La Alianza ha estado inmersa en una guerra imposible contra los Mundos Síndicos. Ahora, el capitán John Black Jack Geary, de vuelta en la flota después de pasar un siglo en animación suspendida, debe mantenerla un paso por delante de sus despiadados enemigos…
No obstante, después de una serie de fatídicos encuentros, la flota de la Alianza se halla gravemente dañada. ¿Cuál debe ser su siguiente movimiento? Los síndicos empiezan a entender las tácticas de Geary, y según las naves de la Alianza saltan de sistema en sistema, mantener la distancia se vuelve cada vez más difícil. Además, Geary descubre que los síndicos han estado manteniendo en secreto la existencia de otra facción potencial, y ese poder desconocido podría tener los medios para aniquilar a la raza humana…

Good and exciting, but I could have used a bit less of the 4 dimensional battle tactics. ( )

Back to space battles and trying to get home. ( )

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67 points/100 (3 ½ stars/5)
Warning: Cliffhanger (Status: There was a battle. It isn't done. Why would you end this here?)

Captain John "Black Jack" Geary woke up after a hundred years in survival hibernation to find that he has been revered as a hero. He also finds himself in command of a fleet in enemy territory with only one goal: get home. In an impossible situation, Geary has to live up to the his name and pull off a miracle. The fleet is also running into a problem: lack of supplies. Deep in enemy territory, they have no safe way to resupply, and the Syndicate isn't to be trusted.

Courageous sees us to the midway point of our journey home. We're still deep in enemy territory, the end is nowhere in sight, and Black Jack Geary is getting tested again and again. This series is exhausting, and we are only halfway through it!

The big problem in Courageous is that we are quickly running low on supplies. Resupplying is tricky at best, impossible at worst. It is a war of attrition, and they are on the wrong side. They have nothing to barter with, even if the Syndicate would barter with them. They have to make demands, and they cannot trust the Syndicate. They've already shown themselves to be utterly untrustworthy. We're jumping from system to system to system, fighting more and more. It is only logical that this is going to be a problem.

Since Courageous deals so much with the logistics, I was really disappointed when I realised that we, the readers, knew nothing about what was going on. We just get a basic "oh we're running low on this and that" message from others every so often, but it is always just one or two things with a vague "plus a whole lot more". Only Geary really knows what the fleet has and what they don't have. As a reader who wants to become the main character while reading, I'm just not able to do this with this series. I'm just incapable of doing it because I know so little that isn't actively happening on screen at the time.

Courageous is also very heavy on the character interactions. It still only has a handful of real side characters. Yet, two of them are apparently love interests. Seriously, no one told me this was a romance series. There is just so much relationship drama in this book! I think it should come with a sticker "Warning: Love triangle, jealousy, denial, avoidance and drama!". There was almost as much relationship drama as there was plot related to us getting home again! There was just so much going on with them, and so much of it was annoying.

On a more personal level, Geary is also frightened that he is becoming the Black Jack everyone thinks he is supposed to be. The void is calling on him, and he wants to act on it. He wants to rule the fleet with an iron fist. Yet for some reason, he won't let himself. He has to stay human. So there is a lot of internal struggle in Courageous, too.

Yes, I'm a reader that focuses on characters. While Courageous managed to give me more of what I wanted, it was also in about the opposite direction of what I wanted. The side characters are still completely forgettable except for the love interests who are becoming increasingly annoying. While plot is important to me, too, the battle ended off in the middle of the entire thing, and I felt betrayed at this. I just hope it improves from here. ( )

Book 3 of the Lost Fleet series. Continual wandering though space with inter-tribal politics and a moody woman or two. 90% of this book is very boring because that's what's covered..Really need to move past the whole running around in enemy territory" thing. This was almost a carbon copy of the 2nd book. Different names and places, but same idea. I want something new. ( )