhanger that made me glad I'd already downloaded the next book, Valiant.

I cannot understand how other readers love these books. They have none of the character building or varied backgrounds I've found in other series... they just repeat action, repeat characters, repeat battles, repeat problems with personnel... new star system, same problems over and over and over. Need I say more? If you've read book two you've read book three. Just slightly different people doing the same thing...

And why in hell is Captain Numos still on board the battleship Orion? He's under arrest but if they can shift crew between ships there's no reason why the traitorous and cowardly officer should be on his own ship. Receipt for disaster which is being telegraphed... as are ALL the people, one by one, who are creating havoc.

And I'm so sick and tired of blind hero worship and blatant stupidity—they're getting very, very boring... But, I'm going to plow on and read them all.