Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #10394 in Books
• Published on: 2009-04-28
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 336 pages

Customer Reviews

prison break
fifth [of sixth] in a series of military science fiction novels involving two groups of humans called the alliance and the syndics who are in an interstellar war. when an alliance fleet is trapped in enemy space their only hope for survival is long lost legendary warrior john geary, who assumes command of the fleet and tries to get them home.

If you've not read any of this series before then go to the following review of the first volumeDauntless (The Lost Fleet, Book 1) and read that before deciding to try it. Whilst the first chapter of this volume does give new readers all the information they need to know to jump onboard you'd be better off starting at the beginning.

If you have been following this series from the start, then read on.

This latest volume runs for three hundred and twenty pages and has twelve chapters. The writing style is as before. not great literature but perfectly readable, with space battles interdispered with fleet politics and discussions on the morality and ethics of honour and warfare.

regular readers will want to know how this one progresses the story, given that it's the penultimate volume.

so, without giving any spoilers away, let's say this:

the fleet really does make some progress in this one, and what happens to them does move the story forward well and set up a finale very nicely.

the enemies within the fleet plotline is dealt with and would appear to be wrapped up satisfactorily.

geary's love triangle doesn't get much discussion. rione seemingly stays out of that picture and his relationship with tanya will clearly not be resolved till the final volume.

the aliens are still not seen but their presence is felt. A moment late on when you realise what they're up to will make you gasp.

and whilst geary does win a big battle here, he's yet to win the war.

so all in all this does a good job of moving things on and setting up the finale. a little of bit of research reveals that the lost fleet: victorious, will be out next year. with a title like that it sounds as if it should wrap it all up. and I look forward to reading it.

Good fun, things are finally progressing
Without giving any spoilers...things do start to happen in this book, the numerous in fleet issues begin to be resolved and the fleet does have some more battles and makes some more progress getting home.

I would like to say that the author is listening to feedback on the earlier books, but although there is slightly less repetition of stuff we know it is still there unfortunately, and there are still painful/dull/silly scenes with Rione and Desjani.

Having said that I get the impression the book is shorter than previous instalments and whilst things progress nothing much new is added to the plot, so I must admit I was a bit underwhelmed, even a bit disappointed.

Overall, I have to say a good fun read, nice to see progress of the fleet but at the same time I could do with a longer book and less of the silly romantic/social interactions with President Rione & Captain Desjani - they are getting a bit annoying now.

Beware speed readers!
This book, (Relentless (Lost Fleet)) like the previous four in the series, was outstanding. I cannot wait for the last book in the series to be published. Jack Campbell is an accomplished writer of space novels. His descriptions of space battles are a joy to behold. The reader can easily imagine the relative positions of every ship taking part in each fight. The characters and the relationships between characters in the books are precise and unambiguous, Mr Campbell and (one of my other favourite writers) Anne Mcaffery seem equally able to describe the foibles and intimate feelings of the populations of their books. Such is the enjoyment of this series of books that I have schooled myself to read them very slowly, my normal speed reading technique wastes the pleasure to be had from such material. The books in this series are among the very few that I can read more than once.