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Black Jack Geary, famed commander from the beginning of the Syndic/Alliance war is back from the dead only to find that a hundred years of war have left his beloved fleet a shadow of its former self. Thrust into command of the bulk of the Alliance fleet, cut off behind enemy lines, he sets out trying to live up to his legend and to bring the fleet home alive.

I started out pretty excited to read this book. It had received some decent reviews and appeared on a few Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ lists. Sadly, it did not live up to the hype. The premise is forced - a long lost hero thrust into command of a trapped fleet - but I found that I could actually accept that part of the story. It was the premise, unlikely but once you got past it everything should have been fine. But it wasn't. Campbell continues to build up Geary's reputation as a famed commander throughout the book and that is a problem. Geary fought in the first engagement, a relatively minor one at that, of the war and distinguished himself. Why should such a figure stand out so much that he became a totem for the fleet a hundred years later? Did no other heroic figures emerge in the many, many subsequent battles that followed? Granted, this is a quibble, but having accepted the forced premise I found the constant references to Geary's heroic status as a bit too much to ask the reader to accept.

I tried to put these concerns aside to enjoy what I expected to be some nice military scifi, but I was a bit disappointed there as well. The amount of action is rather low and described in a cursory manner. Descriptions in general in the book are rather bland, so much so that I cannot recall any particular physical characteristics of the characters even though I just finished the book ten minutes ago! The ships - a key in military scifi - are given similarly short treatment. They are described by their classifications (heavy cruiser) in simple terms like "big" or "slow," nothing more.

Instead of devoting time to space battles or description, Campbell devotes a great deal of time to discussions of how a century of war have changed a Fleet full of honorable sailors and marines into a bit of a rabble. This discussion is actually the book's strength, but Campbell spends so much time on it (returning to the topic repeatedly) that it forces the reader to consider the problems of the improbability of the premise and Geary's insanely heroic status.

Campbell is trying to do something worthwhile here. He considers questions of honor, how war can affect a society and/or military, and even basic humanity. But the premise and structure that he uses to address these questions are so patently forced as to make them artificial, academic exercises than part of a thriving narrative.