Vanguard: The Genesis Fleet, Book 1

Tiny bit spoiler alert:I hate political intrigue. The only thing that kept me in this book was the science fiction. The politics could go to hell. I get no joy reading so much of a book for the heroes to be snubbed (sort of) in the end. I only gave this book 3 stars because of my personal opinion on politics. Do you know what?, I’ll even bump it up to four stars because the book was very well written. That being said, I don’t doubt many of you will enjoy it, I’m just a weird egg. I absolutely need a completely happy ending or I will never refer the book. So you take my opinion with a grain of salt but just know, lots of politics.

Vanguard is a magnificent installment in the Lost Fleet mythos, and left me joyful at the thought of what came next. Geary's ancestor is a great character.The space battles are of a smaller scale, but that feels believable, even necessary, given the scope of the series, and the battles find new ways to be flat out cool (such switch a boarding party). The senate alternately aiding and obstructing Geary was done as well as in with his ancestor in the main books, but felt more believable here.The multiple characters and plot lines are all easy to get invested in, and be hopeful that more of them will join up later on. Male and her marines proivde some great, small scale ground combat scenes, but the planning behind their actions is the real highlight of her nov sections.If you're a Lost Fleet fan, you should probably read this book.

Having a hard time getting into this book. The story jumps around a lot and I never seem to get that invested with any of the main characters because of that. And I'm listening to the MP3 audiobook edition and for whatever reason the narration is also turning me off. Christian Rummel has narrated a number of books that I've listened to before (most of the Lost Fleet series for example), but some of the accents he's doing in this book I find a bit annoying - especially all the Scottish accents (I'm assuming they are suppose to be Scottish - they are a bit cartoonish).I'll continue listening and try to finish this out, but it's slow going. I love the other work that Jack Campbell has done, so I don't know why I'm having issues with this book.ETA: Bumping up to four stars as I've gotten farther into the book and the separate storylines have merged into one another and now it's a lot easier to follow along with the story. The accents the narrator is doing are still a bit of an annoyance.

This is set in the universe of the “Lost Fleet” and “Lost Stars” series, but several hundred years earlier, I think. Mankind has just discovered the jump drive, and has started fanning out over the nearer stars, starting settlements on habitable worlds. But, as you’d expect knowing human nature, some colonists decide it would be easier to concentrate on building fighting ships and raiding other planets than to build up a strong local economy. Robert Geary, a former junior officer of the Earth fleet that policed the Solar System before the jump drive, is one of the protagonists, and one presumes that “Black Jack” Geary of the “Lost Fleet” series is at least a collateral descendant of his. The other POV characters don’t have names as memorable, but they include Mele Darcy, a former space marine; Carmen Ochoa, a “Red” from the anarchic world of Mars; and Lochan Nakamura, a failed politician on Earth but possibly one who can get something useful organized in the outer worlds. An interesting combination of military and political SF in the not-too-distant future. I’m sure more books are planned in the series.

Excellent story, can't wait for the next in series. Right from the beginning this book hooks you into the storyline. The politics, human condition and cultural attitudes prevailing at the time all lead to the inevitable need for mankind to learn from past mistakes and apply these lessons to the colonization of new worlds. Unfortunately human nature prevails and those who take power for powers sake and want to controll all in their domain or all that they can conquer still exists and must be dealt with up front. Those colonist who just wanted to escape all of these human faults fall into the trap of hoping if they ignore the problem it will go away. Much like the world did prior to WWII and for the last 30 years with N. Korea. It doesn't work that way, you need leaders who understand the past, work to ensure these lessons are included in the present structure to maintain peace and order and allow the people to govern through their elected leadership. This means having a strong military not abandoning it as Earth does in this series and most colonies have as well until they learn the hard way this can't be done.

I found myself looking for opportunities to grab a quick read. A page here a page there. This is a good story. Not a great story, but a solid read. If JC can keep up with the story pace and not get to fancy he has a great adventure coming together.

Once again Campbell has built the beginning of another great series! Often writers open up the following world with the children of their previous series being involved in the plot, but Jack is going back in time to look at the ancestor or the previous series "the Lost Fleet". That said what makes this book outstanding is simply that Mr. Campbell's writing has continued to evolve and get better over time. Personally I don't care how good the plot is if the I do not care about the characters. The writer builds fully fleshed out, multi-dimensional characters which have feelings, goals and hopes... these are characters you can care about... cry and cheer for... as the story unfolds.All of his books have been great and he just appears to be hitting his stride. The Pillars of Reality series was really incredible and I look forward to the new follow up series.BTW... If you like Campbell's sci-fi, try B.V.Larson and Ryk Brown. Both have extensive series with very likable, well rounded characters.

Es ist toll, etwas aus der Familiengeschichte von Black Jack zu erfahren.

I am a big fan of the Lost Fleet series, and I was eager to pick up a tie in novel. While the story is great, it felt like too many characters and stories referred back to those novels. The biggest "sin" is having the protagonist and hero of the story being the ancestor to a hero of the worlds which would found the Alliance. I feel like that would have been something which people would know about. A great hero from a family of heroes... It certainly would have explained why they jumped to make Black Jack an inspiration. But that was not introduced in the previous books, so it felt forced. I could have lived with that if Glenlyon and Kosatka were not now essentially neighbors...And of course a Desjani was introduced... Gotta have that name drop.It's still a good story with engaging characters. But I would have liked more less reliance on the previous stories.

Jack Campbell writes excellent sci-fi and even better military action. This book is full of both. The world building is very good and the characters are great. It is easy to understand how Earth lost command of her colonies and how settlers moved further and further away from her. The plot also explains how settlers on some star systems turned to piracy, extortion, invasion and even enslavement when too far from Earth’s influence and range of retaliation. Heroes come from humble beginnings and this story is overflowing with them.

Excellent ! Fast paced & "possible" - Good characters & athmosphere !Everything to like - No points to dislike !

Space opera in the grandest traditions of the genre, even if it is basically a pirate story, a Hornblower or Jack Aubrey story set in space, Heroic characters doing heroic deeds, realistic space flight action and a very well constructed and written story that keeps the reader engaged, especially in the second half of the book. I found it a bit slow at first, but interesting enough to keel me reading past the first few chapters and as the book progressed, I was not disappointed. As a fan of David Weber's earlier Honor books and his other books set in that universe, I have difficulty finding books that live up to that standard, but this is one of them. I will definitely go on to the next book in the series.