The Lost Stars: Tarnished Knight

The plots are complicated and very human, especially considering our present political situations.
I can see how both systems could evolve from what we have now.
The battles are very realistic and I like the way that physics is not completely ignored.
The characters are well developed and real.
Highly rcomend this seiries.

This is another very interesting and engaging book from the Black Jack Geary universe - this one giving insight into the Syndicate Worlds side of things. Great character development and of course Cambell keeps the plot moving with just the right mixture of technical aspects thrown in. Just great science fiction.

Another good Campbell book. I've read all the Lost Fleet books and this new series is just as good. This series shows the wars aftermath from the Syndic point of view as star systems begin to break free from the tyranny of the Syndic government. Good stuff here!!

very good book but without reading The Lost Fleet you will be probably "lost" or if not you wil miss some important background why something had/will happened etc. I like the stile of Jack Cambel so it took me 2 days to read it .-)

Lots of action combined with court intrigue. Jack Campbell has a great writing style that is easy and fun to read. I hope to see the next episode soon. Iceni and Drakon are great additions to the storyline, but I hope to see Black Jack and the Alliance fleet reappear soon as well.

looking at events through the eyes of others usually brings insights and surprises. and so the author delivers numerous of both, viewing a newly-independent, formerly enemy star system from the perspective of the new rulers.

Nothing against Campbell's writing style...I love the beyond the frontier series....this book reads more like a juvenile story of teenage love angst between the two main characters. If the Syndic hierarchy is so morally corrupt, then they would have self destructed under the massive weight of their own mistrust!

I liked this one better than the lost fleet series. The characters are more developed, and there is no one to say "I'm not Black Jack" every paragraph. I also like seeing how the old Syndicate worlds operated.

With the defeat of the Syndicate, the Midway star system now has the opportunity for self rule.
Two former CEO's must work together and begin to trust one another, This is a huge challenge because "trust" is a very forign concept to them. The outcome is never certain and intrigue abounds!
Excellent work by Mr. Campbell.

As alwase Campbell has exceeded expectations with each novel, as a combat vet I found that Campbell was able to capture that feeling of combat stress and how manny conflicts over time can turn your thoughts inward to give you that feeling of truly living in hell, in this novel there is a passage that I feel would give people some understanding of what it means to be a flawed soldier. "everywhere we've fought, we've left a little piece of ourselfs and replaced it with a small piece of that hell we found in that place." the whole conversation that I pulled this from is truly poetic and based in fact. I thank Campbell for injecting some truth and life in to his characters. I highly recommend this novel you will not be disappointed.

Kevin Gardner

This is a fun and entertaining read but not quite as good as the rest of the series. The story is interesting and it shows more of the world created in teh lost stars and lets you see into the syndicate way of things but it was lacking. The main problem was the charachter development. While all of the series previous characters were deep and it was easy to feel attached to them, the two main protagonists of this novel are hard to realte to. Thier motivations seemed selfish and i kept rooting for them to fall. I felt like I was being forced to choose between the lesser of two evils, this syndicate, or Iceni and Drakon playing dictators. I rooted for niter and instead rooted for th epeople but was left lacking. without attachment to the characters the otherwise well writen story was not as engaging. while i was unable to put down the previous novels until finished that was not the case with this novel. A good read and if you are a fan of the series worht the effort but just not the authors best outing.

I met Jack Campbell (pseudonym for retired US Navy officer John G. Hemry) at a local Science Fiction convention a couple of years ago and was impressed by the discussion he led. He has written several series but I thought I would try one of his more recent ones, since he had actually talked about this one. It is a new series told in a universe that he has written a lot about and this is the first of at least 4 books in this sub-series alone. I pounded through this one quickly and discovered a totally cliffhanger ending; so I have to get the next one.

Briefly, this is a combination of a political novel and a military space novel. Apparently the first eight books (“The Lost Fleet” series) were primarily told from the side of the good guys (more or less) of “The Alliance” battling against the various connected star systems of “The Syndicate”. The Syndicate is kind of a Soviet-type dictatorship where everyone is suspicious of everyone else. The Alliance is more of an American-style bureaucracy with an inspirational and creative military leader, Black Jack Geary. Both sides are humans descended from Earth; but somewhere in the series they run into a truly alien race, “the enigma”, and that imbalances the war.

The current book flips the series in another direction. The Alliance has won the war and helped push back the enigma; but the aftermath is still deadly. While the Syndicate has broken apart, there are still many loyalists trying to reconquer various star systems and get them back together into a new Syndicate. The enigma are still out there and no one has even figured out what they look like or how to deal with them. Campbell now shifts the story to the point of view of two former Syndicate leaders, Artur Drakon and Gwen Iceni, on the planet Midway. They are trying to survive assassination attempts while leading a revolt against the ISS – basically similar to the old Russian Secret Service (the KGB) – in order to bring some semblance of order to Midway. They both recognize that the Syndicate way of doing things did not work; but they have no knowledge of how any other system of leadership might work. They have to gather military personnel and space warships to their side and prevent wholesale slaughter by the people who refuse to let go of the past.

Both the political tension and the battle descriptions are exciting and the two main characters are especially well-developed and sympathetic. It is obvious that Campbell is having fun exploring his cultures from the side of the former enemies. It does take a bit for a new reader to sort this all out, since I had not read the earlier books; but the author pulled me in pretty quickly with just as much exposition as I needed but no more.

If you like tense action, military space opera, and good characters, this is an author for you to try. And if I meet this author again, it will be nice that I can be honestly enthusiastic about his books. (He’s a really nice guy and extremely intelligent, if you run across him at an SF con somewhere.)

Tarnished Knight (2012) is the first SF novel in The Lost Stars subseries of The Lost Fleet series. It takes place after the Alliance fleet has crossed through the Midway systems on the way to Pele and the Enigma stars beyond, but before it returns.

It is set mostly within the Midway System, a star system on the far edge of human space. Some parts take place in nearby star systems.

In this novel, Gwen Icini is the CEO of the Midway system. She was greatly impressed by Admiral Geary and is now trying to break away from the Syndic Worlds.

Artur Drakon is the CEO of all ground military forces within the Midway system. He is cooperating with Icini in her bid for independence.

Jack Geary is an Alliance Admiral. He has promised Icini that he will assist in her efforts to achieve independence for the Midway system.

In this story, Drakon checks his team within the Internal Security Service surveillance complex. They are busy diverting and replacing data feeds. Four subverted ISS guards are keeping watch outside.

His very presence inside the surveillance center is treason. Yet the Syndic Worlds have left him little choice in the matter. Either way, he is facing a death sentence, so he takes a chance to overthrow the snakes.

When the feeds are completely diverted to fake data loops, Drakon goes to the next step. His troops are preparing to assault ISS headquarters and other ISS centers across the planet. Then the ISS director calls him in for a talk.

Drakon delays his visit with the director for a half hour and then leads the attack on the ISS command center. The director frantically prepares to set off a suicide nuke. Drakon's forces know what he is doing and are racing toward his office.

Meanwhile, Icini is pulling a surprise inspection of a heavy cruiser in orbit around Midway. She waits for word from Drakon before starting a mutiny in the mobile forces within the Midway system. Drakon hasn't gotten back to her and Icini is faced by four ISS agents.

Icini starts the mutiny without word from Drakon. One enemy cruiser is destroyed and another is damaged. Unfortunately, a third cruiser gets away and reaches the hypergate before her ships can intercept it. Icini is left with three intact -- and one damaged -- cruisers under her control, a very minor flotilla.

The escaped ship will inform the Syndic Worlds of their treason, so Icini and Drakon need to reinforce their mobile forces. Icini sends out ships to check the nearby star systems for other ships.

This tale dwells on the trust factor within the relationship between Icini and Drakon. Syndic Worlds CEOs are trained to distrust other CEOs. Yet both Drakon and Icini tend to trust each other, but so much gets in the way.

Meanwhile, the external threats still exist. The Syndic Worlds may send another flotilla to retake the system and the Enigmas could return at any time. Icini wonders what is keeping Admiral Geary in Enigma space.

The Midway system face great dangers. The next installment in this sequence is Perilous Shield.

Highly recommended for Campbell fans and for anyone else who enjoy tales of armed conflict, political intrigue, and human relationships. Read and enjoy!

-Arthur W. Jordin

What a great spinoff concept. Prior to this book the Syndicate, controlled by nefarious CEO's, were nothing more than relative stick figures. In this case we get to delve deeper into Syndicate society in the post-Geary age. The main characters were tangentially introduced in the main series, but now we have a chance to see the desperate fight of the leadership of Midway to separate themselves from the central control of the Syndicate.

This is much more of a political novel than the Lost Fleet books. Yes, there is space combat as well as ground combat, but a lot of the book is devoted to the truly twisted political realm of the CEO's, where you cannot trust anyone. Even though they must work together to wring a small hole of safety for both themselves and the people of Midway, the sheer level of scheming is intense (where every move is never taken at face value and no one is what they seem to be). But the two leaders, Drakon and Iceni, seem to see the value of cooperation and realize that the system that they were born into needs to be changed (but realizing that it cannot be done overnight).

A very solid book and I very much look forward to the next (with a cliffhanger like Jack dropped at the end of the book, it is a given that there needs to be another book).

I'm surprised some other reviewers didn't pick up on this one: Artur Drakon = Arthur Pendragon, Gwen Icheni = Guinevere, Morgan = Morgana LeFay, Malin = Merlin... (there are other names like this as well if you look.) And then we have "Midway" which is on the fringes of the collapsing Syndicate star-nation and stands in for Britain during the final collapse of the Western Roman Empire.
So we see that Campbell has taken the same basic plot and cast of characters as the Arthurian legend and recast it against the background of his Lost Stars series. The parallels weren't immediately obvious to me, but as I read along, they slowly became apparent. He's done an excellent job so far of retelling this classic legend in a futuristic space-opera setting, and I hope the following books are as well thought out as this one was. (Though I do hope the ending is a bit less tragic than how the original Arthurian legend turned out.)

NOTE: If you're just interested in following the adventures of "Black Jack" Geary, don't bother with this one. This story happens in the same universe but Geary plays no part in this story. That said, it's an excellent book in its own right.

Originally I was not going to read these books as I had seen some poor reviews. I'm glad I changed my mind. The story is really interesting in that Jack Campbell does not provide the story from only one character's perspective, but tells it from many major and minor character's points of view. In addition, there is an underlying theme throughout the story that no character who was a former member of the Syndicate Worlds knows how to trust anyone else. I imagine that this was probably very similar to how citizens of the former Soviet Union related after its breakup. How can you trust anyone when your entire society is built around mistrust and people get ahead by undermining those around them including the people who ought to be closest to them?

Even when interacting with Admiral Geary and the Alliance personnel, the characters from the Midway system can never accept someone's actions at face value - often imagining reasons for their behavior because of their own societal perspective.

Some of the things I love about this and the second book:
*The effort by Midway's leaders to acquire the resources they need to defend themselves against alien and former Syndicate enemies.
* The sense of humor that Jack Cambell incorporates into his stories.
* As usual, the detailed space combat information that he attempts to include to provide a realistic perspective to those battles.
* The space combat has a much less epic level than in most of the Lost Fleet series - here you see space navel battles with a small flotilla rather than a massive fleet or ground forces battling in urban or interior situations.

The things that I can't stand:
* Jack Campbell has the most annoying habit of repeating himself in every book. He will inevitably explain why up is up and Starboard is Starboard. He will repeat again that space is big and that messages and ships in space are slow even when they are fast and of course, when you see something far away, it happened a long time ago and there is nothing you can do about it. I wish he would just throw that junk into an appendix in each book so we can get on with the story.
* If you have read the Lost Fleet books, you can pretty well guess at the outcome of every major crisis in the story.
* For once I'd love to see some of the warships on the cover of his books instead of a non-protagonist supermodel in space armor with a big gun.

I wouldn't consider this a standalone - and ideally you'll read it between Dreadnought and Invincible since it takes place during the middle of Invincible.

It gives the perspective of the Syndicate World that wants to break free - and the two main characters, Iceni and Drakon, are both emboldened by but also hampered by their Syndicate upbringing. It's a fun read to see them battle their own nature to do what's right for their people.

The characters aren't carbon copies of the Alliance counterparts. They will sleep with subordinates or assasinate rivals. But at the same time, this really does have a smart set of supporting characters that are very real in their own right.

This book really is the best of both worlds - more Jack Campbell goodness but NOT a carbon copy of previous characters in the series. Refreshingly, this includes both ground based battles and space battles.

It kept me hooked up to the end and wanting more from these characters.

Even though the original series this spins off from was 5/5 fantastic, I was incredulous about starting this one. It is the despised enemy, afterall! However, I'm so glad I did. Being a number of books into the series now, the character growth and plot development is so deep and well thought out, the series is just as enjoyable as the original.
Great intrigue, some more grit and darker issues than the original series allowed, deeply relatable characters whom you become attached to, plot twists everywhere, keeps you on the edge of your seat and doesn't disappoint with any of its big reveals. Great series, read the whole thing. The. Whole. Thing.

Yet another excellent read from Mr. Campbell, with the added bonus that it launches a strong second and concurrent series set in the Alliance/Syndicate universe.

On a bit of a side note.....

This may already have been mentioned (and if so please forgive me for bringing it up again) but it's interesting that the book's title includes the word "Knight" and the four main characters have names that seem to be derived from Arthurian legend: Artur, Gwen, Morgan and Malin = Arthur, Guinevere, Morgan le Fey (Morgane, Morgaine, Morgana) and Merlin. Also, Artur's full name is "Artur Drakon" which is close enough to "Uther Pendragon" (the legendary King Arthur's father) while Gwen's last name ("Iceni") is the same as that of the British tribe that Boudica (Boadicea) led to revolt against the Romans in AD 60 (or 61).

POTENTIAL SPOILER ALERT:

All of which provides possible food for thought with regard to an indiscretion committed by Drakon which may lead to interesting consequences (but that's purest speculation, as I'm already two books behind and need to catch up!). :)

I was looking forward to this series in the "Lost Fleet" \ "Lost Stars" collection and it did not disappoint. The Lost Fleet series was great but was starting to get a bit repetitive in the later books, however, the addition of The Lost Stars to the saga is a great expansion of the Lost Fleet universe. Seeing the Lost Fleet universe from the perspective of rebellious Syndicate CEO's was fun to read and starts to tell the other side. Campbell is great at keeping the action going and for putting in cliff hanger after cliff hanger so just when you think "I'll stop for the night after this chapter" - bam cliff hanger, and you gotta keep reading to see what happens next.

I enjoy John Hemry's writing tremendously. As other reviewers noted, he does a good job balancing action and drama and characterisation.

This book is not about the same core characters as the Lost Fleet books, and focuses on the Syndicate world of Midway and its two rulers: Drakon and Iceni.

I really enjoyed learning more about each of them and their struggles creating a new government.

I'm looking forward to the next book!

A good read. Interesting and the main characters are believable. My only real problem with this book is that it's one of those where the author says, "I've spent 10 books telling people to root against these people, now I'm going to write a book from their perspective. I just have a problem empathizing with people I've spent so much time disliking.

Just finish "The Lost Stars - Tarnished Knight" last night. I love it!!! It's was a great story and continues the series well from a different perspective. I'm hoping that future novels have plenty of interactions these characters, the enigmas, and Black Jack. If you like the other novels in this series you're going to LOVE this one.

The ruthless Syndicate finds its violent control of its people in peril because of the inability to defeat the Alliance forces led by "Black Jack" Geary nor defend some of their worlds from aliens. As the Syndicate appears on the verge of implosion, The Midway Star System becomes a hotbed of activity because the sector is a nexus of hypergates to and from other Syndicate systems. Distrust of the brutal Syndicate forces runs throughout this sector as the locals expect to feel the terrorizing crush of their "protectors" and worse from the "snakes".

Syndicate Commander Arthur Drakon led the ground forces in the Midway Star System, but he and what is left of his units are exiled. Instead of hiding, Drakon makes a rebellious bid to take over leadership of Midway starting with ridding the system of the snakes. To succeed, he needs to ally with a natural enemy CEO Gwen Iceni. Together they mount a counter attack on Syndicate units in the sector with a strong focus on those dominated by snakes. After declaring their independence from the Syndicate, each distrusts the other, but failure to do so will allow the snakes to regroup abetted by traitors.

This brilliant sidebar new series occurs during a period between the Beyond the Frontier last two entries: Dreadnaught and Invincible. Though there is plenty of military outer space combat, the storyline centers on the strange bedfellows' codependent but tremulous alliance that Drakon and Iceni forge to bring their nebulous vision of a better democratic future for Midway. Jack Campbell runs a strong saga shown from the viewpoints of the Syndicate at a time when the vicious totalitarian military regime teeters on the brink of total collapse.

Harriet Klausner