Relentless (The Lost Fleet, Book 5) Review
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I really can't get enough of this series, and it's not because writer Jack Campbell comes up with so many original ideas. The thing that he has is a knack for clear storytelling. He spins stories set in the sci-fi genre and yet there's such a realistic grounding to them. He's very consistent at this, and folks should check out his other works under his real name John G. Hemry (the JAG in Space and Sgt. Stark series are terrific stuff!). Nowadays, as "Jack Campbell," dude is concentrating on the Lost Fleet space saga, and I'm hating that the sixth book won't be out until April, 2010.
RELENTLESS is the fifth book, and the crippled lost fleet of the Alliance has made significant headway towards getting back home. The fleet is still navigating thru enemy Syndic space, and casualties have been costly. It should've been worse, really - in fact, chances are the fleet by now should've already been annihilated - except that the legendary Captain John "Black Jack" Geary was found floating in space, frozen in a hundred years' worth of cryogenic sleep. Captain Geary was revived just in time for the fleet's leading officers to be executed by the enemy. Now the ranking officer (by a century or so), Geary was charged with bringing the fleet safely home.
I've really enjoyed all the books leading up to RELENTLESS, enjoyed Captain Geary gradually getting comfortable with his command and enjoyed seeing the effects he's had on his fellow officers and shipmates. The hundred-year interstellar war between the Alliance and the Syndicate Worlds has reduced both sides into callous entities. Over the course of a century, both sides have morally strayed, have done away with certain traditions and ideals. Atrocities are routinely committed. Captain Geary has been re-introducing military etiquette, ideals, and tactics. It's still an uphill climb for him, especially in the area of combat as a contemporary Alliance officer's plan of attack is consistently to charge straight ahead for honor and glory.
Admittedly, with the past few books, there's been this sense of running in place. Four things which kept going around in circle, it seems: The lost fleet would wander from one hostile Syndic star system to another, trying to be unpredictable but inevitably forced to engage in a space battle against overwhelming odds. This quickly becomes repetitive, but again I have a lot of fun reading about Geary demolishing enemy Syndic ships. Another thing that's ongoing is Geary's fellow officers (a few of them) continually sniping at him. Each book in the series so far has featured an officers' conference in which Geary has to navigate thru a verbal landmine. It's challenging enough having to balance his fellow officers' battle lust with sensible battle tactics. He also has to deal with antagonistic officers who constantly second-guess and undermine his every move. The romance angle was also getting old, with fierce politician Victoria Rione becoming increasingly intolerable and Captain Tanya Desjani being perhaps a bit too noble (she's one person I really wish Campbell would develop more). Lastly, Campbell keeps on teasing us about the shadowy alien species which may or may not mean humanity harm. Now all this stuff never really bugged me that much at first - they were just nits to pick - but maybe I did start getting a wee bit restless in the end.
RELENTLESS advances some of these hanging plot threads, even brings a resolution to some of them. I won't say which plot threads got served, but I will say that Geary's internal enemies have finally stopped merely trying to discredit him and have moved on to actively trying to kill him. It's not that RELENTLESS ends on a cliffhanger but events are coming to a head, and Campbell has choices now in the direction he can go. Meanwhile, Captain John Geary still struggles with being revered as a walking legend. He's human with warts and insecurities and all, and we get to see this side of him, even if most of his shipmates don't. He's a compelling guy and continues to be someone you just root for.
The writer makes the military environment relatable to everyone, but specially to those who've served in the armed forces. The space battles, constrained by relativistic speeds, are carefully worked out, and my head spins every time I try to get the details straight in my head. Thankfully, Campbell eases off a bit in this book. One thing I like is that the Syndics are finally starting to adapt to Black Jack's audacious tactics (most of which stem from that outdated thing called teamwork). But how much longer can he keep fooling them?
As a bonus, RELENTLESS opens with a flashback of Geary's last moments on the Alliance heavy cruiser Merlon and to his entering a broken survival pod which would catapult him on a hundred-year sleep in enemy space.
I read somewhere that Jack Campbell plans to continue writing the adventures of Black Jack Geary even after VICTORIOUS. He stated that he'll also be writing a separate novel (series?) featuring stories from the Syndics' perspective. This is awesome news!
There's a little bit of humor in this series, but not much. I used this one - "If I have to face death today, why does my possibly last meal have to be a Danaka Yoruk bar?" - for the review title, but that quote is actually lifted from the book before this one, THE LOST FLEET: VALIANT. It made me laugh when a (jokingly) aggrieved Geary said it.
Relentless (The Lost Fleet, Book 5) Feature
- ISBN13: 9780441017089
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Relentless (The Lost Fleet, Book 5) Overview
After successfully freeing Alliance POWs, "Black Jack" Geary discovers that the Syndics plan to ambush the fleet with their powerful reserve flotilla in an attempt to annihilate it once and for all. And as Geary has the fleet jump from one star system to the next, hoping to avoid the inevitable confrontation, saboteurs contribute to the chaos.
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