Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Unavailable
    Valiant
    Unavailable
    Valiant
    Unavailable
    Valiant
    Ebook389 pages5 hours

    Valiant

    By Jack Campbell

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    Listen to the audiobook instead

    About this ebook

    “Black Jack” Geary has ordered his fleet back to the Lakota Star System where the Syndics nearly destroyed them, a desperate gamble that may give them a fighting chance of survival—or tear them apart.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTitan Books
    Release dateAug 8, 2011
    ISBN9780857685483
    Author

    Jack Campbell

    Jack Campbell is the pseudonym for John G. Hemry, a retired Naval officer and graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis. As Jack Campbell, he writes The Lost Fleet series of military science fiction novels. He also wrote the Stark’s War and JAG in Space series under his real name.

    Read more from Jack Campbell

    Related to Valiant

    Related ebooks

    Science Fiction For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Survival Instincts

      Dec 8, 2022

      Survival Instincts
      4 min read

    • Article

      On The Fly

      Aug 9, 2020

      On The Fly
      1 min read

    • Article

      Lost In Space

      Oct 17, 2019

      Lost In Space
      3 min read

    • Article

      Test Your Metal

      Jul 27, 2021

      Test Your Metal
      2 min read

    • Article

      The Outer Worlds

      Aug 27, 2019

      The Outer Worlds
      3 min read

    • Article

      Star Wars Jedi: Survivor

      May 23, 2023

      Star Wars Jedi: Survivor
      4 min read

    • Article

      A New Yoke

      Nov 12, 2020

      A New Yoke
      6 min read

    • Article

      Parade Of History

      May 3, 2019

      Parade Of History
      5 min read

    • Article

      Andy Rice DINGHIES

      Nov 8, 2019

      Why, Sir, you find no man, at all intellectual, who is willing to leave Sailing. No, Sir, when a man is tired of Sailing, he is tired of life; for there is in Sailing all that life can afford. So said one of England’s most famous writers, Samuel John

      3 min read

    • Article

      Star Wars: Squadrons

      Nov 5, 2020

      Star Wars: Squadrons
      6 min read

    • Article

      Tom Cunliffe

      Mar 31, 2023

      Tom Cunliffe
      5 min read

    • Article

      Tom Cunliffe

      Mar 31, 2023

      Tom Cunliffe
      5 min read

    • Article

      A New Yoke

      Dec 7, 2020

      A New Yoke
      6 min read

    • Article

      Ys X: Nordics

      Dec 12, 2023

      Ys X: Nordics
      3 min read

    • Article

      Improvisation In Warfare

      Nov 18, 2022

      Improvisation In Warfare
      5 min read

    • Article

      Horde Mode

      Jan 5, 2023

      Horde Mode
      6 min read

    • Article

      A New Yoke

      Dec 1, 2020

      A New Yoke
      6 min read

    • Article

      Battling To Hobart

      Feb 11, 2021

      Battling To Hobart
      6 min read

    • Article

      Tom Cunliffe

      Jun 5, 2020

      Tom Cunliffe
      5 min read

    • Article

      Survival Of The Fittest

      Nov 13, 2018

      Survival Of The Fittest
      3 min read

    • Article

      Tom Cunliffe

      Jun 5, 2020

      Tom Cunliffe
      5 min read

    • Article

      Kestis Run

      May 26, 2023

      Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is arriving at a time when there’s too much Star Wars, and most of it is not good. The Mandalorian has gotten too cheesy in its third season, the Boba Fett and Obi-Wan shows were toothless side stories, and enthusiasm around

      6 min read

    • Article

      Big Julie

      Sep 8, 2022

      Big Julie
      7 min read

    • Article

      Bosun’s Bag

      May 13, 2022

      Bosun’s Bag
      4 min read

    Reviews for Valiant

    4/5

    344 ratings18 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      Awesome space battles against huge odds.
    • 5/5
      This series has excellent space combat and rather cardboard characters.In this volume, the characterisation has got a little more depth and the politics are getting more convincing.Still lacking depth of personality by most standards (no one ever watches TV, talks about sport, plays music or discusses anything not related to the plot), but that's not really what one reads Lost Fleet for.Believable space battles are the name of the game.
    • 4/5
      If you like military SF at all, you should be reading this series. After a century of war with the Sydicated Worlds, the Alliance fleet, led by the reluctantly legendary Captain "Black Jack" Geary, is trapped deep in enemy territory, trying desperately to get home with technology that could finally win the war. If they fail, the Alliance is left with no defenses to speak of.This is the fourth book. It's as good as the others, with the familiar space battles, fleet politics, and ethical questions. New treacheries unfold, and potential allies are found in unexpected places. Captain Geary's fundamental decency continues to stand him in good stead. And he remains clueless about women. (To my mind, those are the weakest bits of the series, but you don't read military SF for the romance.)This is very much a middle book, with all that implies, but it's well worth reading. Start at the beginning, not here, but don't skip this one.
    • 4/5
      This is still one of my favorite series, but this book was not quite as engaging as the others. There was a lot of very good action and then a lot of huffy romance that was not really that well done. I did not understand where some of the childish behavior and tension was coming from. There was also less introspection then in previous book, still this is a pretty good and entertaining book.
    • 5/5
      Going through whole 'Lost Fleet' series I can see an incremental improvement in both quality of writing and the plot development. It was enough even before to keep me going - but now I am going to jump into following novels with even more interest.
    • 4/5
      Enjoyed this one more than the last one. The political intrigues inside the Fleet were really interesting.
    • 4/5
      While the shortest in terms of internal chronology, I found that Valiant was also the most enjoyable, as the focus for this novel was more about the depth of the events, as opposed to the width of events that's been happening up till now. You could say, quality over quantity of events. Nothing shows this change more than the battles themselves as they were depicted in this volume.Another improvement (though still not quite perfect), was the human factor of this series. It's simple enough to just paint Geary as a fish out of water/King Arthur prototype, but when it comes to his background and his personality, it's still somewhat of a cliche. I have to admit, it's surprising that after four volumes, we have yet to know the name of the ship that was his previous command that led to his fame as 'Black Jack' Geary. In addition, the way the relationships are written is as clunky as ever, but not bad as it was written in Fearless, on the relationship of Geary and Rione.Overall, the series is definitely heading in the right direction, as each successive volumes makes improvements over the previous book in terms of story, character, and entertainment value.
    • 2/5
      I was looking forward to this as the series has kept my interest so far, but now it seems to be rehashing the previous plots. Did anything new happen?Do we not see the plots of the previous books,Flee from the enemy, can't seem to shake them, have a battle, survive, find a new idea based on an old idea, have plotters and detractors, fight the feelings of love...This book didn't move enough of the overall plot. Perhaps Campbell got a multi book deal and is stretching it.
    • 3/5
      The Alliance Fleet let by John Geary isn't back to Alliance Space yet, but they are still alive and fighting. Somehow Campbell makes this book worth reading, even though it seems like it should be just a repeat of books 2 and 3. Definitely worth it if you are a fan of this series.
    • 3/5
      These books are pretty much like candy...a quick, pleasant hit with not much nutrition. :-)Imagine E. E. "Doc" Smith writing a Hornblower novel and you sort of have the plot basis. If Campbell doesn't get the fleet home and turn the novels in another direction, I think they will get boring soon. However, for the moment they are a trashy diversion from anything serious and I suck them down in a couple of hours.
    • 4/5
      Good character development in this book of the series.
    • 3/5
      Captain Geary’s fleet continues its travel to its home through enemy star systems. A quick turnaround leads them back to a place they had left to clean up a battlefield and then the entire fleet’s existence is threatened. Not to mention the internal politics ratchet up to a higher and more dangerous level. This is yet another good story in the Lost Fleet saga.
    • 4/5
      “The Lost Fleet: Valiant” by Jack Campbell is his fourth installment in the military sci-fi series. Once again Mr. Campbell’s writing is excellent and his technique in portraying the overall continuity and logistics of ship-to-ship battles are some of the best I’ve read. What I felt was missing in this chapter were Captain Geary’s three tiered self-rationalization for many of his motives and subsequent actions. I felt that this ongoing internal dialogue of Captain Geary was what set him apart from many of the cookie cutter characters I’ve read in the past. In any case, this was a decent volume and I shall be picking up the next chapter soon enough.
    • 4/5
      In Valiant, Campbell’s universe is well established and he is able to focus on developing his characters and his world. The massive destructive capabilities of hypernets are proven (to the devastation of a Syndic system), Syndic civilians play a larger role, and the agents acting against Geary’s command begin to take drastic action-- even going so far as sending malware onto ships with the potential to destroy them. As before, Campbell’s tactical writing is incredible and his vision of space fleets and space battles is fascinating, highly detailed, and engaging.
    • 4/5
      In Valiant, Jack Campbell’s fourth book in his The Lost Fleet series, Captain “Black Jack” Geary is back, leading the remaining Alliance fleet through Syndic territory in an effort to get home to Alliance territory. They’re worried about their fuel cells, food stores, and the materials they need to create weapons. They’re obviously also worried about the Syndic fleet(s) following them, trying to trap them and eliminate them wherever they go. So far, they’ve beaten the odds and whipped the Syndics and they’ve discovered that the Syndics are afraid of Geary. The Syndic CEOs and crews are inexperienced and this weakness allows Geary to exploit this weakness in battle and concentrate on, yes, more pressing needs. In this book, they’ll also witness a Syndic hypernet gate collapse, see the horrifying damage it can do, and try to get the truth out to the Syndic worlds, letting everyone know the Alliance is not responsible for this atrocity. Finally, they’re getting closer to finding out the truth behind their suspicions that some form of aliens on the other side of Syndicate space might be influencing the war and trying to exterminate humanity.One of the previously mentioned more pressing needs is fleet treasonous behavior on the part of fleet captains. Geary’s always had adversaries and has actually had to arrest a few, but things are getting nasty. Worms are found in several ship’s operating systems that would have resulted in Geary’s ship and a couple of others jumping into jump space and never emerging again, lost forever, while the rest of the fleet remains helpless. Who are these evil rivals who are willing to kill him and their colleagues in the fleet? Why are they willing to go to such traitorous lengths? Geary needs to find out and find out fast!Another pressing need, although less so, is the two women in his life, Co-President Victoria Rione and Captain Tanya Desjani, his fleet commander. Rione has been his on again, off again lover, now permanently off. I’ve never liked her. She’s a politician who does nothing but play mind fuck games. She’s a total bitch and treats him like crap. I hate her guts and so does everyone in the fleet. And she hates and treats Desjani, Geary’s biggest supporter, like crap and with great disdain. Desjani used to follow Geary around like a devoted puppy dog, willing to do anything he commanded. She still follows his orders, but in this book, Campbell finally develops her character to a much larger degree and we get to know a lot more about her and find out there’s a lot more to her than just blind devotion to the Alliance and to Geary. It’s refreshing. Tanya Desjani is given more development in this book. We’re finally shown some other, nicer components of her personality. When we first met her, her two main personality traits seemed to be utter blind devotion to Geary and an unusual battle lust. Now she is actually a potential love interest for Geary and no one could be better for him. It’s also refreshing to see a “nice” woman who cares for and respects Geary treat him with dignity and respect and honor, as well as offering an objective opinion on tactics and other things, unlike Rione and it’s just sad that the two women simply end up getting catty with each other. It gets damned annoying. I just want Desjani to punch her out! It creates a real headache for Geary.My series complaints about the fleet weaponry remains and stands. They have virtually no missiles, so they rely on “grapeshot” and “hell lances,” both of which are for close quarters combat, which of course is not remotely possible at the speeds Campbell (or anyone) writes about taking place in space. There would simply be collisions and warships would blow up. It’s that simple. Besides, it’s simply stupid to think that 17th century Earth-based pirate’s grapeshot using actual ball bearings would be used thousands of years in the future in outer space. It’s truly the most ridiculous space “weapon” I’ve ever heard of in my life. Grapeshot tears ships apart. Sure it does. Since you’re 100 yards away from each other traveling at the speed of light and not colliding, I guess that can happen, right? Shit. Hell lances are little better. Close quarters combat. There’s another close quarters weapon, but I forget the name now, but essentially it’s 17th century naval battles in space, when ships got alongside each other and fired at point blank range and men boarded each other’s ships. It’s utterly the most stupid thing I could possibly imagine. Most sci fi writers use weapons such as, yes, missiles, but also lasers, grazers, plasma weapons, anti-missile defenses, and much more. Not here. Oh, and when 120 warships attack 120 other warships and fire at each other, maybe, maybe five get hit. Two get destroyed and three get seriously damaged. And that’s considered successful. Compare that to the greatest military sci fi writer of our time, David Weber. He has hundreds, at times, thousands of ships, each with impeller wedges powering the ships which are hundreds of kilometers wide, so that the battle lines are thousands, maybe millions of kilometers wide and millions of kilometers apart and the two fleets fire at each other at maybe 1.5 million kilometers apart. For close quarters laser action, perhaps they close to some 700,000 or 500,000 kilometers. I could be off, but you get the picture. And hundreds of ships blow up at one time, not five. It’s ridiculous to think that 120 ships firing at one time can only blow up a couple of ships. That’s the definition of ineptitude. Is it any wonder why this war has been going on for over 100 years? Their weapons are hideously bad. Can’t R&D do something decent? So, that’s my major complaint with this book and this series. And it’s a major complaint and it always knocks at least one star off the overall rating because I think it’s such a serious drawback.All that said, I think this is a pretty good book in a decent series. This isn’t the best military sci fi series I’ve ever read, not by a long shot. But it’s holding my interest. I want to know what happens to Geary when he gets the fleet home to the Alliance. Will the politicians welcome him or view him as a threat? What will be done about the aliens? Can the war be stopped? Will he and Desjani finally end up together? I want to know, shortcomings be damned! So, four stars and if you’re reading the series, recommended.
    • 5/5
      “Black Jack” Geary has ordered his fleet back to the Lakota Star System where the Syndics nearly destroyed them, a desperate gamble that may give them a fighting chance of survival—or tear them apart. this is book four in the lost fleey series and it still feels as fresh as book one. It is a book that you could read alone, yet it does not have the repititions that you can find that slow a book down. On to the next one
    • 4/5
      Lo and behold, Valiant actually progresses the plot of the series overall! Valiant starts off with a battle (which began at the end of the previous book) and is fairly interesting as it involves a neat little trap the good guys spring on the bad guys. After this battle, things slow down a bit and it takes a few chapters to get going again, but what does happen is interesting.The basic plot hasn’t changed from the first three books. The Alliance Fleet is still trying to make its way home after being stuck in enemy territory. Captain John Geary is still one of the few officers with anything more than sawdust for brains, but thankfully, he’s still in charge of getting everyone home. He’s also managed to form a small cadre of loyal, reliable, and dedicated officers who are trying to follow his example. What develops in Valiant are a number of subplots that have been hinted at in the previous books. The major one is that of a growing concern that a third, alien, party is manipulating the war between the Alliance (the good guys) and the Syndics (the bad guys). Whereas these cunning aliens have only been alluded to in the previous books, in Valiant we actually see some concrete evidence that they actually do exist and that they are indeed very powerful and politically adept. While there is still a lot of conjecture thrown around by the main characters and many questions are still left unanswered, we finally see some solid plot development. On a further note, we also see more of the junior officers this time around; one in the form of an intelligence officer. Usually Campbell denotes junior officers solely by their rank, but here he actually names a few, which is nice. In regards to a different subplot, specifically the one dealing with the non-Geary idolaters in the fleet, we see some further developments on that as well. Instead of outright mutiny like we saw with Capt. Falco in the second book, we see the non-Geary camp beginning to utilize subterfuge and sabotage as a way to try and undermine Geary’s efforts. They even go so far as to resort to cold-blooded fratricide in a few cases. I won’t spoil the details. This subplot develops in the latter half of the book, plays out very well, and kept me interested.Finally, the romance subplots are developed further as well. Thankfully, Co-President Victoria Rione is slightly less of a nagging crone as she was in the previous book. Thankfully, we see the romance between her and Geary cool (if not simply taken out back and shot), and another romance begin to develop between Geary and a certain other officer. It plays out alright, but it does work. I still don’t think Campbell has the best knack for writing romance however. It still feels a tad on the forced side.As for the battles, it’s still more of the good stuff we expect from someone like Campbell. Overall, I’d give Valiant a respectable 3.5 out of 5. It’s good and it’s definitely better than Courageous, but it doesn’t quite possess the same pacing as the first two books which would net it a recommended 4 out of 5 rating. So, would I recommend it? Not necessarily. However, it’s probably worth a read if you’ve already started the series because it does pick things up and advance the plot as well as several subplots. Good, but not quite great.
    • 4/5
      This is the fourth book in the series. Instead of more "kung fu fighting", the book deals with some fleet treason and speculation about the aliens on the other side of syndic space. The massive destructive capabilities of hypernets are proven (to the devastation of a Syndic system) and Geary performs a rescue from a syndic world of people stranded by the departing company. A serious part of the plot involves female competition between the Ryone and the Desjani. Good book and I'm feeling better about it'sprogress as it's plot develops beyond more and more fighting.