Dauntless Audiobook By Jack Campbell cover art

Dauntless

Lost Fleet, Book 1

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Dauntless

By: Jack Campbell
Narrated by: Jack Campbell, Christian Rummel
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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 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 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…

©2006 John G. Hemry writing as Jack Campbell (P)2008 Audible Inc. Adventure Fiction Science Fiction Space Opera War
Engaging Space Battles • Compelling Military Strategy • Excellent Narration • Realistic Naval Elements • Well-paced Action
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Fast paced, engaging, well executed first novel in this series. It grabbed me from the very beginning.

Loved it

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Exciting story with good battle scenes. Good narration. The story kept ia good pace with good characters

Good

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decent story but nothing unusual. Pretty generic. I felt like I've read it all before.

Good but generic

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Great read. Glad the later series do not have unnecessary scenes that may not be proper for young teens. The narrator brought the book to life. Awesome performance!

Enjoyed the series

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The story is good and the book was enjoyable but it did seem like a lot of words with very little story.

Cool character

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I was looking for a new series after finishing the expanse series. This was recommended on a few websites, so I gave it a try. The story is compelling, however, the author over explains some situations to the point that it might be explained to a five-year-old. I suppose for some listeners that may make sense but for those who appreciate the genre, it is a bit over simplified. That said, I am continuing the series and hoping that it is a little less over explained in the next book in the series.

Solid start, bit over explained

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What goes around comes around never seemed a more valued sentiment. The things that we learn from mothers and fathers and from school and drill sergeants are not just things that can be packed away, or should be packed away. Genetics can only hand down so much . Our instincts need to be honed and forged . The are lessons that people need to learn and carry with them.

A Man’s book for Men

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Author fumbles the introduction, with many questionable narrative decisions, but the author’s style and tone find their footing and manage to grab your attention with an impressive level of crisp technical competence.

Excellent sense of inertia.

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I've probably listened to the lost fleet series about half a dozen times now - 10 years go by fast; but the reason I still go back to listen is that it is one of those purchases that cemented listening to audiobooks for me. And it introduced me to the many books by Jack Campbell so if you do like this series, there's a lot more of it out there.

Audiobooks win and lose by their narrator, and Christian Rummel sells this series very well. No exaggerated voice acting, but you do have unique voices for the main characters. Clear annunciations, and good at making the high points extra exciting. It is as if this story was meant to be read that way.

As to the story, that's where things get a bit hairy. From here on I'll speak abstractly about the series so if you don't like any hint of what the book is about, stop reading right now.

As a story premise, this is an excellent story. We have a hero that is awoken from hyper sleep after 100 years considered lost. Geary (the hero) was a commander in the "space navy", and had all the history and knowledge of the navy as of 100 years ago. He awakens to a very changed military that's been a war since Geary went into hyper sleep as his vessel was attacked and that attack started the war. His "old" ways are very contrary to the new ways, and this story is all about how doing things right vs. being brave gets things done. This part of the story is told well, and while it's a bit one-sided in most of the series, it's still an interesting premise (listen to the foreword of book #1 (this one) to get the authors explanation of why he choose this).

But there are a lot of problems in the story. But in a way that makes the story good too. Jack Campbell used to be in the navy, worked in intelligence and has an ocean of experience for how navy traditionally fights wars with ships. He's taken that experience and attempts to write a series about ships in space fighting wars and as a general story it's interesting, but it falls apart if you try to think about the science. Fair enough, fiction doesn't have to make sense. You'll hear accounts of solar systems where planets are several light years from the sun. To be sure, Neptune is 4 light HOURS from the sun, and the sun's gravitational pull doesn't go out even close to a light year. Jack attempts to make the speed of these ships in space about sub-lightyear speed, but his idea of how fast a ship can accelerate and particular decelerate with engines just in the rear are way out of whack with reality. Worse, one of the weapons describes are grapeshots (yeah, you know those from the days of cannons on wooden war boats). The story requires you to think that those can be shoot out of the side of a vessel hitting another vessel that is 0.1 light years distance. Or at times very close, by passing by at around 0.2 to 0.2 light years. How anything can accellerate iron/rocks that fast from 0 without crushing/burning the iron up makes no sense either. There's plenty of these kind of issues - and if it wasn't because the story was well told and interesting, it would stop me from listening. What's really cool though is reading between the lines and try to visualize water going vessels using the principles that Jack describes. Then it starts making sense. Not light speed of course, but how vessels navigate, particularly when they're in formation (a good part of the story is centered around learning and executing formations).

The story is more than just about ships flying through space shooting at each other. What sells the story is the people (military) in the books, and how they interact. There are plenty of interpersonal issues, contests/competition between folks claiming to be better, even some who have literately lost their mind and think they can run the universe on their own. One of the goals that Jack Campbell had writing this and other military books is to give the reader insights into what it means to serve in the military. And this book does that - and then some. He uses a civilian that's on the main vessel as a vehicle to explain basic military concepts (why we fight, why people aren't afraid to die etc) and at times even explain basic strategies and navigational concepts (well, this is again one of those areas that you should skim over and just take for what it is in the book). We get to see how friendships are formed, and how enemies are not all external too. It's a great description of why some people choose to serve and what drives them. And perhaps also why some of them make a life-career out of it.

There's a kind of a love story in here too - but you'll have to wait to the last book to see that come to fruition. Before that it's just talking about it.

So if you can ignore the scientific nonsense at times, it's a really good series. And there are several follow-up book series based in the same universe by the author and most of them by the same narrator. While they don't get to the level of the Lost Fleet, they're worth a listen.

Christian Rummel for the win!

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I’ve read this entire story, expanding over 10 books, enjoying every book and wanting more.

Such a great space drama

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