Dauntless (Lost Fleet Series #1)

by Jack Campbell

Overview

The first novel in the New York Times bestselling Lost Fleet series!

The Alliance has been fighting the Syndics for a century—and losing badly. Now its fleet is crippled and stranded in enemy territory. Their only hope is a man who's emerged from a century-long hibernation to find he has been heroically idealized beyond belief....

Captain John “Black Jack” Geary’s exploits are known to every schoolchild. Revered for his heroic “last stand” in the early days of the war, he was presumed dead. But a century later, Geary miraculously returns and reluctantly takes command of the Alliance Fleet as it faces annihilation by the Syndics.

Appalled by the hero-worship around him, Geary is nevertheless a man who will do his duty. And he knows that bringing the stolen Syndic hypernet key safely home is the Alliance’s one chance to win the war. But to do that, Geary will have to live up to the impossibly heroic “Black Jack” legend....

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781101158562
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	06/27/2006
Series:	Lost Fleet Series , #1
Sold by:	Penguin Group
Format:	eBook
Pages:	304
Sales rank:	51,542
File size:	1 MB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

“Jack Campbell” is the pen name of John G. Hemry, a retired naval officer who graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis before serving with the surface fleet and in a variety of other assignments. He is the New York Times bestselling author of The Lost Fleet series and The Lost Stars series, as well as the Stark’s War, Paul Sinclair, and Pillars of Reality series. He lives with his indomitable wife and three children in Maryland.

Read an Excerpt

“Captain Geary, I wouldn’t blame you for wondering if you’d have been better off if we hadn’t found you. ‘Black Jack’ Geary, back from the dead to accompany the Alliance Fleet to its greatest victory.” Bloch closed his eyes for a moment. “Now I need to leave the fleet in the hands of someone I can trust.”
 Geary grimaced, wanting to yell at Bloch, tell the admiral that the man he wanted to leave in charge of the fleet wasn’t the man actually standing here, that such a person had never existed.
 He finally just nodded slowly. “Aye, aye, sir.”
 “We’re trapped. This fleet is the Alliance’s last hope.” Bloch leaned close, speaking more softly. “Dauntless has the key onboard. Do you understand? This ship must get home. Somehow. The hypernet key must get back to the Alliance. If we can do that there’ll still be a chance.”
 It wasn’t like Geary would be in charge forever. Bloch would negotiate with the Syndics, then return and be back in command. Geary would never have to learn any details about some “key” on the Dauntless that somehow related to a method of traveling between the stars, which was much more rapid than even the system-jump faster-than-light transportation used in Geary’s time.
“Yes, sir . . . ”

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“A slam-bang good read that kept me up at night.”—Elizabeth Moon

“A rousing adventure…the kind of hero Hornblower fans will love!”—William C.

“The best novel of its type that I’ve read.”—David Sherman, coauthor of the Starfist series

“Military science fiction at its best.”—Catherine Asaro

Editorial Reviews

The Barnes & Noble Review
The Lost Fleet: Dauntless is the first book in a military science fiction saga from Jack Campbell (pseudonym for veteran genre writer John G. Hemry, author of the Stark's War trilogy, A Just Determination, et al.). With its senior command dead and many of its ships crippled and stranded deep in enemy territory, the only hope for the Alliance fleet rests in the hands of Captain John "Black Jack" Geary -- a legendary war hero who, after nearly a century in survival hibernation, has been found in an escape pod floating in deep space and reawakened… The war between the Alliance and the Syndicate Worlds has been going on for a century -- and now, as entire generations have lived and died during wartime, no one even knows why the bloody conflict began in the first place. But as Black Jack Geary struggles to come to grips with his almost godlike reputation -- while trying to find a way to somehow extract his fleet from an impossible situation -- he begins to realize that there are dangers in the universe even more perilous than intergalactic war… Fans of hardcore military science fiction authors like David Drake, William C. Dietz, and John Ringo should definitely check out Hemry's new series, which -- if the non-ending of The Lost Fleet: Dauntless is any indication -- has many installments to go before its eventual conclusion. Paul Goat Allen

bn.com

"DAUNTLESS is the best space navy book that I've ever read."—Michael Mammay, author of Planetside

Praise for Jack Campbell's Lost Fleet series
“Jack Campbell has written the most believable space battles I’ve ever seen anywhere—David Sherman, coauthor of the Starfist series

“The Lost Fleet is some of the best military science fiction on the shelves today.”—SF Site

“Fast-paced and enjoyable.”—SFRevu

“Will grip the audience...Black Jack is a fascinating hero.”—Alternative Worlds

From the Publisher