Lost Fleet, Books 1 - 111
3.0 Stars
3-15-2023

Space Opera that is heavy on the Opera and light on the Space. There's a lot to talk about in these novels, since the author varies the concerns pleasantly from novel to novel. There are space battles, there are empires at war, there are far voyages, discoveries, aliens, visits to old Earth, political campaigns, civilian politics, military politics, bureaucratic infighting, espionage, viruses, whistle blowers, and of course the love triangle between the protagonist Admiral, the tsundere Senator/political agent meant to keep him in check, and the murder-bunny ship captain who worships him but cannot fall in love with him because of their Honor! and! Duty!. The main flavor through all of this is a sort of patriotic liberal centrism. Normally I might white a bit about this, but the genre of mil-sci-fi is such a minefield of far-right authors that this author is a welcome relief.

Now begins the part where I mention the sort of quietly positive things that the book does well. The multiple alien species that are encountered are nice; with each one the author leaves a realistic amount of mystery to them, how they think, and what their goals are. Some are never understood at all, and even the most communicative and helpful are still creatures with their own values and patterns that are of course alien to our own thinking. I liked the author's choice of main villains; the Syndicate Worlds are a libertarian hellscape run by insufferable CEOs who are all delivered straight from central casting. There's a reason that so many sports and rom-com movies have the antagonist be some variety of smarmy rich person, it's an easy archetype to dislike. I liked how the characters in this far future practice a generic form of ancestor worships, and that at perilous moments the protagonist will pray to his ancestors for guidance, and will receive it from the author who is his presumable ancestor. Kind of a silly but fun little bit of metafiction there. I liked the work that the audio book team put into the production, and how there are characters and accents from all over the globe in the story and out there in space.

In the negative category, it's not clear that the space battles make any real sense, even in the context of the universe, but, eh, whatever. A few of them are too long/repetitive, but as with the rest of the story the author does make a good effort to break things up and bring different concerns into each situation. Probably more notable of a downside is that while the stories are fine, the author is never aiming for or achieving anything other than light, popcorn and pretzels type entertainment. So it's fine for audio books, but it is not a Patrick O'Brian type achievement.