Military science fiction novel series by John G. Hemry
The Lost Fleet is a military science fiction series written by John G. Hemry under the pen name Jack Campbell. The series is set one-hundred-plus years into an interstellar war between two different human cultures, the Alliance and the Syndicate. The protagonist of the story is discovered floating in a suspended animation escape pod one hundred years after he made a "heroic last stand" against an enemy fleet. In his absence, he has been made into a renowned hero in the Alliance, but his legend and actions are used to justify poor tactics and decisions. Awakened after being discovered during a secret mission that turns out to be an enemy trap, he is suddenly dropped into the role of fleet commander and expected to live up to the legend that has grown around him.
The initial series begun with "Dauntless" in 2006 ended with "Victorious" in 2010. The author, however, has continued the "Lost Fleet" series with three spin-offs: "Beyond the Frontier", focusing on the main characters from the Lost Fleet; "The Lost Stars", focusing on the Syndicate Worlds; "Outlands", picking up where "Leviathan" leaves off; as well as a prequel series, "The Genesis Fleet".
Novels.
This is the main book series. It has been published first.
Sequel of the main series.
The second sequel series. This is the most recent work of the author.
Spin-off series.
This is a prequel trilogy written after the main series was finished.
Plot summary.
The Lost Fleet.
The Alliance has been fighting the Syndicate Worlds (a union of planets under a tyrannical, corporate-like government) for a century. After obtaining a "hypernet key" from a Syndic traitor, they send a large fleet through a hypernet gate to directly attack the Syndic home-world, but are ambushed by overwhelming Syndic forces.
During the approach to the Syndic home-world, the fleet discovers the escape pod of Captain John Geary in an abandoned star system. Known as "Black Jack" in the present, his legendary exploits are taught to every schoolchild and he is revered for his heroic last stand in the early days of the war. The Black Jack Geary legend includes the expectation that one day he will return from the dead to lead the Alliance fleet to victory. Left as "de facto" fleet commander and with great reluctance takes it upon himself to lead the fleet to the safety of Alliance space.
Geary is also forced to retrain the fleet to fight in formation instead of the "modern" free-for-all tactics of charging straight at the enemy, supposedly inspired by Geary's example at his famous last stand, caused by decades of attrition and loss of experience. Geary's attempt to change the fleet's culture causes tension with other senior officers, including one egomaniacal senior captain freed from a Syndic labor camp with a reputation almost as famous as Geary's, who proceeds to split off a portion of the fleet on a disastrous mission.
To complicate the situation, a third faction wishes to stage a military coup upon the return of the fleet to Alliance space with Geary as dictator. Geary resists the temptation offered by this faction with great effort, though they continue to apply pressure to him throughout the series.
As the entire military force of the Syndicate Worlds continues to hunt the Alliance fleet, Geary is often forced to raid Syndic star systems for supplies and raw materials. During these raids, the fleet gradually uncovers evidence of a third party in this war. Geary believes they are an unknown alien civilization who may have tricked the Syndics into starting the war with the Alliance. These aliens may even have been responsible for humans "discovering" the hypernet and may have sinister reasons for giving humans this technology after Geary discovers that a hypernet gate can be used to destroy an entire star system. The hypothetical aliens also have a means of remote destruction of hypernet gates, which will allow them, given time, to extend the war between the humans indefinitely.
The alien civilization, whatever their designs for humanity are, do not appear to want the Alliance fleet to reach their home space. When Geary leads the fleet to attack the Lakota star system, the aliens manipulate the Syndic hypernet to divert a Syndic fleet to the system.
Throughout the series, Geary is troubled by larger issues.
Firstly, he is concerned by the declining state of the Alliance civilian government, which is losing control of its member worlds and the support of the military forces after a century of futile warfare.
Also, even though Geary is unswervingly loyal to the Alliance, he fears that the government may choose to imprison him as a threat to its own power.
In addition, the Alliance Navy itself has allowed its standards to slip, frequently destroying entire planets and their civilian populations in retaliation for Syndic atrocities, murdering prisoners of war, and has ceased saluting and other traditions reaffirming the command structure. Geary therefore fears that the Alliance may not deserve any victory it might achieve.
Combined with these immediate concerns is his speculation that, if the increasingly non-hypothetical aliens are perpetuating the war within human-controlled space, what might their actions be if he can somehow end it?
The Lost Stars.
"The Lost Stars" deals with the collapse of the Syndicate Worlds, and specifically the efforts of Midway System's system CEO commander and ground force CEO commander to deal with the aftermath. The series expands the story to include the viewpoint of Syndicate Worlds citizens and how the leaders of the Midway star system react to the collapse of central authority, occurring at the same time as the events in the "Beyond the Frontier" series.
The Genesis Fleet.
A prequel to The Lost Fleet series, envisioned as a trilogy detailing the formation of the Alliance, focusing on a number of characters, some of which are ancestors to the protagonists of the main series.
Outlands.
John rescues the crew of a crippled ship from the Rift Federation, juggles politics and communicates with the Dancers again.
Major themes.
Hemry acknowledged in an interview that "The Lost Fleet" was inspired by Xenophon's "Anabasis", detailing the return march of the Ten Thousand, and myths about kings returning to save their nation. In the same interview, Hemry, based on his own military experience, found Geary to be his ideal commanding officer.
Ancestor worship is a belief system fairly homogeneously embraced within Hemry's universe. This allows Hemry to explore a few aspects of the role of religion in military life without making comment on any current or modern religious group. Personnel in the Alliance fleet are mostly believers, and concerned with the morality of their actions in relation to their religious beliefs. In addition, they think a great deal about the afterlife, which makes sense considering that they constantly face death in the line of duty. Religious concerns, prayer, and terminology are infused throughout all aspects of the lives of the sailors and officers in the fleet, and are often included in official communications and events. Some comments from the narration indicate that there are those in the society who have more or less belief in the existence of their ancestors but no characters are openly identified as such.
A primary theme of John Hemry's work as a whole, and the Lost Fleet series in particular, is the importance of the rule of law, particularly military and naval regulations and the laws of war. Specifically, he deals with the proper treatment of enemy combatants, prisoners, civilians, and saboteurs, as well as traitors within one's own organization. The separation of civilian and military authority is also important to the messages the series conveys. Hemry, through John Geary, continually reinforces the concept that military forces must be subordinate to civilian authority, and shows democratic systems of civilian government (the Alliance) to be superior to a commercial-military autocracy (the Syndics). At the same time, the military must follow established systems of rank and seniority, rather than a democratic system which is essential to civil society. The character of Co-President (and Alliance Senator) Victoria Rione gives advice and assistance to Geary when necessary, but does not and cannot give actual orders or dictate military policies.
As with other works by Hemry, relationships are an important aspect of the plots of the novels and the proper expression of romantic interest between military personnel is explored and clearly defined as being strictly controlled by those regulations which concern fraternization. Geary's relationship earlier in the novels with Victoria Rione are legally safe, but politically dangerous. This is in contrast to his relationship later in the novels with Captain Tanya Desjani, an officer who is directly subordinate to Geary as the captain of his flagship, making any romantic situation legally impossible but politically safe within the culture of the fleet. The refusal of Geary and Desjani to act upon any feelings that are legally forbidden continues Hemry's message of the importance of the rule of law and military regulations.
Honor and duty are also strong themes. The double edged nature of honor is explored in the latter half of the series, showing how honor can be both a bulwark against attack, and a knife to one's own throat.
Reception.
"We Read Science Fiction" reviewed the series and gave it a good review, giving positive comments on the narrative and the detailed battle scenes. The only complaint directed at the series in the review was Hemry's tendency to repeat details from earlier books in later books. Hemry himself replied to the review thanking them for their comments and explaining that he repeats information for the readers who picked up later books but have not had the chance to read from the beginning of the series with "Dauntless".
Comic book.
British company Titan Comics announced the release of an all-new comic series based on "The Lost Fleet" in October 2016, written by Jack Campbell, penciled by Andre Siregar, inked by Bambang Irawan and coloured by Sebastian Cheng. The first five-issue series, called "The Lost Fleet: Corsair", was published from June 2017 to January 2018.
The series is set after the end of a century-old war between the Alliance and the Syndics, and centers on Captain Michael Geary, Black Jack Geary's grand-nephew, who has been MIA since the novel "Dauntless".
Short stories.
Four "The Lost Fleet" short stories have been published in various science fiction anthologies. "Grendel" features the battle which saw Geary frozen in suspended animation. "Flèche" covers a battle which a young Desjani fought in. "Shore Patrol" features Geary as a young officer and reveals the origins of his nickname "Black Jack". "Ishigaki" is a standalone story set in the first decade of the Alliance-Syndicate war, following two members of Geary's former crew.
References.
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