Courageous

Written by Jack Campbell

Narrated by Christian Rummel

The Alliance has been fighting a losing battle against the Syndicate Worlds for over a century. Now, Captain John “Black Jack” Geary, who returned to the fleet after a hundred-year suspended animation, must keep the Alliance one step ahead of its merciless foe …

After a series of deadly engagements, the Alliance fleet is severely damaged and its arsenal is running low. Forced to halt in the Baldur Star System to raid the Syndic mines for raw materials, Geary is anxious to get moving again. But what
should the fleet’s next move be? The Syndics are starting to catch on to Geary’s tactics, and as the Alliance ships jump from system to system, it’s getting harder to keep one step ahead.

What’s more, Geary has started to piece fragments of intelligence together into a highly disturbing picture: The Syndics have been keeping the existence of another potential player in the war a secret?and this unknown power may have the means to annihilate the human race …

• Language: English
• Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
• Release date: Jun 21, 2022
• ISBN: 9781705071526

Jack Campbell

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. He also wrote the Stark’s War and JAG in Space series under his real name.

Reviews for Courageous

[libgirl69 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Awesome space battles against huge odds.

[john_t_stewart · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

“Courageous” (book 3 of The Lost Fleet) continues the task that Captain Geary has to accomplish. The Syndics appear to be catching up with his decisions. The fleet recovers the few surviving ships from the mutiny in a star system before confronting several smaller Syndic fleets in another star system. Captain Geary also discovers more information suggesting that there is an unknown, to the Alliance at least, alien race’s empire on the far side of the star systems owned by the Syndics.

[troyka-3 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

How many times can you hold your breath without noticing? Pretty much every time black jack sees action. I've powered through the books so far but I'm seeing the pattern of all I need to do is read the first few and last few chapters. The books are an easy read and hint at greater things like secret ailen races but it's battle argument with the fleet, battle clif hanger the books don't get worse. But also don't get better. Maybe that's what sci-fi readers like?

[scottcholstad · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Courageous, Jack Campbell’s third book in his Lost Fleet series, is decent, but not great. It’s more of the same with a few new wrinkles thrown in to make it interesting enough for you to buy the next one in the series and keep reading. It’s an effective strategy.In Courageous, the Alliance fleet is still wandering from star system to system, trying to get home by some path the Syndics won’t know or predict. It might seem like a hopeless situation, but the legendary Captain “Black Jack Geary,” who’s been revived out of cyrosleep after his last mission of 100 years ago, is just the hero they need. He has proven himself so unbelievably capable so far that some of his commanders want to help him become Alliance dictator when they get home, while others just want to get rid of him. Geary simply feels like a lonely old man and wants to retire and be left in peace once he returns to the Alliance.One of the new wrinkles is this: aliens. Or the possibility of aliens. Geary is coming to realize that an unknown alien race may be manipulating both the Alliance and the Syndics through the hypernet gates. And the Syndics may know of this race and may even be in on it! Geary and his intelligence officers are puzzled by some data intercepts they receive. The big Syndicate fleet did not intend to arrive in the system where the Alliance fleet was. They had expected to come out of the hypernet gate in a different system. But somehow, the gate had malfunctioned. But everyone knows the hypernet gates never malfunction. Did some aliens change their course? And why would this alien intelligence move the Syndicate fleet? If they wanted to eliminate Geary's fleet, how could they possibly monitor things in one system and then shift the Syndicates? Were they capable of instant communications across who knows how many light years? What to do? What’s up?Campbell is known for his military sci fi and space opera. Not for character development. I’d say that Geary is pretty well developed in this series. As much as Campbell can do. Another character Campbell tries to work with is Captain Desjani, Geary’s beautiful, young fleet commander, who obviously has feelings for him (and he for her), but neither of them will let such emotions get in the way of their duties and professionalism. That said, Geary’s lover, Victoria Rione, a politician, is a mystery. I assume he’s written her to be intentionally mysterious and confusing, but by now, she’s turned into such a game-playing bitch, that any sympathetic feelings I had for her character I once had are long gone. It’s impossible to get to know her, her motivations, her integrity, her honesty, anything at all. Nothing is as it seems with her. I hate her so much. After listening to her bitch and moan page after page, I’m ready for a change and I think the one I want might be coming in a future book in the series, which is good enough to keep me reading in this series. That said, I have no idea why this is a six book series. The first book is obviously essential, as the last one will be, I assume. The middle four books seem to be filler, just chases and fleet battles in different Syndic systems that all run together, book after book. It gets boring after awhile. Sure, you learn some new things along the way, some of them critical, but you have to search to find them. Otherwise, you’re just skimming. Campbell is obviously well liked by many fans. I’ve come to enjoy some of his books. But as far as military sci fi goes, he’s no David Weber. Not even close. Of course, no one is, so I’ll say Campbell is no Chris Bunch either. Better comparison. Bunch’s Last Legion and Star Risk series’ are similar space operas, in some ways, but have substantially better character development, snappier dialogue, more believable military action, etc. There are other military sci fi writers out there who are also better than Campbell. Nonetheless, this is entertaining. A decent book from a decent series. Not great, perhaps not even good, but not bad. Above average. Three stars. Cautiously recommended as a series.

[majkia · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Good and exciting, but I could have used a bit less of the 4 dimensional battle tactics.

[hiromatsuo · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The third book in The Lost Fleet series by military science-fiction writer Jack Campbell, Courageous continues the story of the Alliance fleet, lead by Capt. John Geary, as it works to evade the Syndics and make its was home. Unfortunately, for a vast majority of the novel, the only thing Courageous gives us is a “continuation” of the story in the strictest sense of the term. In fact, it’s largely a rehash of the previous two books, Dauntless and Fearless. Although Campbell’s writing hasn’t necessarily taken a turn for the worst, the story and plot conventions in Courageous are boring and repetitious. Essentially, this book is a 300 page summary of the previous two books, but worded differently. We have the same characters, same personalities, and same type of space battles, only the scenery has changed. Not that it makes much of difference anyway. To make matters even worse, the character of Victoria Rione, Geary’s lover, has decided to develop some kind of schizophrenic, bipolar disorder on us. She constantly flip-flops between supporting Geary and second-guessing his decisions. One minute, she’ll go along with his plan and the next she’ll be calling him power-mad and crazy. Campbell’s intention to make Rione a sort of moral compass for Geary, has instead warped her into a nagging, nutjob. I found it hard to swallow or even take seriously. If she’s not yelling at him, she’s sneering. The rest of the characters don’t fare well either as their personalities aren’t developed any further and instead, like the plot, we get a rehash of what we already know if we followed the previous two books.Perhaps the one good aspect of this book comes in the last 100 or so pages. Here we have a battle in which the Alliance fleet has found itself in a very bad situation. It’s low on ammo, fuel, and is badly outgunned, with little means of escape. It’s the most serious trouble the fleet has been in since the start of the first novel. It is a somewhat tense situation, but unfortunately, it’s short-lived. Furthermore, the evidence of an outside alien race influencing the war is only briefly touched upon in a handful of pages and then the novel ends on a cliffhanger.Obviously my biggest gripe with Courageous is that it doesn’t take us anywhere. The battle stations are manned, the fleet is assembled, and the engines are running, but we don’t make any progress in terms of character or story development. Dare I say that this book is unnecessary and redundant to the Lost Fleet series? I’ve read similar reviews of the fourth book Valiant, and that both this and that novel could actually be either combined into one, or even skipped entirely if the reader so desires. However, this reader has decided to review each novel on a separate basis, as I progress through the series. Just to try and be fair to Campbell.Overall, I’d give Courageous 3 out of 5, which is being rather generous in my opinion. The writing is the same as the previous two novels in the series; however what Campbell gives us is a differently worded revision of those particular books. If you’ve read those, then you already know pretty much everything there is to know about this book. I guess I’ll have to see if the next book, Valiant picks up some of the pieces at all.

[everfresh1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The third book in the 'Lost Fleet' series is just like first two. it has the same strong qualities and shortcomings. Despite some shortcomings I just can't give it lower score due to its originality. I just love the setup, whole 'lost fleet' idea. As with other two novels, the battles are quite fascinating, but the time between battles is somewhat boring.

[karlstar_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A bit repetitive compared to the first two books, this is still a good example of 'space opera' type science fiction. Jack Geary is still trying to get the fleet under control, and gradually succeeding, but their circumstances gradually get worse.

[bruderbane · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I’ve come to truly enjoy Jack Campbell’s “Lost Fleet” series and his third book “Courageous” is no exception. Mr. Campbell, whom I discovered is actually John G. Henry, is able to portray future fleet-to-fleet space combat on a grand scale with style and brevity. And Mr. Campbell does this while bringing to the fore its inherent eccentricities and idiosyncrasies better than other sci-fi writers and a number of nautical warfare writers I’ve come across. I impatiently await my next opportunity to crack open his succeeding novel.

[malcrf · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I needed a light and easy read, and boy did I get one! Following the same formula as the first two books in the series this book meandered and didn't take the underlying story very far. The question now is whether to bother with the rest of the series...........................Still it is an easy read, and kept me amused for a while.

[conformer_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

All of the books in the Lost Fleet series contain more or less the same elements arranged in different ways; political intrigue, treacherous power plays, and a repeating Buck Rogers motif of a man-out-of-time; all interspersed with the Campbell's hallmark kick-ass sublightspeed space battles. It would be potboiler-grade material if it wasn't so compelling and the characters so crisply sketched out as to make even the bad guys (on either side of the seemingly endless interstellar war) relatable to.The only drawback is that the series is now five books long and shows no sign of a conclusion, which puts it at risk of alienating its audience, much like Robert Jordan's Wheel Of Time books did.

[ailinel-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Lost Fleet Courageous introduces larger battles between the Syndic Fleets and Geary’s fleet. The descriptions of tactical maneuvers and plans continues to provide fascinating insight and differentiate this series from other military science fiction novels. The possibility of massive devastation using hypernets appears to be true, and it is through the brilliant engineering of Cressida and the loyalty of most of the alliance ships that Geary is able to keep the fleet alive to fight another day.

[readinggeek451 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

If you like military SF at all, you should be reading this series. After a century of war with the Sydicated Worlds, the Alliance fleet, led by the reluctantly legendary Captain "Black Jack" Geary, is trapped deep in enemy territory, trying desperately to get home with technology that could finally win the war. If they fail, the Alliance is left with no defenses to speak of. This is the third book. Don't start here, start at the beginning.

[bookson23rd · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I felt like this was a filler story. Not much happens but we do get closer to believing there are aliens out there beyond the Syndic territory. Terrible stereotypical conversations, some battle, not much plot in this one. Doesn't matter, I still like these books as a break from reality.