Relentless

Originally posted at FanLit:
http://www.fantasyliterature.com/reviews/relentless/

In Relentless, book 5 of Jack Campbell�??s LOST FLEET series, Captain Black Jack Geary and the Alliance fleet are jumping through a Syndic star system, trying to evade the Syndics, as usual, when they happen to be in a position from which they can rescue some Alliance POWs from one of the Syndic planets. Here the Alliance force sees the consequences of their past honorable behavior which Captain Geary has insisted upon, despite earlier protests from many in his fleet. Their good deeds are bearing fruit.

Because of this, most of the other captains now trust Geary completely and some of the more reluctant ones are starting to buy in. Unfortunately, Geary show more himself is feeling very insecure and is sometimes paralyzed by fear of failure. Heƒ??s also still dealing with a few secret saboteurs who clearly donƒ??t want him returning home in glory. While some of his colleagues are ready to crown Geary emperor, a few would like him out of the picture and they are willing to sacrifice ships and personnel to make that happen.

Another problem is the discovery that the fleet is being hunted by a massive Syndic reserve flotilla. Where have the Syndics been keeping all these ships and what are they for, if not for fighting the current war with the Alliance? And then, of course, there are the imploding hypernet gates, which have everyone feeling a little twitchy.

On a personal level, Geary is still dealing with the jealous rivalry between the captain of the flagship and Madam Co-President. (Iƒ??m a little annoyed at how silly these women are acting.) Another woman enters his life in this installment, too ƒ?? Captain Jane Geary, his grandniece. Heƒ??d like to have an avuncular relationship with Jane, but she is reluctant (for good reason) to get too close. By watching her, Geary can see what it was like to grow up in a society thatƒ??s been at war for 100 years ƒ?? a society where her own granduncle was the warƒ??s greatest hero.

As usual for the LOST FLEET books, Relentless offers plenty of military action, epic space battles, a cool ground war, clever intelligence operations, political intrigue, interesting ethical considerations, and social commentary. As Iƒ??ve said in my past couple of reviews of the LOST FLEET books, this series could have been condensed considerably. While the plot progresses in Relentless, there is a lot of repetition and the plot uses many of the same elements weƒ??ve seen before. Important things happen, so itƒ??s a necessary installment (all of them are) but I canƒ??t help but feel that Iƒ??m being milked. Fortunately, I enjoy Black Jack Gearyƒ??s company, so the feeling isnƒ??t too aversive.

Readers who have been engrossed in the story so far and just want to hang out with Geary and the fleet will be pleased with Relentless. Iƒ??m happy, however, that the series is ending (sort of) in the next book, Victorious. (There are spin-off series that continue the story.)

Just an aside: Iƒ??m not sure whatƒ??s up with the cover art for this series. Most of the covers show Captain Geary on the ground with some kind of big weapon. These scenes never happen in the books. He doesnƒ??t carry big weapons around and his feet rarely touch the ground outside of a space ship. show less

I took a year's break between Lost Fleet #4 and #5, and maybe it's just the lag, but Relentless is the first book in the series that feels pro-forma. Geary is just a few jumps from home, but the powerful Syndicate Reserve Fleet stands between him and safety, and the fleet is desperately short of everything.

There's more sabotage in the fleet, a kind of stasis in the cold war between Geary's most trusted confidants Rione and Captain Desjani, and a thrilling space marine rescue of a prisoner of war camp. That said, the fleet actions are repeats. I think Campbell could've done something interesting here, having the Syndics pound Geary with long range missiles that he is unable to respond to because of ammo shortages, which would've been a show more chance for more character development, but sadly it's more clashing vectors.

The book ends with their arrival home, and a great set up for the final book in the series. show less

In my comments on the fourth book in this series, I said, "If Campbell doesn't get the fleet home and turn the novels in another direction, I think they will get boring soon." Well, he didn't and they did.

I likened this series to Golden Age author E. E. "Doc" Smith in their light, good guys vs. bad guys style. However, in Smith's books, while you always knew that Kimball Kinnison would beat the bad guys by the end of the book, at least it was different bad guys and Kinnison fought them in different ways...now a space battle, now an undercover operation, now some political intrigue. Campbell, however, has determined that, since Book #1 and Book #2 were successful, he should write the same stories again in Book #3, Book #4 and Book #5! show more

Formula:

1) Fleet jumps into new star system on their way home and fights space battle to avoid destruction. This occupies many, many pages of descriptions about maneuvering.

2) Saboteurs in fleet almost do what Syndics failed to do. These are the most interesting parts, but usually only a couple pages long.

3) Two women in Geary's life snipe at each other; one makes cow-eyes at him (gag!); the other employs the "hide my admiration behind sarcasm" gambit.

4) Go to Step #1 and repeat at least once more.

This formula was fine for the first couple books—I love the occasional, guilty pleasure, mind-candy books. Sometimes I'm just too tired to want to try to deal with a serious book. But, come on, a little inventiveness is expected!

I don't know if I'll bother even trying the next one. The story seems to reach a turning point at the end of this volume but, at the same time, there are hints that the new direction is really just Step #1 under a new guise. show less

First off, I’ve got to ask, what’s with these stupid series’ book covers? This is a six book series about Captain Black Jack Geary who is the commander of the Alliance Fleet – Navy – who never leaves his flagship, yet each book features a young man in full battle armor, presumably Marine battle armor, carrying a futuristic weapon in both hands, perhaps something like a pulse rifle or some such thing. Why? It has nothing to do with the books or series? Why would Geary be in battle armor or carrying a rifle of any type? He has no reason to carry any weapon, or to be in battle armor – ever. It’s simply publisher marketing department BS. Why the publisher let the marketing department run with this is beyond me, but it’s a show more flagrant example of marketing not knowing a damn thing about the product their company is selling and a good reason of why so many company divisions hate their marketing departments so much.

Anyway, this is the fifth book in Jack Campbell’s Lost Fleet series and in it, Geary is STILL trying to get the Alliance fleet through Syndic space back to Alliance space while evading Syndic fleets if at all possible. Frankly, while well written, it’s gotten a little old and it seems to me that books two through five could have been condensed quite a bit.

In this book, Geary is in a system where they find some Alliance POWs, whom they attempt to liberate, while they find out they’re being hunted by a massive reserve Syndic flotilla, which had been on the other side of the system, presumably to guard Syndic space against alien invasion, a closely guarded secret. And Geary is still facing treasonous elements within his own fleet, in this case, people willing to kill and blow up his own ships in an effort to stop him. It seems insane and it is, but he’s got to find it and stop it and them now.

Meanwhile, Geary is still dealing with the two female leads in this series, which is both interesting and at times, incredibly annoying. His flagship captain and his Alliance co-president are at each other’s throats constantly and the sniping gets old fast. Real fast. Of course, he made the mistake of taking the Co-President as a lover early on in this series, which fortunately didn’t last long, but the sexual and romantic tension between Geary and his captain, Desjani, is huge and you can’t help but root for them to one day get over their professional objections and wind up together. Perhaps in the final book….

As always, there’s a lot of action, but I still have problems with the weapons in this book and series. To think that space warships use weapons like GRAPESHOT and electric lances for close quarters combat, which would be physically impossible without blowing each other to hell by hitting each other while passing each other at incredible speeds, is an incredibly ridiculous notion. Ball bearings. In outer space. Holy shit. Seriously? Missiles? Lasers? Grazers? Plasma? Anything? Something futuristic? Not something from 18th century pirates? Please? It’s beyond stupid to think that grapeshot would be used in the, what, 25th, 30th, 35th century for space battles. That said, the tactics are always fun to read about.

This book brings a sense of near closure to the series, without going into too much detail. There’s a lot left, a lot of mystery and intrigue. If and when the fleet makes it back to Alliance space, there’s the question of how Geary will be received by the government. Will fleet elements attempt a government takeover and try to make him dictator? What about the aliens? What about Geary and Tanya? There’s a lot to cover in the final book. It’s something to look forward to. I’ve actually already read it, so I know how everything ends, but I’m not going to spoil it in this review. I still have to review the final book itself. Suffice it to say that even though there’s some redundancy in this book, it’s pretty good and worth the read – if you’re reading the series. If not, it’s not a standalone book. Start with the first one and go forward from there. Four stars. Recommended. show less

As good as other novels in 'Lost Fleet' series. Not a masterpiece, but with decent writing, fairly original setup and interesting plot. Now to the next book in this series.

Plot lines and events begin come together in Relentless. As the fleet’s loyalty to Geary grows his anonymous critics begin to take extreme measures, using malware to attempt to destroy the ships of Geary and his supporters… and their own weak links. As the captains work to find the traitors, the fleet continues through the last few jump points home, dealing with alien and Syndic threats alike. Meanwhile, Geary’s ‘dream team’ continues to work along multiple fronts. Cressida designs hypernet fale-safe software as Duellos, Desjani, Rione, and Tulev attempt to find a way to keep Geary from being arrested and silenced by the Alliance politicians, or, alternatively, a coup d'état being performed in his name once the lost fleet show more returns home.

This installation in the Lost Fleet series is fun, exciting, and packed with more battles, engagements, tactics, and ventures. show less

Jack Campbell keeps the story moving in The Lost Fleet: Relentless which has the Alliance fleet edging closer and closer to home. Campbell is back in form after a few hum-drum entries in The Lost Fleet series.

Very interestingly, Relentless actually begins with a scene that takes places 100 years prior to the start of the first book, Dauntless. That’s right; we finally get a peek at Geary’s final memories before he threw himself into an escape pod to drift alone through space for a century before finally being recovered by the Alliance. We also get to learn about Geary’s shock at waking up from suspended animation, his thoughts, his perceptions, his realization that he is not exactly in Kansas anymore. I thought it was a nice show more touch of writing and we finally learn “that much more” about Geary.

The bulk of Relentless is essentially what we’ve come to expect from the series. We’ve got space battles, fleet politics muddling things up, slightly choppy romance, and lots of philosophical discussion about politics, war, command, power, etc., in other words, nothing terribly unusual. One particular set-piece battle in the early stages of the book involves the assault and liberation of a large Syndic POW camp. Although Campbell has written some ground combat into the previous books of the series, I found this one particularly refreshing. What I enjoyed was the descriptions of the coordination between the fleet in orbit and the Marines on the ground. Apparently infantry combat has not changed in this future and the grunts fight for every meter of ground as they assault the POW camp. Concurrently, Alliance ships proceed with the orbital bombardment of certain areas and land shuttles to ferry the rescued POWs back to the ships. Campbell keeps the action clear, easy to follow, and writes it with the pacing of an action scene in a movie

In the last third of the book, we see the Alliance fleet in another desperate situation. They are seriously low on fuel and munitions, but after some careful planning, the fleet ceases to be “lost” and finally makes it back to Alliance territory. But, there’s no time to rest because the Alliance system they jumped into is under attack by a very large Syndic reserve force. I won’t spoil the ending for you, but suffice it to say that the book ends well and sets us up for the final book of the series, Victorious.

All in all, I’d say that I enjoyed Relentless and would rate the book a 4 out of 5. This puts it back on par with the first two books of the series. The writing is simple, clean, the battles are exciting, and the plot advances along with steady pacing. Thankfully, Campbell doesn’t bog us down with endless repetition of stuff we already know, like he did in the previous books. Furthermore, some discussions between characters are sort of rehashed, but it’s kept fairly short. Overall, I’d recommend Relentless to anyone already reading The Lost Fleet series. You definitely don’t want to skip this book, but that being said, if you haven’t started the series, please don’t start with this book. show less