The Lost Fleet: Dauntless (The Lost Fleet, Book One)

The Lost Fleet: Dauntless (The Lost Fleet, Book One)
Jack Campbell, 2006

Premise: What should have been the Alliance’s greatest victory has turned to ash. What remains of the fleet is stranded in Syndicate space, out-maneuvered and out-gunned. Captain John “Black Jack” Geary is somehow suddenly in charge. Only he’s only recently been woken up from a century of hibernation, and his hopeless last stand became a galaxy-wide myth of heroism while he slept. Geary wants to rescue his people, save the fleet and the Alliance. But he’s not actually a hero of legend, just one soldier, out of his time.

You know, until I actually wrote it down, I missed the parallels with Captain America. Anyway, this is a fun military sci-fi piece with action, pathos, and some interesting world-building. The mechanic for space battles sounds like it would make sense, I don’t really care if the math works or not. The characters are interesting, although the story trips along so quick that we don’t have too much time to get to know them.

This is the first book in a series, obviously, and it does a good job with what it sets out to do. It’s not great literature, but it’s fun and well written. If you’re in the mood for pure military SF, this is a nice choice, and it was a perfect airplane book.

4 Stars - A very Good Book