_Leviathan_, Jack Campbell SPOILERS
May. 16th, 2015 11:08 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
walkitoutActual title: _The Lost Fleeet: Beyond the Frontier: Leviathan_
SPOILERS! The Black Fleet is Coming to Git Ya!
Executive summary: don't start the series here! Jack Geary and what's left of his fleet after parts are carved off to protect the government jump to Super Sekrit Binary Star System to deal with the Black Fleet (AI base and fleet). They are successful (sort of).
Long form: After tangling with some weird, stealth ships that seem to have been built by his own team, Geary concludes that there must really be an alternate home base somewhere (Unity Alternate), and that's where the Black Fleet is based. Step 1: distribute software patches that will enable the Good Guys to "see" the Black Fleet (officially distributed software is blinded to the ships. And, it turns out, a lot of other stuff, too.). Step 2: disrupt civilian government efforts to cover up the existence of the Black Fleet/return to status quo. Step 3: fund repairs to the Fleet. Step 4: figure out where the Black Fleet/Unity Alternate is. Step 5: Go there and try not to die while Step 6: destroying Black Fleet and its ability to rebuild.
The expected supporting plot is ably presented: where could it possibly be hiding! Oh, at a binary star. _That's_ what the Dancers were talking about (important preceding step -- improve communications with the Dancers. Of course, in haiku!) But then how can you get there? Via a Super Sekrit Hypernet Gate. So then they have to convince someone In the Know to turn over access credentials.
Rione gets her husband back, but there's not much left there, so she gets one of the Best Deaths Ever pulling the plug on the Hypernet Gate to destroy everything at Unity Alternate that isn't hiding behind ... the other star of the binary system.
I keep wondering if Campbell is gonna be able to pull another convincing Bad Guy out of his hat for Geary to fight. And yet, he keeps coming up with more. This was a good one, altho Out Of Control AI That Is Nonetheless Kinda Boneheaded is a little overdone. But that's okay. Campbell isn't trying to do new stuff; he's reworking old material in a new context and it's always a pleasure (for me, anyway) to read. (Well, okay, the duct tape jokes a few books back when we first met the Dancers were a little lame.)
SPOILERS! The Black Fleet is Coming to Git Ya!
Executive summary: don't start the series here! Jack Geary and what's left of his fleet after parts are carved off to protect the government jump to Super Sekrit Binary Star System to deal with the Black Fleet (AI base and fleet). They are successful (sort of).
Long form: After tangling with some weird, stealth ships that seem to have been built by his own team, Geary concludes that there must really be an alternate home base somewhere (Unity Alternate), and that's where the Black Fleet is based. Step 1: distribute software patches that will enable the Good Guys to "see" the Black Fleet (officially distributed software is blinded to the ships. And, it turns out, a lot of other stuff, too.). Step 2: disrupt civilian government efforts to cover up the existence of the Black Fleet/return to status quo. Step 3: fund repairs to the Fleet. Step 4: figure out where the Black Fleet/Unity Alternate is. Step 5: Go there and try not to die while Step 6: destroying Black Fleet and its ability to rebuild.
The expected supporting plot is ably presented: where could it possibly be hiding! Oh, at a binary star. _That's_ what the Dancers were talking about (important preceding step -- improve communications with the Dancers. Of course, in haiku!) But then how can you get there? Via a Super Sekrit Hypernet Gate. So then they have to convince someone In the Know to turn over access credentials.
Rione gets her husband back, but there's not much left there, so she gets one of the Best Deaths Ever pulling the plug on the Hypernet Gate to destroy everything at Unity Alternate that isn't hiding behind ... the other star of the binary system.
I keep wondering if Campbell is gonna be able to pull another convincing Bad Guy out of his hat for Geary to fight. And yet, he keeps coming up with more. This was a good one, altho Out Of Control AI That Is Nonetheless Kinda Boneheaded is a little overdone. But that's okay. Campbell isn't trying to do new stuff; he's reworking old material in a new context and it's always a pleasure (for me, anyway) to read. (Well, okay, the duct tape jokes a few books back when we first met the Dancers were a little lame.)