Pros
- Some fun and engaging fleet battles in the story
- Legend of Geary continues with the story
- Some strategic elements that adds some depth to the story
Cons
- Some slow points that feel like the strategies are explained too much
Leviathan Review
Fans of the Lost Fleet series will enjoy what Jack Campbell has written in Leviathan. The legend of “Blackjack” Geary continues in this story, only now he’s faced with an advanced artificial intelligence that controls a powerful fleet of ships.
These ships, containing the entirety of human strategy and knowledge, including Geary’s owns maneuvers, pose a threat to the alliance. As with previous stories in the Lost Fleet, Geary has to protect those under his command and the alliance from such a powerful threat.
One of the appealing aspects of Leviathan and the Lost Fleet series is that battles are written in almost naval fashion, with ships maneuvering through space much like our own ocean-bound ships once did during the times when those enormous battles took place out in the open sea.
Consequently, Geary’s actions and placements of his ships during battle make the encounters that much more tense. Science fiction writers don’t really have much to draw on when it comes to space battles simply because humans haven’t really fought one another in space, and I hope we never will.
So writers have to be creative about space battles. I imagine people familiar with naval history and battles will get more enjoyment out of the space battles, but there’s a realism here with regards to placement, orientation, speed, and fleet maneuvering that makes the battles exciting. Some of the battles remind me of the documentaries or shows I’ve seen about how empires fought one another with large, wooden ships orienting themselves correctly so that they could fire effectively.
In addition to the fleet combat and strategy layer, the addition of the Dancers adds an element o intrigue to the story that further expands the Lost Fleet universe. Who or what are these aliens? What are their intentions? These questions are explored in Leviathan, and the answers add a layer of wonder to an otherwise exciting military science fiction story.
Leviathan by Jack Campbell doesn’t shy away from large fleet battles with interesting military strategy. In fact, it’s a story that embraces fleet action where many writers tend to focus on singular ship-to-ship combat. Fans of the military science fiction genre will enjoy the writing and the stories by Jack Campbell.
Read reviews of other works by Jack Campbell.
