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![The Lost Fleet: Dauntless by [Jack Campbell]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51p-qaYLuvL._SY346_.jpg)
The Lost Fleet: Dauntless Kindle Edition
Jack Campbell (Author) Find all the books, read about the author, and more. See search results for this author |
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The Alliance has been fighting the Syndics for a century—and losing badly. Now its fleet is crippled and stranded in enemy territory. Their only hope is a man who's emerged from a century-long hibernation to find he has been heroically idealized beyond belief....
Captain John “Black Jack” Geary’s exploits are known to every schoolchild. Revered for his heroic “last stand” in the early days of the war, he was presumed dead. But a century later, Geary miraculously returns and reluctantly takes command of the Alliance Fleet as it faces annihilation by the Syndics.
Appalled by the hero-worship around him, Geary is nevertheless a man who will do his duty. And he knows that bringing the stolen Syndic hypernet key safely home is the Alliance’s one chance to win the war. But to do that, Geary will have to live up to the impossibly heroic “Black Jack” legend....
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherAce
- Publication dateJune 27, 2006
- Reading age18 years and up
- File size1925 KB
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Editorial Reviews
About the Author
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Geary grimaced, wanting to yell at Bloch, tell the admiral that the man he wanted to leave in charge of the fleet wasn’t the man actually standing here, that such a person had never existed.
He finally just nodded slowly. “Aye, aye, sir.”
“We’re trapped. This fleet is the Alliance’s last hope.” Bloch leaned close, speaking more softly. “Dauntless has the key onboard. Do you understand? This ship must get home. Somehow. The hypernet key must get back to the Alliance. If we can do that there’ll still be a chance.”
It wasn’t like Geary would be in charge forever. Bloch would negotiate with the Syndics, then return and be back in command. Geary would never have to learn any details about some “key” on the Dauntless that somehow related to a method of traveling between the stars, which was much more rapid than even the system-jump faster-than-light transportation used in Geary’s time.
“Yes, sir . . . ” --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.
Review
“Jack Campbell has written the most believable space battles I’ve ever seen anywhere—David Sherman, coauthor of the Starfist series
“The Lost Fleet is some of the best military science fiction on the shelves today.”—SF Site
“Fast-paced and enjoyable.”—SFRevu
“Will grip the audience...Black Jack is a fascinating hero.”—Alternative Worlds --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.
Product details
- ASIN : B000OZ0NXU
- Publisher : Ace; Reissue edition (June 27, 2006)
- Publication date : June 27, 2006
- Language : English
- File size : 1925 KB
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Print length : 306 pages
- Lending : Not Enabled
- Best Sellers Rank: #70,467 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

"Jack Campbell" is the pseudonym for John G. Hemry, a retired Naval officer (and graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis). As Jack Campbell, he writes The Lost Fleet series of military science fiction novels, as well as the Beyond the Frontier continuation of The Lost Fleet, and The Lost Stars series (a spin-off of The Lost Fleet). He has also written the Stark's War series and the Sinclair/"JAG in space" series, and has written many shorter stories featuring space opera, fantasy, time travel, and alternate history. Many of these stories can be found in the three Jack Campbell ebook anthologies. He lives with his wife (the Indomitable S) and three children (two of whom are autistic) in Maryland.
Customer reviews
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I'm not sure what I love so much about John's books. It must have a lot to do with his characters: I really like them. They are true heroes, but not so heroic or amazing that you can't believe in them. They still have a sense of humility and humor. His worlds are highly consistent and interesting. And he has a respect for and a belief that life is more than just atoms in random motion, without being pushy or really preachy about it.
Thank you John. I've greatly loved the worlds you've made, and I will continue to read and re-read your work. I've greatly enjoyed it.
I'm glad I did!
This book is one of the few books thus far that covers realistic physics-based combat in space, specifically accounting for the fast distances that ships would necessarily have to travel and fight in. It's fascinating and well worth the read. The characters themselves are decently written, and a few surprises await the reader.
WELL worth the read! Excuse me, I'm on my way to get the next one in the series. :)
Top reviews from other countries

His charaters are real people and they are stuck in a no-hope situation, for which there is a solution, but those under Geary's command have long ago forgotten how to apply it, after years and years of endless war.
Commander 'Black Jack' Geary was escorting some Alliance merchant ships through a disputed corridor when they were attacked without warning by Syndicated Worlds warships. Geary's ships beat the Syndics off. but in the process, his ship was all but destroyed. Geary saw his surviving crew off the ship before taking the least available, but damaged, survival pod .... and there he stayed for the next hundred years in cryogenic suspension, till a fleet of Alliance warships came tghrough on a mission to destroy the Syndic Fleet stationed off the Syndic homeworld. As the saying goes, plans don't survive the first encounter with the enemy and in this case, things go seriously awry when it becomes obvious that the Alliance fleet has walked into a trap. Expecting to be away only a short while, the Fleet Admiral passed command to Geary, as the most senior, but non-essential officer. (he was promoted 'postumously' but his senority still predates anybody else's by nearly a century), When the Admiral is apparently executed by the Syndics it is up to Geary to get the Fleet home, with 'Dauntless' as his flagship.

Its a good read, entertaining, but nothing really wows you. And the full story arc is across 4-5 books so you really are just reading part 1 of a longer story. So 4 stars, not 5.


Both navies have been fighting for all of that hundred years and are essentially in a stalemate. Tactics on both sides amount to scream and charge, and in general die. Esprit de Corps is surprisingly high - but training, tactics and strategy are low.
Geary remembers a time before the war when fleets practised manoeuvres and won by skill rather than brute force. Under his leadership the fleet does rather better than the performance common in recent years. And his task is to return to the Alliance worlds with his fleet intact - by cunning and skill he looks like he might achieve this, possibly even in Book 2...

Following the assassination of the Admiral of the Fleet by the evil Syndics, Jack is forced to take command and lead the fleet back home, if only to hand over the secret of the hypernet key (a McGuffin which may mean the difference between winning the war and losing it).
Is it Science Fiction? Well, to be fair, Campbell has a half-hearted poke, rather than a stab at relativistic effects and hyperspatial jumps. There are `Doc' Smith-esque weapons installed on the ship which can destroy entire planets if necessary, but on the whole Campbell tiptoes quietly around the science, hoping that we won't notice.
Having said that, he makes a very decent fist of the space battles and the problems inherent in dealing with communication, time-delay and trying to find out what the enemy fleet is doing when both groups are travelling at fractions of light speed and the width of a solar system apart.
Normally, so I believe, Campbell writes standard war-fiction under the name of John G Hemry, and so things begin to make sense.
Substitute the space-ships for sea ships, the Syndics for Nazis or Japanese, and the planets for islands, and you'd have a passable WWII drama. Add the secret that might win the war for decent English/American democracy and you get your fleet into a race against time to get the secret back home.
Astoundingly, despite the rather cardboard characters and the Boys Own plot, it's a very readable book. Granted, it's not going to win the Booker Prize or (God Forbid) The Hugo Award, but it's a novel that doesn't pretend to be anything more than it is. Pulp Fiction.
Be warned though. There's another five novels in the series. I suspect the fleet may be lost for some considerable time. Dependent on your point of view this will be either marvellous news, or not. I have to say I'm kind of looking forward to it.