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Title: Ascendant
Series: Genesis Fleet #2 (Lost Fleet)
Author: Jack Campbell
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Mil-SF
Pages: 280
Words: 109K
This started really politically heavy, to the point where I considered dnf’ing this. But after a couple of chapters he went back to the tried and true “underdog takes on impossible odds against very unsavory people and wins” way of writing.
One thing that stood out to me this time was just how squeamish Campbell makes his good guys. They kill the bad guys but moan and piss before hand, during it and after. You’d think they were offing their own dear sainted grandmother instead of brutal thugs intent on killing them and everyone they love and know. There is a point where good guys need to keep from becoming brutal thugs themselves, but making them emotional weaklings isn’t the way to do that.
I’ll be reading final book in this trilogy but I must say, it’s the weakest story that Campbell has written so far. I don’t recommend this trilogy to anyone but hardcore Lost Fleet fans.
★★★☆☆
From the Publishers
In the three years since former fleet officer Rob Geary and former Marine Mele Darcy led improvised forces to repel attacks on the newly settled world of Glenlyon, tensions have only gotten worse.
When one of Glenlyon’s warships is blown apart trying to break the blockade that has isolated the world from the rest of human-colonized space, only the destroyer Saber remains to defend it from another attack. Geary’s decision to take Saber to the nearby star Kosatka to safeguard a diplomatic mission is a risky interpretation of his orders, to say the least.
Kosatka has been fighting a growing threat from so-called rebels–who are actually soldiers from aggressive colonies. When a “peacekeeping force” carrying thousands of enemy soldiers arrives in Kosatka’s star system, the people of that world, including Lochan Nakamura and former “Red” Carmen Ochoa, face an apparently hopeless battle to retain their freedom.
It’s said that the best defense is a good offense. But even if a bold and risky move succeeds, Geary and Darcy may not survive it…