Publication Date:June 24, 2008 Shipping:Eligible for Super Saver Shipping Promotion:Buy 4 eligible items in the 4-for-3 promotion offered by Amazon.com and get 1 of them free.Terms and Conditions Availability:Usually ships in 24 hours
Very Engaging SeriesJuly 31, 2008 I have read the first four books of this series and I must say that it is a very engaging story. I highly recommend it to those who enjoy passing time with a little sci-fi reading as I do.
I do feel a little bogged down at times from the naming of all the classes, names, etc. etc. of all the different war ships. The author clearly enjoys this idea and talking about the details of this fleet and it makes a very interesting backdrop for a story, but it can get a bit tedious.
The underlying series background story about the mysterious alien race that has been conjectured to exist is one of the aspects of these books that I find especially interesting.
The internal struggle of the main character, I think, is well handled as well.
I look forward to the next installment
An Enjoyable Example of Space Opera in its Classic Form!July 25, 2008 4 out of 7 found this review helpful
I've enjoyed each novel in the Lost Fleet Series and was not disappointed by this addition to the lineup!
Despite some of the negative reviews, I did not find the repetition of information annoying or the manner in which Campbell deals with Geary's love interests. This is a serialized Space Opera!!! As such, Campbell is absolutely faithful to the genre.
Its interesting, but some of the negative reviews have expressed complaints about previous novels in the series and complain that those flaws still exist in the current novel. Yet, these reviewers still bought and read "Valiant" and I bet most of them will buy the next in the series! Why? Because Campbell tells a good story! Also, he takes the time to think through the tactics and strategy of space battles and campaigns. Campbell's novels are lots of fun to read and provide a worthy diversion from our everyday lives.
This is also my first "Lost Fleet" book purchased for my Kindle: Amazon's New Wireless Reading Device. It was formatted perfectly and was an enjoyable way to experience the current novel. It took several weeks after the release of the paperback version before they released the electronic version. Hopefully, future novels will be aligned better. No reason the electronic version should not come out at the same time as the hardback or paperback versions. Baen books typically release an electronic version a few months PRIOR to the release of the paper version.
Excellent Military SciFiJuly 21, 2008 10 out of 10 found this review helpful
Jack Campbell (nome de plume of former U.S. Navy officer John G. Henry) has come up with a thoroughly entertaining military sci-fi series of novels with his Black Jack Geary/Lost Fleet books. I give it four stars because the books (generally) are extremely well crafted, highly entertaining efforts.
The Good: Campbell is one of the best in his descriptive tactical and situational accounts of what large scale fleet actions in future space could be like. Detailed, but not overly-technical, descriptions of large space fleet engagements are very well thought out, yet so well written that a non-military person can grasp what's going on.
Capt. John "Black Jack" Geary is an extremely well-crafted protagonist that we immediately like and empathize with. He's the kind of man everyone wishes to known and work with and for. His struggles with his situation are grist for the mill of legends and Campbell is masterful at getting Geary and the Fleet into impossible situations and then credibly getting them out again.
In the series, the other fleet captains hinder Geary's efforts to get the fleet home safely as much as they do to help him. This makes up some of the best, most entertaining aspects of the books. This is also done in the best tradition of literary military heroes as Horatio Hornblower, Jack Aubrey and Richard Sharpe. Campbell's expert use of divisive, internal fleet politics also gives us a candid look into the military cultures of any age, not just ones in a space fleet-dominated future. Here Campbell writes with the sensitivity and authority of someone who has been on both the winning and the losing ends of such inter-personal political engagements.
The Bad: Geary's character is very well done but other important characters are not as well-developed as you might hope. Their actions and motivations sometimes strain the credulity of the situations they find themselves in. Captain Desjani, female captain of Geary's flagship, is an interesting character but could be more so, given a little more room to breath. Her continued one-dimensional hero worship of "Geary the Legend" rings true in the first two books.
But as she is both an extremely capable and a highly intelligent, aggressive commander, she might be better served having a more visible (to the reader) internal/external conflict going on about who Geary really is and questioning his military and personal decisions, especially her continued suffering-in-silence about Geary's relationship with Victoria Rione.
Victoria Rione, as written, borders at times on clinical schizophrenia. Though an attempt is made in the third book to explain her actions over the course of the series, they often fail to jibe with the consumate politician she is initially presented as in the beginning of the series. Given all of the other problems on his plate, it is puzzling to most readers why a strong character like Geary would continue to put up with her "Three Faces of Eve" act after the first 2-3 installments, no matter how good she might be in the rack.
The overall problem is that, aside from Geary, no attempt is made to better clarify in better detail for the reader the inner thought processes and motivations that lead important characters to agree with or oppose Geary. Keeping Geary's character "in the dark" some of the time is one thing, and it's consistent that Rione might want to keep her motivations a secret from a legendary and potentially politically dangerous military leader who's seemingly returned from the dead.
What's desperately needed, most of all for Rione, is a clarification for readers of her true thoughts and motivations, especially after so many installments. By the end of Book 3, her character is not so much a difficult-to-figure femme fatale as simply an annoying, ultra-irrational sufferer of the Universe's worst cast of pre-menstrual syndrome. In book 5 (if there is one - I can't seem to find anything online about a release date) if she stays her current course, readers will be hoping that before the fleet makes it home that Madame Co_President has been inadvertantly blown out an air lock.
The Ugly: This is nit-picking, and a relatively small burdern on the series. While it's an accepted convention to minimally re-explain certain aspects of the hero's Universe so that the individual book stands on its own, Campbell does seem to spend an inordinate amount of space re-explaining far too much that has already been covered. The series as a whole is good enough that, if you were one of those people who inadvertantly began with Book 3, you'd still probably go back and get 1 and 2 to get caught up on what you missed.
Final opinion: The Lost Fleet series is great fun and well worth the time spent in the Alliance/Syndic Universe.
Great ReadJuly 17, 2008 1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Fun to read... Also gives a really good in depth character study of John Geary, the primary character.
Great entertainmentJuly 13, 2008 1 out of 2 found this review helpful
If you enjoy escaping this world for an hour or two, are entertained by military based sci fi, interwoven with a mixed bag of philosophy, romance, and politics, and do not take yourself too seriously, read this series.
