Dauntless - Book Review

When I was walking through the Sci-Fi/Fantasy section of Barnes and Nobles the other day, I ran into a very large problem — the shelves were overloaded with fantasy novels.

Now don’t get me wrong, I love fantasy as much as the next guy, but I was really in the mood for some good old fashioned Space Opera. So, on a whim, I picked up the only space opera looking book on the shelves, which was Dauntless, the first novel of The Lost Fleet series by Jack Campbell. And yes, I’m aware that The Lost Fleet is really Military SF, not Space Opera, but tomato tomāto.

A basic introduction to Dauntless goes something like this; Black Jack Geary is a war hero of the Alliance, a massive, and apparently democratic, Galaxy-Spanning civilization, who has been presumed dead — for the past hundred years. However, he’s just been woken up from his cryogenic escape pod, only to find out that the Alliance’s war with the Syndics - a large, Galaxy spanning civilization with an equally large fascist streak - has devolved into a brutal stalemate. It’s also worth noting that the Syndics are human (something that isn’t explicitly stated until later in the novel), so there are no aliens in Campbell’s series — yet.

The novel itself begins in medias res, with Geary assuming command of the badly damaged Alliance fleet after a failed attack on the Syndic home system, and he almost immediately runs into problems. Geary has become a mythological figure, the brave commander who singe-handedly scored the Alliance’s greatest victory against the Syndic fleet. Geary, however, is nothing more than a human who managed to get very lucky. So, he’s faced with a quandary. He must remind his underlings that he is nothing more than human, while also inspiring confidence in his commanders. Geary has also found that the Fleet that existed in his day is no more — both sides have suffered devastating losses, and the culture of the Fleet has changed, along with its protocols. This leads to Geary going through a very interesting character arc, but it’s the only one that actually stands out.

The novel really focuses in on Geary, and as a result, he’s the only character we see grow. That’s not to say that there aren’t other character arcs in the novel, but they aren’t nearly as noteworthy or eye-catching as Geary’s. Part of the reason for this is that the novel is fairly short. But it’s still unfortunate that Campbell didn’t give us more about the other characters in his universe. However, Geary’s arc is interesting enough that I was still engaged throughout the whole novel.

The writing is also very good. Military SF generally has a terse feel that I don’t care for, but that doesn’t really come through in Campbell’s novel. The writing feels fluid and clear, but there are some bumpy chunks of exposition that I very much dislike. These aren’t bad enough to be a dealbreaker, but they are very jarring to read.

Additionally, Campbell (whose real name is John G. Hermy, a former Navy Officer), has gone through the trouble of incorporating actual science into his work — something I find very admirable. There’s a time delay in communications due to the distances between ships, and the laws of physics and gravity still very much apply. Campbell has also developed realistic battle tactics for his spaceships to use — something I assume his career in the Navy helped with. The battles are engaging, three-dimensional affairs. It’s clear that Campbell put a lot of thought into these battles, and I have to say that it paid off.

I’ve very much enjoyed Dauntless, and I think I’ll have to give the other books in the series a try. They’re also fairly cheap, so if you want to pick all of them up in one go, then you’re more than welcome to do that. While the novel will primarily appeal to lovers of the Military SF genre, it will also appeal to anyone who’s in the mood for a good bit of science fiction.

4/5 stars.