The Lost Fleet: Dauntless

Jack Campbell

Jun 2006 · The Lost Fleet: Beyond the Frontier Book 1 · Sold by Penguin

About this ebook

The first novel in the New York Times bestselling Lost Fleet series!

The Alliance has been fighting the Syndics for a century—and losing badly. Now its fleet is crippled and stranded in enemy territory. Their only hope is a man who's emerged from a century-long hibernation to find he has been heroically idealized beyond belief....

Captain John “Black Jack” Geary’s exploits are known to every schoolchild. Revered for his heroic “last stand” in the early days of the war, he was presumed dead. But a century later, Geary miraculously returns and reluctantly takes command of the Alliance Fleet as it faces annihilation by the Syndics.

Appalled by the hero-worship around him, Geary is nevertheless a man who will do his duty. And he knows that bringing the stolen Syndic hypernet key safely home is the Alliance’s one chance to win the war. But to do that, Geary will have to live up to the impossibly heroic “Black Jack” legend....

Ratings and reviews

This book is a well thought out exploration into the consequences of a long drawn out war, topped with the moral quantitative involved in a man trying to live up to a legend without allowing it to subsume him. I look forward to the next book.

Don't pay much attention to the cover-art, this book is about an admiral running a fleet. Contrary to what you would suspect based on the cover art, as of five books in, he has never fired a weapon. He's actually never left the ship. I'm not kidding. The story is focused mostly on politics, maintaining shaky alliance by leveraging symbolism. Broad themes include the "old wise man," a literal anachronism, who saves the present with the wisdom of the past. The romance reminds me of old-school "sex" scenes where the camera pans to a window with curtains blowing in the night breeze. I point this last piece out because there is this undercurrent of traditional chivalry/morals (even as far as explicitly connecting a woman's honor with her sexual activities). None of these issues would be as glaring if there were any big changes in the story after FOUR BOOKS into the series. Sorry, really can't recommend this one. Good book for some more conservative older gentlemen though (genuinely, I'd recommend it for that population).

It is a shame the writer has chosen to do exposition through a competent protagonist interacting with an ensemble that is for the most part unrealistically retarded. He has thus created a technically interesting setting but with with the social maturity of small children. The series is saved by genuinely interesting and well-described fleet combat, if one skips through some egregious eye rollers.

About the author

“Jack Campbell” is the pen name of John G. Hemry, a retired naval officer who graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis before serving with the surface fleet and in a variety of other assignments. He is the New York Times bestselling author of The Lost Fleet series and The Lost Stars series, as well as the Stark’s War, Paul Sinclair, and Pillars of Reality series. He lives with his indomitable wife and three children in Maryland.