Space Opera Fans discussion

Greetings Space Opera Fans!

Are you all up for a little hardcore military space opera? If so, you're in luck, because our READER PICK for March is Dauntless by Jack Campbell.



"Captain John “Black Jack” Geary’s legendary 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 from survival hibernation and reluctantly takes command of the Alliance Fleet as it faces annihilation by the Syndic.

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..."

Are you reading Dauntless? If so, shout it out in the thread below, discuss it to your heart's content, and drop in links to your reviews once you are done. Just be kind and use the SPOILER .html so you don't ruin the fun for somebody who is not as far along as you are!

Be epic!

Anna Erishkigal
SOF Borg Queen

Good military space opera. Very detailed battle sequences plotted strategically incorporating relativity. Couldn't completely remember what a "hell lance" did exactly, it's probably detailed but my mind perceived it as a beam weapon of some sort. (Hell-Lance)
Overall, very solid book that compelled me to continue reading the rest of the series. This first Book Dauntless was my a favorite when I completed them.

A good, but not great military sci-fi novel. Unfortunately I spotted rather a lot of typos, which is surprising as this is very well known book.

I picked up Dauntless at the beginning of February. It had been recommended to me a while back, and by luck I managed to show up to my used bookstore right after someone had traded in the first 3 books of the series.

In short, I stayed up way too late that night and ended up finishing Dauntless in two nights. Badly quoting a tagline from one of the covers: Campbell has written the Horatio Hornblower of space opera.

I recommend this book to anyone who's on the fence about whether or not to read Dauntless. It's not a perfect book/series, but I thoroughly enjoyed it (started book 5 last night!).

Colin wrote: "Badly quoting a tagline from one of the covers: Campbell has written the Horatio Hornblower of space opera."

Hmmm.. I thought that was Honor Harrington :) Have this one on audible so I will be reading/listening to it this month.

Started it today, I've had it and most the series for quite a while. I picked them up at my local used book shop.

Since I'm the one who nominated it I'd better read it as well :)
I'll start sometime this week

I really enjoyed it. Was it great? No. Was it an enjoyable series? Yes. I'd actually read more, but the sub series branches off into a story line I don't really fancy.

I read this a few years ago and really enjoyed it. I think it was the best of the series. I read about five more in the series and then got bored. It became very repetitive.

I like Jack Campbell's stuff, but I agree you can only read so many military sci-fi novels back-to-back before it gets repetitive ... usually doesn't matter WHO writes it ... unless there's also a heavy character-centric focus.

Of course ... you can do what -I- do, which is read a sci-fi novel, read a fantasy novel, read something non-fiction, read a candy-corn Harlequin romance (pure mind-dead smut), and then it's time to start all over :-)

As soon as I marked this to as 'to read' a friend told me how much he'd enjoyed it!

This is a fun series for all who enjoy military sci-fi action. This is the first in a series of now 10 books and is quick enjoyable read. It does get a little bogged down in the middle of the first group (6 books) but it does have a good satisfying ending. The second group is a little less tied together and this is both good and not so good. Still going to pick up the 11th book when it comes out later this year.

Already read it. It took me a while to get through it. He has some obsession with how light works. To me it felt like Campbell just figured out that what you see isn't happening instantaneous, rather it's delayed by the speed of light. It felt like he talked about the light delay every other paragraph. It would have been passable if he mentioned the light delay phenomenon every other chapter, but he did it way too much and killed an otherwise all right space adventure book.

The battles in it were really cool and I really wanted to like the book; but his obsession with light delay is ridiculous.

Jonathan wrote: "Already read it. It took me a while to get through it. He has some obsession with how light works. To me it felt like Campbell just figured out that what you see isn't happening instantaneous, rath..."

What has been read cannot be unread! lol. Hopefully I can bypass that. So far I think it's been a good book.

John wrote: "Jonathan wrote: "Already read it. It took me a while to get through it. He has some obsession with how light works. To me it felt like Campbell just figured out that what you see isn't happening in..."

This is why I should not read this until I have finished, I am enjoying it so far but I am going to have to block out any thoughts about light delay now to stop it from working its way into my psyche.

Just finished it. I didn't mind the reminders about the light speed limitations, but I did find it weird that we apparently still rely on voice-com to relay orders and timing in the far future.

There's a fair few typos and editing errors in my edition.

My biggest issue was the conversations. Twenty-thirty lines of dialog gets confusing when only first two has any indication of who's speaking. Mix in a first-person narrayor and it becomes outright Maze like

Christian wrote: "My biggest issue was the conversations. Twenty-thirty lines of dialog gets confusing when only first two has any indication of who's speaking. Mix in a first-person narrayor and it becomes outright Maze like "

I noticed that too. I didn't mind it so much when there were only two people though. I've seen at least another book do that same thing. I have the other books I may go through them quickly to see if they do the same thing.

I read this about a year or so ago and enjoyed it, but I am new to the genre and still undecided as to how much of an investment I want to make in this series. What do people think of the next couple of books?

The Lost Fleet with spin off is my favorite series.
I like how space battles are describe and I listen to books so didn't mind the repetition of facts (for me it's not too much).

The teleconference thing really annoyed me as well. Especially since we have the technology already. Not as sophisticated, I'll grant you that, but still advanced enough that we know what it is.

I've read the entire series. Great writing it's not. It is just plain good old pulp fiction and sits squarely in the military scifi genre. I enjoyed it and do recommend it, but if military scifi isn't your interest, it may not be for you.

Exactly my feeling Steve. It is easy reading and I enjoyed it quite well. As a result of this series I spend some weeks in the military sci-fi: Reread Old men's war, the Star Marines and Star Carries from Ian Douglas.

Christian wrote: "The teleconference thing really annoyed me as well. Especially since we have the technology already. Not as sophisticated, I'll grant you that, but still advanced enough that we know what it is."

I kept thinking about the AT&T conference center. The company I worked at got that cool videoconference thing a few months before I read that book so that's all I could picture.

Thought it was a good series, but I actually liked the spin off "The Lost Stars" a little more. It was a good mix of ground and space battles.

Just finished this and I quite enjoyed it, I have to admit I was hooked in from the name alone. Black Jack Geary, that is a really great name and the rest of the book appealed to my anal retentive game playing needs of hoarding, building and inspecting all of the ships in my fleet. I am going to keep on plowing through the rest of the stories now and I suppose that is compliment enough.

I liked Dauntless (#1) and Fearless (#2). I appreciated them most for their focus on management, exploring the psychology and realities of leadership and teamwork in difficult situations, large organizations. It's a naval procedural novel. The personal details (internal and inter-personal) kept it from being too dry, but often the action keeps focus. I liked his elements of realistic (including time/light) hard science fiction. Some of his speculations were unexpected and creative, and I'll consider them when I read other sci-fi. I might try book #4 some day, but book #3, Courageous, burnt me out.

The writing felt narrowly constrained in #1 and #2, but his looser style in #3 suggests that the narrow path seems to be part of what made #1 and #2 work. In all the books, I felt the protagonist's internal monologue should have been more adventurously written as dialogue. In #3 especially, I was frustrated by reading paragraphs of Jack's passive, self-questioning, internal italics - when he should have been engaging the other characters.

From the beginning of Courageous, I felt let down by the author's sloppier writing, and what seemed like uncharacteristically poor decisions of the protagonist.

I finished this one on the weekend and enjoyed it enough to put the rest of the series on my 'To Read' list. The obsession with light delay didn't bother me much as it was a key point in the battle scenes. I did find it unlikely that the coordination and timing of tactical commands would be done by human voice, rather than calculated and issued by computers.

Frankly, if you really look at it the entire premise is ludicrous. The idea that Jack, a junior officer who has served his entire career in a peacetime navy and who has seen combat exactly once, is somehow capable of directing an entire fleet much better than officers who has seen almost constant combat since the day the left school just doesn't make sense.
Similarly, the idea that all sides has degenerated to the point of Zerg rushing is just as bad.

@Christian - so is the idea that Luke Skywalker would be the only person to take the shot to take down the Death Star :-) But yeah, it -is- ludicrous... At least in a film like Independence Day, Will Smith's character is an experienced pilot (and ironically it's the crazy old drunken crop-duster who takes down the ship).

Although, on the other hand, in a military which moves in 4-year-stints, a 26-year-old who was inducted into the military at 18 and who had served ACTIVE duty in a combat zone might very well have the experience to step in and lead a fleet if necessity provoked it. Not the situation here, but age, alone, is not the determining factor, but experience in battle, training and courage.

Christian wrote: "Frankly, if you really look at it the entire premise is ludicrous. The idea that Jack, a junior officer who has served his entire career in a peacetime navy and who has seen combat exactly once, is..."

Yeah, that's my problem with 'Enders Game' too.

Anna wrote: "@Christian - so is the idea that Luke Skywalker would be the only person to take the shot to take down the Death Star :-) But yeah, it -is- ludicrous... At least in a film like Independence Day, ..."
Star Wars gets a pass from me because it plays the whole The Chosen One thing to the hilt and he's got magic on his side.
Campbell on the other hand, goes out of his way to explain that Jack isn't the Chosen One, despite what the other characters might think.

AndrewP wrote: "I finished this one on the weekend and enjoyed it enough to put the rest of the series on my 'To Read' list. The obsession with light delay didn't bother me much as it was a key point in the battle..."

You do have a point with that being unlikely. However, that part of sci-fi books never bothers me, probably from being raised on Star Trek. As there is literally no situation where a Captain of a naval ship would leave the helm to go shoreside to fight hand to hand, that I like Star Trek anyway, because of that, I have to give storytelling quirks (like a human saying all the commands) its due.

AndrewP wrote: "Christian wrote: "Frankly, if you really look at it the entire premise is ludicrous. The idea that Jack, a junior officer who has served his entire career in a peacetime navy and who has seen comba..."

But Ender is genius's genius.

Christian wrote: "Frankly, if you really look at it the entire premise is ludicrous. The idea that Jack, a junior officer who has served his entire career in a peacetime navy and who has seen combat exactly once, is somehow capable of directing an entire fleet much better..."

While I'm not a fan of the book, the thinking Campbell had was probably someone with so little experience taking over would add to the drama. You immediately think this person can't do it and then are excited and awed when he can. If you don't feel those feelings then the writing doesn't resonate with you, but it's still probably the reason why he choose that specific premise.

With the people so young and no one having time to train them properly I could understand how the training was lost.

As for the rushing in, they thought it was a part of Black Jack's teaching. So it was kind of instilled in them from, well, birth.

Jonathan wrote: "You do have a point with that being unlikely. However, that part of sci-fi books never bothers me, probably from being raised on Star Trek. As there is literally no situation where a Captain of a naval ship would leave the helm to go shoreside to fight hand to hand, that I like Star Trek anyway, because of that, I have to give storytelling quirks (like a human saying all the commands) its due. "

It's unlikely, but it didn't detract from my enjoyment of the book :)

I think Star Trek follows from the naval tradition of books like Hornblower and Jack Aubrey. The senior officers get all the action and the rest of the crew are just in the background.

John wrote: "With the people so young and no one having time to train them properly I could understand how the training was lost.

As for the rushing in, they thought it was a part of Black Jack's teaching. ..."

The series has the same issue as most of the frankly dreadful YA dystopia that's been coming out recently.
The setting might make sense in the here and now, but there's no way, reasonable or otherwise, to get from here to there. Yes, it makes sense that someone who has had formal training and ten(?) years of service will do better than someone who has been thrown in the deep end. But how did they get into that situation? We've seen wars here on earth that killed the better part of a generation, but we still managed to adapt, survive and improve.

On Earth communication is quick, adaptation is quick because of that.

In the book they also state that they've actually looked at all these maneuvers, but no one had known how to use them correctly. Geary had time to use them, and at least practice them before the war broke out.

One reason I didn't object to the obvious flaw of relying on Black Jack to save the universe all by himself, is that in this book, he didn't believe it himself. He knew he was no superman hero but also knew he had to somehow try because there wasn't any option.

In later books, I think he began to buy into the hype and he became less attractive.

For anyone who hasn't picked up a copy of this yet, the e-book just went on sale at Amazon and most other retailers ($1.99) http://amzn.com/B000OZ0NXU until 4/12.

I enjoyed this series, but I would call it good and not great. The battle scenes are fantastic (and really the main reason to read the books) but I thought the characters were a little flat. I'd definitely recommend it though. I haven't picked up the sequel series yet.

Read all sequels and found them consistently good to outstanding. Strong male/female characters that aren't hung up with politically correct sexist bashing. Stories aren't bogged down with extraneously long character histories - very plot driven. Very few contrived situations.
Author actually answers emails regarding typos or other mistakes.

I'm just scooting this down to the 'Previous BOTM' folder ... you guys can continue discussing this if you like (i.e., the thread is still open). I just have to move it down to make way for the new ones.