'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). I enjoyed this quick read from Jack Campbell starring Black Jack Geary, his intrepid sidekick/wife/Lt Co. Desjani, and their struggle to bring back an alien ship to the home base, despite the fact that some of the wormholes appear to be collapsing.

1. Jack Campbell Actor
2. Black Jack Geary Series
3. Jack Campbell Black Jack Geary Lyrics

Legendary war hero Captain “Black Jack” Geary fights to stay ahead of his enemies in the fourth novel in Jack Campbell’s New York Times bestselling military science fiction series. Deep within Syndicate World space, the Alliance fleet continues.

Jack Campbell Actor

The Lost Fleet: Dauntless is a science fiction novel by American writer Jack Campbell, the first in his The Lost Fleet series, published in 2006. Dauntless sets the stage for the six novel saga about a fleet of over 200 ships trapped deep behind enemy lines and cut off from traveling to their home territory.

Plot summary[edit]

John 'Black Jack' Geary has recently been rescued from a 100-year-old escape pod with a damaged beacon. He was the commanding officer of an early battle in what has become a century-old war between the Syndicate Worlds and the Alliance. His last actions in that battle led to his immortalization as a hero of the Alliance people and fleet, which by the time of the book has become blown out of proportion.

Still feeling weak from being frozen for 100 years, Geary arrives at what is supposed to be a decisive battle for the Alliance against the Syndicate. The battle turns out to be a trap and as the leaders of the fleet board a shuttle to negotiate surrender, the Admiral calls on Geary to lead the fleet if anything should happen to him. Geary, assuming that the old laws of war still apply and that nothing ill would happen to his leaders, accepts. Mere hours later after the Admiral is executed, he finds himself in command of 200 ships that have been badly beaten and are cut off from retreat.

Having been frozen while the hypernet technology was invented Geary realizes that while the faster hypernet gates are blocked, the Syndicate ships have left the old jump points unguarded. Geary commands his ships to feint then run for those jump points. In the process he loses a ship commanded by his great nephew who stayed behind to buy time for the fleet to jump.

After the first jump, Geary has to establish command over people who naturally assume they should be leading the fleet. With the last one hundred years of war having been one of severe attrition, few of the officers and crew surviving under him have any experience with tactics or chain of command. The whole fleet is run as a democracy with captains vying for votes in the decision-making process. Geary abolishes this practice and exerts his authority and in the end creates enemies within his own fleet.

Despite all of this he manages to teach a majority of the fleet how to fight in complicated but powerful formations, how to respect authority and how to use the jump point system of travel. Cut off from the hypernet and on the run, Geary still manages to win victories against the Syndicates who are in pursuit. Decisively winning battle after battle Geary gains the trust and adoration of many of his subordinates, and angers his enemies.

The story ends with the fleet still on the run, but working ever closer to home while evading and confronting the enemy as needed.

Sources[edit]

• Campbell, Jack (2006). The Lost Fleet: Dauntless. New York: Ace Books. p. 304. ISBN0441014186.

External links[edit]

• Review by Harriet Klausner
• Dauntless at LibraryThing

Black Jack Geary Series

The Lost Fleet: Fearless is a science fiction nobel by American writer Jack Campbell, published in 2007. It is the second book in The Lost Fleet series.

Plot summary[edit]

This is the second book in the Lost Fleet series that follows the adventures of Black Jack Geary.This novel begins with Geary and the fleet arriving in the Sutrah system. Disobeying orders, four of the ships of the Alliance Fleet break formation and blindly charge after a pair of obsolete Syndic ships, not knowing that a minefield trap had been laid. Despite Geary's attempt to recall them, the ships fly right into the mine field. During a meeting after the incident, Geary is indirectly accused of cowardice because of the incident by officers such as Captains Numos and Faresa who still oppose and resent his command of the fleet. As the Allied Fleet is planning to raid the system for resources, it is discovered that there is a prison colony on one of the planets containing Alliance prisoners of war. Upon liberating the POWs, it is discovered that among them is a former hero of the Alliance, Captain Falco, who believes he and not Geary should command the fleet, and who has secret allies among the officers under Geary's command.

Tensions quickly rise between Geary and Falco when Falco attempts to use his political muscle to assume command of the fleet; first, by advocating a return to the inhumane policies of the war upheld before Geary's return during a private and uninvited conference, and then by attempting to work with other officers to undermine Geary's authority. When that fails, Falco manages to escape the flagship Dauntless and travel to the battleship Warrior, captained by the inept and timid Captain Kerestes, who is all but replaced as commander by Falco. Falco then rallies support with other fleet captains still resentful of Geary and leads a 39-ship strong mutiny, taking a direct path back to Alliance space that Geary has already evaluated as a suicide run, as Syndic forces will eventually concentrate overwhelming forces against them.

With the fleet divided, Geary takes the loyalist bulk of the fleet to the Syndic industrial hub of Sancere; having a hypernet gate, he correctly assumes that Syndic forces will not defend the system as they assess the Alliance fleet would not risk a raid into a Syndic stronghold even deeper in Syndic space. Finding the system defended only by ships under repair or in training, Geary despatches a strike force led by Furious that draws the main forces off and then crushes them as the rest of the fleet makes a dash for the hypernet gate, destroying military and industrial targets along the way.

However, he discovers that the hypernet gate has the potential if destroyed to released a nova-sized energy blast that would destroy all life in Sancere and the fleet as well. His worst fears are realised when Syndicate guard units fire on the gate, causing it to fail. Left with no other options, Geary elects to evacuate the fleet to relative safety in-system while a select few ships including Dauntless remain at the gate to implement an experimental counterforce bombardment to neutralise the destructive chain reaction devised by Commander Cresida. The bombardment works; the ships sustain damage from the event but its force is massively reduced and not a single vessel or life is lost.

After raids on food warehouses by the Alliance marine detachment, in which they combat special forces and secure additional supplies, and the conclusion of repairs, the fleet exits to Ilion where Geary has determined that any survivors from Falco's doomed charge will seek to retreat from the Syndic forces pursuing them. He is proved correct; but levels the playing field by mining the jump point once the survivors arrive. Warrior and a third of the mutineers arrive at Ilion; Geary and Desjani are further angered when the battleships Warrior, Orion and Majestic leave their lighter comrades to seek shelter in the fleet first.

The Syndic pursuers arrive and are taken by complete surprise; despite numerical superiority, Geary again uses his knowledge of lost combat tactics to completely rout the attacking force. However, tragedy strikes when the battle cruiser Terrible is obliterated in a near-lightspeed collision with a Syndic battle cruiser and the mutinying ship Invincible has to be scuttled due to battle damage.

Falco, Numos, Faresa and Kerestes are given a chance to defend themselves during the post-battle conference; however, as predicted by Duellos, Falco has lost all sense of reality, believing himself to first be commander of the fleet and then attempting to address the Alliance senate; clearly unfit for command or trial, he is confined to his cabin and Numos, Faresa and Kerestes are arrested for mutiny despite Geary nearly succumbing to his 'Black Jack' persona and ordering summary executions, and the fleet moves on to Baldur.

External links[edit]

• The Lost Fleet: Fearless at LibraryThing

Jack Campbell Black Jack Geary Lyrics