LitPick Review
The latest installment in The Lost Fleet series, Relentless, continues with the narrative of Captain John "Black Jack" Geary and his endeavors with the Alliance Fleet. The Lost Fleet: Relentless commences with a reminiscence of Geary, which serves to both chronicle the occurrences of preceding novels for inexperienced readers, and refresh the memories of returning hands. Geary dreams about his prompt evacuation from the Alliance heavy cruiser Merlon, his entrance into cryogenic sleep, and his subsequent revival a full century later. Geary was miraculously recovered by a surpassing Alliance battle-cruiser after suspension in cosmos for over one hundred years. At this juncture, it is introduced that Geary was a legendary commander of Alliance space forces throughout the initial stages of the Alliance - Syndic conflict, giftedly conducive to both intricate strategies and the full-hearted support of his associates. Upon awakening, Geary reveals that he has guided the Alliance fleet through Syndic-controlled space for the past several months, carefully circumventing declining fuel sources and superior enemy presences. The majority of the plot converges upon Geary's efforts to return the exhausted and resource-strapped fleet to Alliance held space with the Hypernet Gate key, which is hoped to be of use in converting the deluges of the War hitherto. Geary is also required to subtly maneuver the political and military conflicts which arise from his iconic status, as well as ensnaring and ejecting the traitorous officers dispersed in his ranks. Campbell does an excellent job of amalgamating the new plot elements with the gist of the plot of his previous novels; having never read other books in The Lost Fleet collection, I was still able to clearly grasp previous occurrences in the storyline so far.
Opinion:
The Lost Fleet: Rendezvous marks another successful foray of Campbell into the science fiction genre, with a satisfying superfluity of combat, elaborate and convincing substitutions for space engagement tactics, and a superbly crafted narrative, which proves capable of fully fleshing out the nuances and general keystones of war in mutual countenance. Campbell displays remarkable astuteness at seamlessly integrating the myriad conflicts that are harbored within Relentless' pages, as they never seem unwarranted or superfluous. Similarly, the extreme echelons of drama and detail never function to detract from the velvety flavor and progression of the novel. On the contrary, they are well assimilated, operating to truss the discrete constituents of the plot in a textbook comportment and further impelling the progress of the residual pages. The rare fractures which intermittently conceal Relentless' genius concern mainly the sparse prose and short plot, details simple to overlook in face of the glut of the supplementary content. Fans of various other science-fiction authors, chiefly Eric Nylund and William C. Dietz, may regard the unpretentious and rather down-to-earth tone of Campbell with distaste. However, this disparity from the norm is easy to disregard after the passage of the first few pages, due to the authority and strength of Campbell's rendering literary skills and elaborate content. The other dominant and most manifest blemish regards the frustratingly diminutive contribution of Relentless to the overall advancement in the plot of The Lost Fleet series. Despite the profuse number of pages, the plot only takes Geary from Syndic-occupied space to a more native location, instead of progressing the overall plot of the Geary series further as was hoped. Luckily, the saturation of lesser conflicts and occurrences alone provide any reader with motivation to enjoy Relentless, and shortness, after all, is an objective facet of any literary work. Ultimately, the novel proves a paradigm for science-fiction writing, incorporating superb descriptions of military combat and tactics with a tactile and impressive storyline to produce an extraordinarily deep, gratifying, and near perfect experience.
