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3.5 Stars

Dauntless was an enjoyable naval adventure in space that ignored depth and challenging complexity in favour of cool tech and massive space battles.

A hundred years ago the Syndicate worlds launched a deadly surprise attack on a small convoy of Alliance ships, igniting a terrible war. In command of the small Alliance convoy was Captain ‘Black� Jack Geary. Under his inspired leadership the majority of the convoy was saved, however Captain Geary was lost with his ship. Remembered in the Alliance as the Paragon of bravery and heroism, in the hundred years that followed his death it was whispered that the great captain would return to lead the Alliance to vengeance and to victory. And now he has. But how can a man live up to a legend that has built for a hundred years? And what does he do when he has no choice but to try to be that legend to save the fleet he is responsible for from destruction?

This was a really interesting premise and I thought it was delivered on reasonably well. Many aspects of the plot were predictable but there were also some interesting features such as Captain Geary’s attempts to deal with his legendary reputation and the massive space battles. While I occasionally wasn’t able to understand what was going on (beyond imagining scenes from star wars, complete with *pew pew* and *whoosh* noises) for the most part the basic course of the battles were easy enough to follow and made for compelling scenes. My favourite part of this book was the exploration of naval warfare doctrine and how it had developed over a hundred years. I really liked seeing how Geary adapted the fleets tactics and organisation to try and trump the opposition. His interaction with his crew was also nicely done and I liked seeing how he earned their loyalty and boosted moral. The author is a former naval officer and his knowledge and experience really shine through in these sections.

The worldbuilding in this first book of the series however was pretty pitiful. The Alliance and The Syndicate are both incredibly unremarkable organisations/nations/planets/whatever. Neither has any distinct culture or value system on its own or in contrast to the other one. We’re shown that the Syndicates are evil because they pull a double cross at the start but we’re never given any context for their actions. On a kind of related note I found Captain Geary’s frequent moralising about how far the Alliance had fallen very annoying. Geary took a hundred year nap with a complimentary tax dodge and when he woke up started fixing the morality of a nation that had been fighting a war for a hundred years. There were also hints that aliens are somehow responsible for the otherwise inexplicable war. This was kind of weird because Geary and a number of military scientists became convinced of the presence of aliens in the galaxy (and their apparently important role in geo-politics) based on evidence that wouldn’t even qualify for a history channel programme.

Overall this was an enjoyable trip through space and while it lacked depth in world-building or plot it had plenty of likeable characters, interesting naval strategy and cool battle scenes. In space!