Slitherine

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ORIGINAL: RyanCrierie

Actually, I would argue that the Lost Fleet Series is far superior to the Honor Harrington universe.

The only reason John Geary is such a great genius is that he had the sheer luck to survive through a century of cold sleep while both sides battered each other to death in a unwinnable war.

At first, the level of quality of the men involved was pretty good; but soon the pressures of war forced a lowering of standards; and then multiply that by a few decades of non stop war; and people get just enough training to be useful before they're put out onto the battlefield.

Geary on the other hand was trained in the pre-war navy, when they had enough time to take their time with each officer and train them to deal with the complex realities of having to handle warships moving at point one light, and also time lag imposed by speed of light communications and sensors.

So when he was revived in the 'future', he had knowledge of a way of war that was all but lost by the relentless lowering of standards to meet cadre requirements for the next group of warships commissioning to replace battle losses.

As a bonus, there are no damned treecats.

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ORIGINAL: RyanCrierie

Actually, I would argue that the Lost Fleet Series is far superior to the Honor Harrington universe.

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ORIGINAL: RyanCrierie

As a bonus, there are no damned treecats.

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ORIGINAL: rhondabrwn

My Kindle addiction strikes again

Now I'm hooked on Taylor Anderson's "Destroyerman" series about a couple of WWI era 4 stacker destroyers running through a dimensional rift during the early days of World War II. They end up in an alternative world of intelligent reptilian and Lemur-like people who are in a struggle to the death. The arrival of the old destroyers who side with the mammals ("Cats") against the reptillian Grik's and begin to introduce new technologies into this alternative world makes for one fascinating series. Lots of authentic military details about life on a destroyer and some incredible land and naval battles makes this series very appealing to a wargamer (or to someone like me who always has loved a "survival" story of people rebuilding a world from raw scratch using their knowledge and wits).

Gotta recommend this one too, guys! It's up to four books with the 5th due next February. I'm half way through book three and biting my nails off with the suspense of the plotline. The author also communicates with his fans and discusses issues and details of the books and seems like quite an interesting person. He's another ex-military man who knows his stuff!

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ORIGINAL: Punk Reaper

whoa slow down... just got Lost Fleet from Amazon...... feeling under pressure

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ORIGINAL: rhondabrwn

Having a rainy day in Pinon as the monsoon rains continue to hit us in earnest. I made a run to Flagstaff through the mud last Sunday to bring back one of our teachers who had come back from Wisconsin and had no transportation. The trip there and back took about 11 hours and close to two tanks of gas to finally find a way back to Pinon through washed out roads and culverts and just near impassable mud and sand. It was quite an experience but my new Ford Escape proved to be a very capable mud SUV. It was still nerve wracking to drive that length of time while constantly being on the edge of spinning into a ditch. Passed many a car or truck stranded in the muck but you can't stop to even try to help as you'll never get going again.

School is supposed to start on Monday, but I suspect we'll begin the year with a Mud Day unless we get a sunny day tomorrow (which isn't the forecast).

I still just love it out here though

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It's so fast and easy to download a new book... the ultimate instant gratification toy!

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ORIGINAL: RyanCrierie

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It's so fast and easy to download a new book... the ultimate instant gratification toy!

I can attest to this.

Last week; I was pretty sick; it seems like I came down with a very bad cold / sore throat / light flu at the same time. So to pass time in bed, I re-read the Clone series by Stephen L. Kent.

Anyway, I finished up the last book that I had; and then wondered -- hey, isn't it about time for another book in the series to be released judging from the date on the last book (2007)?

So I had my kindle connect to my wifi network; searched the author's name, and found the next book in the series. Downloaded it and read it; without having to get my clothes on or drive to the store.

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ORIGINAL: RedArgo

I finished The Lost Fleet series this morning. I thought it was a good read and I'm looking forward to the next series of books.

As Rhonda said on the first post of this thread, I think this could make a good space combat game, although I would see it more as a Rules of Engagement type game where you command a fleet from one ship. You would have to deal with the time delays from dealing with light speed communications across millions of miles of space. You might only have direct control of the ships very near you and the other ships in your fleet would just be given orders and left on their own to execute them.

There were lots of instances in the books where a battle would take place the Geary was watching that actually happened hours before. There might be some interesting tactical decisions to make when your information is old. Even a few minutes old could make a big difference if you turned the wrong way, because your picture of the battle is out of date.

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ORIGINAL: wodin

I read and enjoyed the Forever War series..though Sci Fi isn't really my thing at all...I would be interested in a military sci fi novel that has some realism about it though...I shall check them out at Amazon.

Checking them out now...there are so many Sci Fi authors out there I wouldn't know hwere to start...Ian Douglas books seem to be well reviewed I notice...so does Taylor Anderson

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ORIGINAL: rhondabrwn

quote:

ORIGINAL: RyanCrierie

quote:

It's so fast and easy to download a new book... the ultimate instant gratification toy!

I can attest to this.

Last week; I was pretty sick; it seems like I came down with a very bad cold / sore throat / light flu at the same time. So to pass time in bed, I re-read the Clone series by Stephen L. Kent.

Anyway, I finished up the last book that I had; and then wondered -- hey, isn't it about time for another book in the series to be released judging from the date on the last book (2007)?

So I had my kindle connect to my wifi network; searched the author's name, and found the next book in the series. Downloaded it and read it; without having to get my clothes on or drive to the store.

Haha... I finish a book at 3am and quickly download the next one in the series... and I'm into about a dozen series now! Last night I stumbled upon a Sci-Fi series on Amazon which is available in e-book only - apparently self-published(?).

Title: A Galaxy Unknown (A Galaxy Unknown - Book 1)
Author: Thomas DePrima
Category: eBooks

There are three books in the series and the reviews were pretty decent. A couple of reviewers compared it favorably to "The Lost Fleet" for it's realism in space battles. I just started the 1st book and the first few chapters flowed pretty well and got my interest up (though they were really just backstory to build up the "universe").

Kindle... gotta love it!

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Firstly this book lacks anything that can be described as 'character development'. The main actor John 'Black Jack' Geary, the lost war hero, is one of the shallowest characters I have ever been exposed to. He is a most obvious manifestation of the author's ego, and the character's protestations to hate the demi-god status he enjoys are at best a fig leaf the author supplies to justify his self-serving creation.
The female characters are offensively two-dimensional, cast as either 'ice maidens' who melt before Black Jack's glory or naive youngsters who worship the ground he walks on. Whilst the male characters fall into two groups also, the idiots who oppose him, or the intelligent, vaguely developed characters that defer to his greatness.
The plot has one intriguing aspect (that I shall not mention to avoid spoiling the trilogy's few minor graces) but in all other ways is a particularly bland war story, page-turner is not how I would describe this book, 'can I be bothered to turn the page' is closer to it.
The battle scenes so praised are so obsessed with the concept of 'temporal distortion' that they become a lesson in the physics of theoretical space battles and descriptions of ship formations. Battle scenes in which the Alliance (goodies) loses barely a ship whilst the Syndics (baddies, as if it even needs stating) are annihilated to the last man. The Syndics are painted purely as 'bad guys' no attempt is made to discuss their motives or paint them as even vaguely human it is a morally 'black and white' universe worthy of George W. Bush.
If this is "As good as military science fiction gets" as the inappropriately ebullient praise on the cover states, then God help military science fiction. I have bought and will read the second instalment because its there, but the third? I wouldn't waste the £3.41.

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This book bears no resemblance to the review that tempted me to buying it. About half way through the book I went back and checked if it was really marketed as an 'adult' book or a 'young-adult' book, it's so poorly written and seems aimed at a much younger audience. The characters are two dimensional and the whole story reads like a rehashed version of a Horatio Hornblower type book, the physics is a band-aid to the lack of story or ideas, thrown over the top to make it seem valid as 'sci-fi'. If the book was slightly rewritten you could easily imagine it as a lost fleet story of ancient sailing vessels, with all the accompanying saturday morning tv appeal. I'm amazed Black Jack didn't have a parrot on his shoulder.

As others have said, the characterisations really do follow some limp cliches, with the villains being stupid and the good guys all loving Black. Shallow, boring and so predictable.

I see the series has been extended, i won't be buying them.

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This book is really really bad. The story is unbelievably predictable. Even the space battles are unimaginative. Dialog is simple, boring, unreal and in some points ridiculous. Characters have no depth. I felt while reading the book that it was writen by a 14 year old with no deep life experiences.

quote:

ORIGINAL: rhondabrwn

Just finished reading the entire "Lost Fleet" series by Jack Campbell and was fascinated by the space battles depicted. It was the most realistic and believable system that I have ever encountered since it accounts for the physics of starship combat when moving at 30,000 Kilometers a second including distortion of visual and sensor data of objects moving at such incredible speeds. As I was reading it, I just couldn't get the idea out of my head that this would make one heck of a space battle simulation game.

I would view it as something like "Total War in Space" with strategic movement of fleets between star systems using jump drives or the HyperNet which then drops into a tactical display within the system. Sounds a lot like the "Total War" series in concept doesn't it?

Anyone else read the series and share this vision?

If you haven't read the series and are a sci-fi buff, then I highly recommend it.

If you are game designer... think about this for a new product!

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ORIGINAL: RocketMan

I read A Galaxy Unknown and the sequel Valor at Vauzlee and they were both good, although like you rhondabrwn I thought the main character was a little too lucky in both of them and in the second one I thought all the secondary character's praise of her was a little over the top.

But when I was Googeling the series to remember the second books title, I noticed there is a third book in the series, The Clones of Mawcett which I just bought, so thanks for bringing the series up!

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ORIGINAL: JudgeDredd

I know opinions differ - of course they do, but I was kind of intrigued with the talk of this series so decided to check them out on Amazon...the first book, Dauntless, gets a few scathing reviews -

quote:


Firstly this book lacks anything that can be described as 'character development'. The main actor John 'Black Jack' Geary, the lost war hero, is one of the shallowest characters I have ever been exposed to. He is a most obvious manifestation of the author's ego, and the character's protestations to hate the demi-god status he enjoys are at best a fig leaf the author supplies to justify his self-serving creation.
The female characters are offensively two-dimensional, cast as either 'ice maidens' who melt before Black Jack's glory or naive youngsters who worship the ground he walks on. Whilst the male characters fall into two groups also, the idiots who oppose him, or the intelligent, vaguely developed characters that defer to his greatness.
The plot has one intriguing aspect (that I shall not mention to avoid spoiling the trilogy's few minor graces) but in all other ways is a particularly bland war story, page-turner is not how I would describe this book, 'can I be bothered to turn the page' is closer to it.
The battle scenes so praised are so obsessed with the concept of 'temporal distortion' that they become a lesson in the physics of theoretical space battles and descriptions of ship formations. Battle scenes in which the Alliance (goodies) loses barely a ship whilst the Syndics (baddies, as if it even needs stating) are annihilated to the last man. The Syndics are painted purely as 'bad guys' no attempt is made to discuss their motives or paint them as even vaguely human it is a morally 'black and white' universe worthy of George W. Bush.
If this is "As good as military science fiction gets" as the inappropriately ebullient praise on the cover states, then God help military science fiction. I have bought and will read the second instalment because its there, but the third? I wouldn't waste the £3.41.

quote:


This book bears no resemblance to the review that tempted me to buying it. About half way through the book I went back and checked if it was really marketed as an 'adult' book or a 'young-adult' book, it's so poorly written and seems aimed at a much younger audience. The characters are two dimensional and the whole story reads like a rehashed version of a Horatio Hornblower type book, the physics is a band-aid to the lack of story or ideas, thrown over the top to make it seem valid as 'sci-fi'. If the book was slightly rewritten you could easily imagine it as a lost fleet story of ancient sailing vessels, with all the accompanying saturday morning tv appeal. I'm amazed Black Jack didn't have a parrot on his shoulder.

As others have said, the characterisations really do follow some limp cliches, with the villains being stupid and the good guys all loving Black. Shallow, boring and so predictable.

I see the series has been extended, i won't be buying them.

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This book is really really bad. The story is unbelievably predictable. Even the space battles are unimaginative. Dialog is simple, boring, unreal and in some points ridiculous. Characters have no depth. I felt while reading the book that it was writen by a 14 year old with no deep life experiences.

Now those are only 3 reviews out of 20...but of the 20 made
6 - 5 stars
6 - 4 stars
3 - 3 stars
2 - 2 stars
3 - 1 star

I've been reading the thread with some interest because I stopped reading fiction quite some time ago - last one was a Tom Clancy book I think. Anyway, my point was I was reading with interest to the point where I was willing to have a look at these - but the reviews kind of didn't reinforce the fact that I should make my way back into the fiction genre...

Just an observation really...I'm still kind of hoping one day to be persuaded to read fiction again - but I've yet to be persuaded by others recommendations as yet.

quote:

ORIGINAL: JudgeDredd

I know opinions differ - of course they do, but I was kind of intrigued with the talk of this series so decided to check them out on Amazon...the first book, Dauntless, gets a few scathing reviews -

Now those are only 3 reviews out of 20...but of the 20 made
6 - 5 stars
6 - 4 stars
3 - 3 stars
2 - 2 stars
3 - 1 star

I've been reading the thread with some interest because I stopped reading fiction quite some time ago - last one was a Tom Clancy book I think. Anyway, my point was I was reading with interest to the point where I was willing to have a look at these - but the reviews kind of didn't reinforce the fact that I should make my way back into the fiction genre...

quote:

ORIGINAL: rhondabrwn

My Kindle addiction strikes again

Now I'm hooked on Taylor Anderson's "Destroyerman" series about a couple of WWI era 4 stacker destroyers running through a dimensional rift during the early days of World War II. They end up in an alternative world of intelligent reptilian and Lemur-like people who are in a struggle to the death. The arrival of the old destroyers who side with the mammals ("Cats") against the reptillian Grik's and begin to introduce new technologies into this alternative world makes for one fascinating series. Lots of authentic military details about life on a destroyer and some incredible land and naval battles makes this series very appealing to a wargamer (or to someone like me who always has loved a "survival" story of people rebuilding a world from raw scratch using their knowledge and wits).

Gotta recommend this one too, guys! It's up to four books with the 5th due next February. I'm half way through book three and biting my nails off with the suspense of the plotline. The author also communicates with his fans and discusses issues and details of the books and seems like quite an interesting person. He's another ex-military man who knows his stuff!

quote:

ORIGINAL: Dave Briggs

quote:

ORIGINAL: JudgeDredd

I know opinions differ - of course they do, but I was kind of intrigued with the talk of this series so decided to check them out on Amazon...the first book, Dauntless, gets a few scathing reviews -

Now those are only 3 reviews out of 20...but of the 20 made
6 - 5 stars
6 - 4 stars
3 - 3 stars
2 - 2 stars
3 - 1 star

I've been reading the thread with some interest because I stopped reading fiction quite some time ago - last one was a Tom Clancy book I think. Anyway, my point was I was reading with interest to the point where I was willing to have a look at these - but the reviews kind of didn't reinforce the fact that I should make my way back into the fiction genre...

I'm almost done with the third volume of 'The Lost Fleet' and while it's not the best fiction I've read I find it hard to agree with those three reviews you quoted. Maybe I just enjoy a good story and don't really need the depth the author's of those reviews seem to find lacking in this series. Besides, if you take the average of those "star" ratings you get 3.5 stars... And that ain't bad. Be curious to see what you thought JD if you read just the first book.

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ORIGINAL: ilovestrategy

Reading this reminds me of the LensMan series by E.E. Doc Smith. First Sci Fi series I ever read. 

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ORIGINAL: rhondabrwn

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ORIGINAL: ilovestrategy

Reading this reminds me of the LensMan series by E.E. Doc Smith. First Sci Fi series I ever read. 

I loved that series! Ole' Doc sure could spin a yarn, even if the physics of his space battles was... to put it mildly... strange.

I remember some of his books where he had fleets of 10,000 starships each forming into cones and just crashing headlong into the enemy formed into a solid wall and 5,000 ships would collide in the first instant of battle! Other times they would form "battle lines" like a naval campaign and thousands of ships would follow end to end as the battle lines blasted each other. Incredible stuff, but it was still a lot of fun! I'll have to dig into the moldy old boxes of sci-fi and find the actual titles of these. As I recall, the Lensmen series wasn't quite so wild.

After 16 years, Civ II still has me in it's clutches LOL!!!
Now CIV IV has me in it's evil clutches!