Jack Campbell (1) (1956–)

John G. Henry, a retired naval officer, writes military science fiction under his own name and as Jack Campbell. Tarnished Knight is the first volume of a series spun off from The Lost Stars. Its hero, Artur Drakon, a military leader from the Syndicate Worlds, launches a rebellion in the Midway system. Campbell is a student of military history and has based at least part of the action here on Xenophon’s Anabasis about a small force fighting its way out of trouble. Stealing from the classics is always a good idea. This series is as good as most by Ringo, Weber, or Zahn.… (more)

Another fun installment in Campbell's Lost Fleet prequel series. This is book two and Glenlyon, Kosatka and the other 'free' planets in the outer colonies are still trying to go it alone, while the aggressive worlds continue to attack and try to divide and conquer. Campbell gives us zero insight into the leadership or motivations of the attacking worlds - the leaders don't have names and there is almost no communication. All we see are the good guys trying to resist violence and oppression. He has created ancestors for all of the major characters in his Lost Fleet series, so we see Geary and Desjani and Morgan, etc. These are fun, but serious, military scifi.… (more)

2.5 stars
I'm going to combine the first five books of the Lost Fleet series in one review. They're light reading, you could knock out one or two a day, and there aren't really natural transition points in the story between books. There's also not a lot of variation in terms of quality or technique from book to book, so there isn't much reason not to combine them here, especially as there isn't a lot to rave about.
Lost Fleet gives us the story of Black Jack Geary, a hero lost in the past and like the once and future king returning when his society (really all of humanity) needs him most...last in a 100 year interstellar war between human factions (eventually evolving to be against an alien race). The first 6 books are all about him trying to get his fleet home and hopefully end the war between human factions, while decimating the opposition, with a little bit of investigation/mystery regarding the aliens and some politicking. There's also a LOT of introspective musing and characters-as-mouthpiece for the ethical dilemma of how to lead both the fleet and eventually the human race (democracy or benevolent dictatorship).
High points, like I said, is that they're light, fast reads. If you like like that sort of military scifi, you'll probably enjoy these well enough. For that matter, if you like submarine military fiction, you'll probably like this, as the sub combat-esque fleet maneuvering is about the only real action you're going to get here. There's limited person to person action, and even the limited political maneuvering is spread pretty thinly across the whole series.
There's a lot of showing rather than telling throughout, even after the first five books I couldn't give you any idea what ships might looks like (they're primarily described by class of vessel and name only). I'm steeped in enough scifi that my mind filled in the spaces, but its less than ideal writing. For that matter, I probably couldn't tell you with any accuracy what any main characters look like, again save for what my head filled in based on personality.
Something really jarring early on is that we don't really see Geary's rescue, awakening, and semi-reintegration into the fleet until book 3 or 4. Book 1 picks up sometime *after* he wakes up, which for the first hundred pages had me feeling as if I'd missed something.
I got the first 5 books free, in a box of other books from my aunt, and while not terrible I probably won't be setting off to pick up any more of the, at this point pretty lengthy, series.… (more)