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A review by kynan
Relentless by Jack Campbell
3.0
I admit, I was anticipating some "relentless" puns as part of this review but over the course of [b:Valiant|2341319|Valiant (The Lost Fleet, #4)|Jack Campbell|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1311703426s/2341319.jpg|2348013] and [b:Relentless|5292173|Relentless (The Lost Fleet, #5)|Jack Campbell|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348632822s/5292173.jpg|5359599] the story has taken a dramatic turn for the better. I still have my quibbles but at least we're not recycling the same story over and over again like the first three books.
I'm still feeling that this series would have been a lot better off as maybe a duology/trilogy because a lot of time and effort goes into recaps and a lot of scenes feel forced as explanations are replayed for the umpteenth time (when chapter two kicked off yet another marveling rendition of the conference room technology I think I may have audibly sighed). Same deal with things that should just be extra descriptive detail on the characters, in chapter four there's a scene where "Geary never expected to be able to joke about his past being so long ago" which is fine, except he also felt that late in book four too.
I'm still not thrilled about the technology and effort that's gone into explaining it, the path toward technobabble that was tentatively blazed by Valiant's "self-sustaining probability modulation on a quantum scale" has not been followed thankfully but I'd still like to know more about the shielding and inertial dampening, the Hypernet gates too actually although that's obviously less likely to be possible!
I don't think a lot more is going on with characters here either, right up front in chapter one there's an abruptly personal argument between Geary and Desjani that I guess was borne of events from Valiant...somehow, it really didn't gel with the closing chapters of Valiant and the conclusions that those two came to. Rione and Desjani are still refusing to talk to each other, which really is quite annoying.
All in all, it's a story with a set of familiar characters that (perhaps a little too neatly) ties up all the previous sub-plots bar one, which I assume will be the focus of [b:Victorious|7200884|Victorious (The Lost Fleet, #6)|Jack Campbell|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348907182s/7200884.jpg|7878805]. I'm looking forward to finishing that book, at which point I'm going to declare myself done - regardless of how it ends. If you enjoyed all the previous books, you'll definitely enjoy this one, and the inverse also applies.
I'm still feeling that this series would have been a lot better off as maybe a duology/trilogy because a lot of time and effort goes into recaps and a lot of scenes feel forced as explanations are replayed for the umpteenth time (when chapter two kicked off yet another marveling rendition of the conference room technology I think I may have audibly sighed). Same deal with things that should just be extra descriptive detail on the characters, in chapter four there's a scene where "Geary never expected to be able to joke about his past being so long ago" which is fine, except he also felt that late in book four too.
I'm still not thrilled about the technology and effort that's gone into explaining it, the path toward technobabble that was tentatively blazed by Valiant's "self-sustaining probability modulation on a quantum scale" has not been followed thankfully but I'd still like to know more about the shielding and inertial dampening, the Hypernet gates too actually although that's obviously less likely to be possible!
I don't think a lot more is going on with characters here either, right up front in chapter one there's an abruptly personal argument between Geary and Desjani that I guess was borne of events from Valiant...somehow, it really didn't gel with the closing chapters of Valiant and the conclusions that those two came to. Rione and Desjani are still refusing to talk to each other, which really is quite annoying.
All in all, it's a story with a set of familiar characters that (perhaps a little too neatly) ties up all the previous sub-plots bar one, which I assume will be the focus of [b:Victorious|7200884|Victorious (The Lost Fleet, #6)|Jack Campbell|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348907182s/7200884.jpg|7878805]. I'm looking forward to finishing that book, at which point I'm going to declare myself done - regardless of how it ends. If you enjoyed all the previous books, you'll definitely enjoy this one, and the inverse also applies.