The Lost Fleet series

[Razaekel]

Has anybody here read The Lost Fleet series by Jack Campbell? I thought it was a pretty well-written series of books, really gets you into the action of space battles, although my main complaint about the books was that they were just too damned short.

The technology they use is kept to its basics, no detailing of how things work, just that they do. Ship speeds cap out around 0.25c, and some attention is given to how the protagonist deals with combat at those speeds, mainly in predicting when to maneuver. If my memory serves, the actual firing is left to computers, with humans in the loop to serve as target designation and fire safety. The only thing that niggled at me was the resolution of their sensors, which seemed to be able to pick out the difference between civilian and military structures on inner planets while on the outskirts of the systems. In counter to that, they don't have FTL comms or sensors, and FTL travel is restricted to either gates in systems or shipboard drives which are slower than the gates. The availability or absence of gates is also used as a plot point in regards to development of colonies.

Any comments from those who have read it?

[Samuel]

I found it slightly hard to believe no one reinvented tactics during the 100 years that the war had been raging. You'd think someone would look up the old battles and figure out how to replicate the moves.

The only thing that niggled at me was the resolution of their sensors, which seemed to be able to pick out the difference between civilian and military structures on inner planets while on the outskirts of the systems.

Especially given their lack of scruples about bombing planets and the syndicates willingness to use human shields. Or maybe they don't bother disguising them because they know the alliance will just flatten all the planet anyway.

[PainRack]

Loved it. Set up a thread here a year or two back when the 4th book was released or so.


Its one of those military science fiction stories that actually stresses both the science, fiction and military. You got awesome starship porn, you get some science concepts and how the story plans around this, and lastly, you get actual plot, character development and story.

[Mr Bean]

I found it slightly hard to believe no one reinvented tactics during the 100 years that the war had been raging. You'd think someone would look up the old battles and figure out how to replicate the moves.

The book stresses the fact that there has been the following

A. Constant large scale Combat for those hundred years (With only two breaks of less than three years each when both sides had to declare an unofficial cease fire for lack of ships to carry on the offensive)
B. Patronage games which gets idiots promoted to high rank
C. Said idiots gets lots and lots of people dead.

The books picture it as a rather gradual erosion which I could buy in one case(Movement of ships over a multi light second battlefield with lightspeed limited communications in 3d space)
But not in another (Fighting your ships in effective formations) to be fair the book tries to explain it as an issue with ships rarely having time to work up together as a fleet before being sent into combat. (See B) but of the various "facts" it's the second most stenching it (Lol CEO's)

[Samuel]

Yeah, but not all those appointed by patronage will be idiots and if strategy is that rare the few who employ it will have a major effect.

[Mr Bean]

Yeah, but not all those appointed by patronage will be idiots and if strategy is that rare the few who employ it will have a major effect.

Remember the books, you also have to have officers trained in how to use such tactics. When I refereed to idiot politicos there's a mention in the last two books that successful fleet commanders are rare and all successful because of politics rather strategy. Those who are successful are given the chance to try and be successful again and again until they are not.

I'll stress this agian, the war has been so prolonged and the fighting so terrible that each side had to have a ceasefire because neither side could not launch offensive operations They physically ran out of ships to go fight the enemy. I don't think that neither side any ships left, just none that were not committed to being worked up or defending fixed points.

Remember I think it was the second book when they go into the battles that "Fighting Falco" fought resulted in close to 70% causalities for the "victors". On earth the enemy normally runs far before you get to 70% dead, normally in the 5%-20% break. Even naval engagements on earth, almost no engagements resulted in total destruction of an attacking force. People run much before then when it's clear they are losing.

You have to learn tactics somewhere, and if the teachers of those tactics are all dead they vanish until someone else invents them again. The stretching point is that all those people DID die. We expect you know maybe 1 in 20 of your good fleet admirals getting rotated home and being used to train the next generation of admirals. But considering the massive casualties that even a basic engagement it's possible, but again only possible if they did not rotate that 1 in 20 guy home.

[PainRack]

To me, its more striking that when Geary brought up the initial fleet tactics and formation, the captains at the table actually recognised it. And by the third book, the Syndics were actively trying to copy Geary tactics with increasing success.

It could be a form of book learning versus actual skill. Both sides knew the theory of such tactics, but the actual skill at bringing it off was non existent. Similar to how the BEF of 1914 was superior in march than the successor formations of 1916. The myth of walking sticks and officers had a basis because the newly trained soldiers didn't have the discipline and knowledge of how to maintain a fighting line in combat, straying from the line would have meant soldiers getting lost or being hit by stray bullets.

Hell, my friends and I experienced the same things. We "knew" the correct way to advance to contact or man a checkpoint, but the execution of it sucked, to the extent that my former Platoon Commander actually had a live round zip past him during an exercise.

As for ceasefire, where is that from may I ask?

[Mr Bean]

As for ceasefire, where is that from may I ask?

I'll have to hunt the quote but I believe it's from the first or second book when Geary is questioning his captain (Name escapes me) on the Dauntless about how well the war is "really" going and is told about fighting for the last hundred years minus breaks in the fighting when neither side had the ships left to attack.

[Soontir C'boath]

It's definitely in the first book as I just finished reading it but I can't for the life of me find it.

I am absolutely floored at how amazingly well done of the characters and the suspense that existed in the story. The space battles were great but Campbell also managed to keep you hook, line, and sinker throughout the story in between them.

[Luc de Vandamie]

I loved these books personally, mainly because the technology wasn't really a stretch, as there wasn't any mumbo jumbo info dumps about weapons, and if things had to be explained, either Geary asked about them, and comparisons were made to the tech of his time, or the politician Rione asked a question that the military types thought a bit stupid, but explained to humor her.

The characters too intrigued me, being pretty believable, especially Geary, rather ironically, given that he's a man who has been thrown into a situation where he needs to relearn everything he thought he knew, and also because while for everyone else it has been 100 years, for him, in the first book quite literally given the in-universe timeframe, it has only been between a few hours or a few days (I can't remember if that was explained or not, but I'm fairly sure it was only a day or two by his recollection), and he's been thrust into command, and probably suffering from a repressed form of PTSD.

[Dalton]

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