Dauntless (The Lost Fleet Book 1) Review

The book Dauntless is the first in Jack Campbell's (aka John G Hemry's) The Lost Fleet series. This Military SF saga depicts the story of the Alliance fleet's retreat through the territory of their enemies, trying to make it home against insurmountable odds. There is a twist however: The central character, John 'Black Jack' Geary, having spent a century in survival hibernation has been discovered by the fleet, realising that he is now the protagonist of legend and, according to the desperate sailors, the only one who can get them home safely.

The book was a brilliant introduction to the series; fast-paced, strong and developing characters and a specific writing style that blends the best of both hard and soft SF that reveal the military past of the author, Hemry having served in the US navy for some years, are all the hallmarks of this explosive introduction to what I hope is to become a great story!

The main aspects of the book that I particularly enjoyed was firstly the character construction and dialogue. Geary's character, whilst being almost invincible to one's eyes at first, is developed not only through dialogue with his closest admirers, but more specifically through internal monologue as he remembers the battle in which he took part 100 years ago that to him, feels like a matter of weeks in the past. Metaphors are repeated but without becoming tedious or lazy because they are used as a scale almost, a developmental chart that plots his progress e.g. the growing/shrinking lump of ice metaphor to depict coldness etc. (In many ways he is similar to Cheradenine Zakalwe from Use of Weapons by Iain M. Banks.)

Focusing on the dialogue, the characters' verbal exchanges are lifelike, ranging from humorous to tense. This is best seen in Geary's exchanges with his dissenters, which provide the cracks on occasion in Geary as the commander, other, mostly unlikable, sailors becoming enemies as much as the generally faceless fleet of the Syndics.

A second enjoyable part of the book is found in its lifelike battles. This is where the technical terms enter the lexicon and measurements in lightminutes/hours becomes commonplace. These are continual throughout the story alongside messages and video footage being emphasised as arriving to and from each party out of synch with real time, instead being numerous hours late, which is where the hard SF elements of explanation comes into play. However, the characters also have dialogue with less experienced characters and in them explaining similar material to internal sources, this places you in the situation almost as a fellow listener being given a lecture on the nature of interstellar war and the predicaments of physics etc. Please don't allow this to discourage you, I promise it's not difficult in any way to understand and the softer elements provide a very enjoyable bedrock to a fantastically realistic environment.

Similar language is also employed when in battle. These are some of the most exciting scenes in the story, with military strategy being detailed and explained both internally via character dialogue and externally via the 3rd person narrating voice. But Hemry also describes in enthralling imagery the destruction wrought to ships, with dithering fast- and slow-motion language; this destruction by the characters you've come to know and love with good reason, is shown in great clarity, and drives the story like a bulldozer through a small town, dragging you through every jump point in Syndic space, begging for the next chapter to come. In short a brilliant read for anyone who can!