Dauntless

Review

So I think I'm going to give up on a book which I do pretty rarely. The Lost Fleet: Dauntless by Jack Campbell is a book I picked up on sale on Audible at some point, it had positive reviews and conceptually it sounded pretty good. It's about a fleet trapped behind enemy lines trying to make it home, very BSG/Homeworld of it and I like those things. So there is an author's introduction and he says in it that he wanted to write a "long retreat" story and also liked the whole myth of a hero dying and returning to save everyone. Okay, those are fine goals. The problem is the method in which he sets them up is the most fucking tortuous thing I've ever seen. The first chapter of the book is a series of unreal stupid events one after another. Then there is the problem that a lot of stuff doesn't make sense. Campbell does a good job of explaining these as he goes along. The problem is that the each explanation is stupid. On top of all this Campbell is an ex-Navy officer and one of the core themes is "good Navy man good! lax discipline and bureaucrats bad!" The evil alien race is evil because they're bureaucratic. Basically, this book is fucking terrible. I think if I'd not heard the author's intro or hadn't though much about the book it would be fine. As it stands it's soooooo bad. I mentioned this to a friend and he said he tried a Campbell book to much the same result.

Consumption history1

1. Aug 17, 2014

   Dropped★ 1 / 5

   physical