Kari C. reviewed on + 77 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
Review: Campbell has a very interesting idea for this series. Two human empires (The Alliance and The Syndics) have been at war for almost a century now. For most of that century neither side has been able to push things out of a stalemate. At the same time a century of war has drained the Alliance of resources, especially trained personnel. Officers in the Navy keep getting promoted because there's no one else to do the job. This has resulted in an under trained military, with no idea of military discipline and a tendency to make decisions (even in battle) by committee.
However, an opportunity has come along - a Syndic traitor has (literally) handed the Alliance the keys to the Syndic home world. The Alliance pulls together a fleet and heads out to finish the war. Their path in takes them through areas of space that haven't been traveled much since the beginning of the war. They stumble across an old rescue pod that is still active. Inside the find Captain John "Black Jack" Geary still in cryosleep. Black Jack was an early hero in the war, believed to have died in battle a century ago. When he's awakened he finds himself surrounded by an entire fleet of people with a serious case of Hero worship. While he's still trying to adjust to his new life the fleet enters space around the Syndic home world - just to find out it was a trap. Black Jack winds up in charge of the entire fleet (due to seniority - it's hard to been someone that's been Captain for 100 years) and has to try to get everyone safely home.
Unfortunately almost everything up above happens before the beginning of the book. It could have been a better book if it has started a bit early and incorporated some of that into actually story instead of background.
Despite the interesting ideas that Campbell has, the story isn't told well at well. In fact the writing gets a bit repetitive - Black Jack sits around feeling sorry for himself, getting annoyed at people for their hero-worship, worrying about the fact that there's no way to accomplish his goals without either sacrificing some of his people or killing some of the enemy, and horrified at the incompetence and bloodthirstiness of the modern navy. The the captain of the ship that he's on will do something to show her hero-worship, followed by an expression of bafflement that he doesn't want to kill all of the enemy in sight and burn and salt their fields. Then a representative of an allied government on the ship will come up, ask Black Jack what his plans are and make it clear that she doesn't trust him to do anything intelligent because he's a Hero and Hero's get people killed. Repeat until the end of the book. It gets very annoying by the 4th or 5th time through the cycle, especially when there's no character development at all.
Review: Campbell has a very interesting idea for this series. Two human empires (The Alliance and The Syndics) have been at war for almost a century now. For most of that century neither side has been able to push things out of a stalemate. At the same time a century of war has drained the Alliance of resources, especially trained personnel. Officers in the Navy keep getting promoted because there's no one else to do the job. This has resulted in an under trained military, with no idea of military discipline and a tendency to make decisions (even in battle) by committee.
However, an opportunity has come along - a Syndic traitor has (literally) handed the Alliance the keys to the Syndic home world. The Alliance pulls together a fleet and heads out to finish the war. Their path in takes them through areas of space that haven't been traveled much since the beginning of the war. They stumble across an old rescue pod that is still active. Inside the find Captain John "Black Jack" Geary still in cryosleep. Black Jack was an early hero in the war, believed to have died in battle a century ago. When he's awakened he finds himself surrounded by an entire fleet of people with a serious case of Hero worship. While he's still trying to adjust to his new life the fleet enters space around the Syndic home world - just to find out it was a trap. Black Jack winds up in charge of the entire fleet (due to seniority - it's hard to been someone that's been Captain for 100 years) and has to try to get everyone safely home.
Unfortunately almost everything up above happens before the beginning of the book. It could have been a better book if it has started a bit early and incorporated some of that into actually story instead of background.
Despite the interesting ideas that Campbell has, the story isn't told well at well. In fact the writing gets a bit repetitive - Black Jack sits around feeling sorry for himself, getting annoyed at people for their hero-worship, worrying about the fact that there's no way to accomplish his goals without either sacrificing some of his people or killing some of the enemy, and horrified at the incompetence and bloodthirstiness of the modern navy. The the captain of the ship that he's on will do something to show her hero-worship, followed by an expression of bafflement that he doesn't want to kill all of the enemy in sight and burn and salt their fields. Then a representative of an allied government on the ship will come up, ask Black Jack what his plans are and make it clear that she doesn't trust him to do anything intelligent because he's a Hero and Hero's get people killed. Repeat until the end of the book. It gets very annoying by the 4th or 5th time through the cycle, especially when there's no character development at all.
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