Relentless (The Lost Fleet Series)

If you like classic science fiction with plausible science to describe things, then the Lost Fleet should be your cup of tea. I have diligently followed along and enjoyed it all. This latest installment had me glued to my seat while I read it from stem to stern in a half day.

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.

If you enjoyed the previous four Lost Fleet books, you will not be disappointed by this one. This is not the final book in the series. I expect the series to conclude with Book 6 but Campbell may just go for a seventh.

A good second book in the series. Have been waiting for this in kindle format for a while. Continues the focus on the intricacies of directing space combat and some character development. Overall a good series which I recommend.

The lost fleet was so interesting and well written that I could not stop reading, It is wonderful to get an author like Jack Campbell , his imagination has no limits and will later on onto some of his other books.

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.

By The Living Stars, which is an expression used in this series, the series still has little to recommend it at this stage? Why six books. It is clear that three would have covered it.

So many times the repetition of what has happened before reappears. Maybe once was forgiveable, but over and over. Then let us suspend our disbelief for the throwaway aliens... Book five and we haven't seen them, just some evidence and supposition that they exist and is one of a few reasons the enemy is as violent and distasteful as they are.

But what we see with out really finally saying it is that the war of terror exists because so long ago they killed our Great-Great-Uncle and they think so long ago we killed their Great-Aunt that no one can let bygones be bygones, even though each side of course will say the other did the killing the first.

No one but our hero, who thinks it, but won't say it where it will do the most good.

And our hero of course is the only one after 100 years of murderous war who can think of new tactics...

We got all that ages ago, certainly saving us as readers and purchasers several dollars and time, oh the time to slog through it.

Where we have problems is the Hero was more heroic before and less so now. His one dimensional side kicks are just that, one dimensional and the facade of background material trying to give them depth has come too late to take away any of that boring look at them. It is also trite and cliched, first our hero is sleeping with the only politician in the fleet, who happens to be a woman and now a thorny conscious in his side, and now that they have stopped sleeping together, he wants to sleep with the highest ranked lieutenant to the command structure who also is a good looking woman, with baggage that counts for nothing.

Where they should have reached home, reached the aliens, or been destroyed by book three, well we do have some arcs that get tied up. But in all this the people that he is fighting, oh they are getting the word that he shows mercy which for the last hundred years has been few and far between, but they do not believe it every time he shows up and so the bosses on the enemy side insist they fight to the death.

Fighting if you believe in your cause, give me liberty or give me death, is one thing, but fighting when you don't and you know that someone above you is ordering you to a useless death is making the Stockholm syndrome to taken for granted. I have more faith in people than that. I have more faith in the fear of death than that. I have more faith than anything that Jack Campbell with his hero who self doubts so much it is a wonder he won't just go kill himself. A 100 year temporal displacement, that many changes, dealing with no ties to the past should take a lot more pyschiatric help, all the time then this guy gets. So try and fail at suspending your disbelief.

What to do? Don't read this series if you haven't started. Only read this book if you are the person who has to know how something ends once you have started. Once finished with this series, it will never be read again.

grumble, growl, grumble... be aware if you start this series and get through book 1 you will have to get ALL the books and there are a LOT of them... I cannot say this is The Expanse but if you are done with those books, these are a good choice. I found it a bit tiring when Campbell would have his two main characters go on for pages and pages about their 'problem' - too repetitious indeed. The battle scenes were not thrilling to me as they are to some BUT the stories and characters are solid and compelling. A lot of originality and the suspense builds nicely. Have to say I am into the second series, the Beyond series, and I am still enjoying them a lot. I guess I will read until Geary hangs up his spurs.

Originally posted at FanLit:

In Relentless, book 5 of Jack Campbell's LOST FLEET series, Captain Black Jack Geary and the Alliance fleet are jumping through a Syndic star system, trying to evade the Syndics, as usual, when they happen to be in a position from which they can rescue some Alliance POWs from one of the Syndic planets. Here the Alliance force sees the consequences of their past honorable behavior which Captain Geary has insisted upon, despite earlier protests from many in his fleet. Their good deeds are bearing fruit.

Because of this, most of the other captains now trust Geary completely and some of the more reluctant ones are starting to buy in. Unfortunately, Geary himself is feeling very insecure and is sometimes paralyzed by fear of failure. He's also still dealing with a few secret saboteurs who clearly don't want him returning home in glory. While some of his colleagues are ready to crown Geary emperor, a few would like him out of the picture and they are willing to sacrifice ships and personnel to make that happen.

Another problem is the discovery that the fleet is being hunted by a massive Syndic reserve flotilla. Where have the Syndics been keeping all these ships and what are they for, if not for fighting the current war with the Alliance? And then, of course, there are the imploding hypernet gates, which have everyone feeling a little twitchy.

On a personal level, Geary is still dealing with the jealous rivalry between the captain of the flagship and Madam Co-President. (I'm a little annoyed at how silly these women are acting.) Another woman enters his life in this installment, too -- Captain Jane Geary, his grandniece. He'd like to have an avuncular relationship with Jane, but she is reluctant (for good reason) to get too close. By watching her, Geary can see what it was like to grow up in a society that's been at war for 100 years -- a society where her own granduncle was the war's greatest hero.

As usual for the LOST FLEET books, Relentless offers plenty of military action, epic space battles, a cool ground war, clever intelligence operations, political intrigue, interesting ethical considerations, and social commentary. As I've said in my past couple of reviews of the LOST FLEET books, this series could have been condensed considerably. While the plot progresses in Relentless, there is a lot of repetition and the plot uses many of the same elements we've seen before. Important things happen, so it's a necessary installment (all of them are) but I can't help but feel that I'm being milked. Fortunately, I enjoy Black Jack Geary's company, so the feeling isn't too aversive.

Readers who have been engrossed in the story so far and just want to hang out with Geary and the fleet will be pleased with Relentless. I'm happy, however, that the series is ending (sort of) in the next book, Victorious. (There are spin-off series that continue the story.)

Just an aside: I'm not sure what's up with the cover art for this series. Most of the covers show Captain Geary on the ground with some kind of big weapon. These scenes never happen in the books. He doesn't carry big weapons around and his feet rarely touch the ground outside of a space ship.

A century ago the Syndicate Worlds attacked the Alliance who fought back. Captain John "Black Jack" Geary's ship the Meron was destroyed but he escaped in a pod in suspended animation; only to wake up a hundred years later to learn he is a legend and that the war continues unabated. The Alliance sends a fleet into the heart of Syndic Space, but due to a series of dreadful circumstances, Jack becomes the commander.

After some fierce battles, the fleet is ready to use Jump Points to return to Alliance space. Jack and a few others learned the Syndicate worlds were manipulated into going to war by a mysterious race of aliens who want the two combatant groups to destroy one another. It is urgent that Jack and his crew return home because they possess the Syndic hypernet key that can be used as a weapon. While fighting and eluding the Syndic fleets, Jack tries to convince those who have admired him that he dos not want to be the leader of the Alliance and explains to his supporters he is a warrior not a politician.

This exhilarating action packed outer space military thriller will remind the audience of the battles in Star Wars. Jack is terrific as he realizes his past glory can carry him so far with his demi-god celebrity status, but he caught in a conundrum of what his fame means to the Alliance and what he has learned while in Syndric Space about the true enemy. Many believe he is the only one who can end the hundred year war though he has his doubts as to what should be done next.

Harriet Klausner

John Campbell (John g. Hemry) doesn't disappoint again in the latest Lost Fleet novel as they finally near their goal of home. Down to their last supplies, ships nearly at their breaking point and Campbell throws more at them than you could expect the characters to pull off in a believable fashion, yet they do. No last minute saves, no "oh did we forget we had some super weapon in reserve", just honest tactics. However like in all the books tactics that are as true to life as they might get in some distant future. Light only travels so fast and time again we see the impact of that causing heroic "runs to the rescue" taking hours or even days as you watch the monitors showing you what happened some time ago. A refreshing change from warp drives and instant battles.
Overall the series seems to be wrapping up now and conclusions are to be found in their trip but as this book closes one part of the saga perhaps it opens new ones as they take the fight to their enemies rather than fleeing for their lives. If the books are anywhere as good as the last few I'll be getting them all quickly.

Book 5, Relentless is another hit for John G. Hemry (aka Jack Campbell). Although this book reads a little slower than most of the earlier works in the series, it still satisfies the reader nicely. There are slightly fewer battle scenes in book 5, but John Hemry uses these pages to set up the culmination of the story in the next novel nicely. He closes out one of the major plot lines in this book to ensure our attention is fully focused on the upcoming show down with the "real enemy". Readers of books 1-4 will know who I mean by the "Real Enemy". This novel should not be considered a standalone work. So go pick up the first novel and start there, Dauntless (The Lost Fleet, Book 1). I gave relentless 5 stars because the series is great and the way the author finish this novel was nail biting. The last couple of chapters had everything a reader could want; equal doses of suspense followed by sweeping action and a great finish. I for one can't wait for number 6.

My review for the previous book, Valiant, addressed some serious issues I had with the entire set of books, not just book 4. Many of those issues persist in this book (#5) but not all.

*** WARNING - SPOILER/DETAILS BELOW ***

* Rione - Finally.. FINALLY... this character got less coverage. While I see her character as much needed in the overall storyline, the past 3 books saw her character repeating herself with threats and general discussions. At least in this book she was toned down a bit - I don't think there was even one discussion she had with Geary about his hero status - thanks go to Mr. Campbell for not making us suffer again with this repetitive debate between Geary and Rione.

* Dejani - Same for Tanya - much of the repetitive text relating to her relationship with Geary and her competitive nature with Rione was missing from this book.

* Technologies being explained - the author did a little better this book than the previous 3, but there were still many instances of the conference room being explained as well as a lot of the nitty-gritty light-speed battle discussions. While I'm all in favor of a quick recap from a previous book, many chapters in this book continue the annoying habit of explaining something that the reader should have taken from a previous book. I think the author got around some of this by having the flashback in Chapter 1 explain how and why of Geary's presence. The rest of the book would have the occasional "Geary felt like he'd never get used to XXXX" to take advantage of an area to explain something we already know.

* Drawn out story - Still no information on the "aliens" but we did get some hints of what's to come in the last book of this series. I figured the fleet wouldn't reach home until Book #6, but now we have the gathering of the fleet and #6 left to clean up. But not really...

* Series #2 The Aliens - after book #6, this is where I'll most likely part ways with the author. My frustration with the drawn-out nature of this story has only grown - I still feel that I'm reading a Trilogy that's been artificially busted up into 6 books just to make more money. Add all the filler in previous books and this book that is just duplicate material and I have no plans to read Mr. Campbell's next series... sorry. I just don't feel like waiting 3 or 4 years for 6 books to come out. If the author and/or publisher read these reviews, please give serious consideration to releasing the next series as a set of 3 books (or less).

* Finally, as for the story, I have to say that my favorite two parts of this book were the taking of the POW camp and the wrap-up space battle at the end of the book. Well-written and entertaining. My complaints have never been about the active storyline parts, but more about the way the story has been delivered ( piecemeal and very repetitive). I'm looking forward to the conclusion... in 2010?

With Geary's fleet running out of fuel and ammunition he must take his ragged fleet once more into the breach in order to make it home. On the way he must deal with conspirators that are willing to sabotage his efforts by any means necessary. Also the threats of an unknown alien force grows stronger. Only his fleet knows of the imminent threat the aliens represent, especially with the hyper gates, being used as weapons. Geary has a plan to stop the aliens from using the gates, but getting home to enact his plan will take a miracle.

For anyone picking this book up it's a great series, but you need to start with book one. Lost fleet "Dauntless" In order to get a better understanding of the characters and the sequence of events that have been building. This book ties up a lot of loose ends and will ruin a lot of sub plots created during the first couple of books.

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.

Just finished the 5th book and a thought occurred to me, can Black Jack lose? Fighting the enemy, home & abroad, taking all comers. I recommend the series, start at the beginning, its essential. This is a great sci-fi military yarn. The main characters uncertainty and self assessment are refreshing to give a real human face and personality to the character. I sympathise and the same time am in awe of his brilliance. Well written with fight scenes galore, this has been a great series to date. I have read each book in the series in a fragmented fashion as each book becomes available, which is not ideal, but I am salivating with anticipation for the next book, scheduled for release in 2010. I would probably re-read the series again in time to see how Black jack takes on the Alliance authorities, the mysterious aliens & of course those crazy Syndics. Bring it on.