My new sci-fi love: The Lost Fleet by Jack Campbell
I posted a review relatively recently about The Wandering Engineer series by Chris Hechtl, and it was less than glowing. Now it's time for a positive review.
The Lost Fleet is also a sci-fi series, but the author of this book is Jack Campbell, and it is a book that shines. I firmly believe that indie and self-pubbed authors can produce work just as great as authors that are traditionally published, but one of the shining points (to me) about Campbell's work is that it is professionally edited and has professional cover art. His books were traditionally published, and that doubtless contributes to their presentation.
The Wandering Engineer was interesting because the main character had been in stasis for several hundred years and woke up to a world changed almost beyond recognition. The Lost Fleet (which came before Hechtl's series) also has a main character who was in a survival pod for an extended length of time (though only 100 years this time) and wakes up to find that the Alliance has changed from a century of war.
And unlike Fleet Admiral John Henry Irons in The Wandering Engineer, the internal struggles of Campbell's John Geary seem genuine and balanced by what is going on around him as well as what happened years ago.
Another thing that I love about Campbell's series is the science in this science fiction. There is a war going on, and there are space battles, but the battles are seconds of fighting interspersed with the hours that it takes to travel in space. Ships don't turn on a dime in Campbell's books, and the speed of a particular kind of space craft can't be changed through elbow grease and the well-wishes of her crew.
The Lost Fleet has all of the excitement expected of a good science fiction novel, but the attention to detail (and the lack of deus ex machina found in Hechtl's novels) make it a joy to read rather than a book that you have to work to suspend your disbelief on while turning pages.
If you like sci-fi, space battles, and main characters facing genuine and realistic internal conflicts, pick up The Lost Fleet: Dauntless and dive into this great series.