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A review by pjonsson
Guardian by Jack Campbell
3.0
About a year ago when I had read the previous book in the Beyond The Frontier series by Jack Campbell I was a little bit disappointed. I thought that the author didn’t really have any new ideas but just got bogged down more and more in (bad) politics, deceit and backstabbing a’la cheap soap opera. Sadly enough I feel that this book is pretty much more of the same.
The parts of the book where Geary and his fleet is trying to get back home with the captured alien ship, not to mention the live aliens that are following them, and the action this entails are nice reading for sure. However it is a very similar scenario as the original series. Fleet stranded in Syndic space tries to get home and the Syndics are doing their best to prevent it. Been there, read that.
After the fleet actually does get home around the two thirds mark or a little more the book really becomes boring with more or less nothing but politics or various dialogs about the repercussions of politics, past actions or future actions. It becomes a little bit more interesting at the very end and there are certainly some elements at the end which would be interesting if they were taken further in the next book, if there will be a next book. However given that the author have continuously shown a preference for the political aspects and forcing Geary to often have to overcome pure idiocy among the Alliance itself rather than external military threats I will continue to have my expectations on these books set somewhere on a fairly average level.
It is good books if you like this type of story. The combat parts and the fairly realistic tactical maneuvering are really good and is what have made me continue to read them. The rest I am not so thrilled about. The end, well I can say very little about it without actually revealing it but I have to say that I was somewhat underwhelmed.
The parts of the book where Geary and his fleet is trying to get back home with the captured alien ship, not to mention the live aliens that are following them, and the action this entails are nice reading for sure. However it is a very similar scenario as the original series. Fleet stranded in Syndic space tries to get home and the Syndics are doing their best to prevent it. Been there, read that.
After the fleet actually does get home around the two thirds mark or a little more the book really becomes boring with more or less nothing but politics or various dialogs about the repercussions of politics, past actions or future actions. It becomes a little bit more interesting at the very end and there are certainly some elements at the end which would be interesting if they were taken further in the next book, if there will be a next book. However given that the author have continuously shown a preference for the political aspects and forcing Geary to often have to overcome pure idiocy among the Alliance itself rather than external military threats I will continue to have my expectations on these books set somewhere on a fairly average level.
It is good books if you like this type of story. The combat parts and the fairly realistic tactical maneuvering are really good and is what have made me continue to read them. The rest I am not so thrilled about. The end, well I can say very little about it without actually revealing it but I have to say that I was somewhat underwhelmed.