_Vanguard_, Jack Campbell
Sep. 29th, 2017 04:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
walkitoutI really enjoyed Campbell's lawyers in space series under the name Hemry. I have a copy of _Stark's War_, altho I still haven't read it. But I've read all the Lost Fleet and ancillary novels and was excited to get my mitts on this prequel story, set in the pre-Alliance years -- and starring another Geary.
The book follows a variety of people who leave their current planet to go further "down and out" in search of freedom, to avoid rules, to try to make a difference. They run into each other in the course of their travels, and then separate once again. But they remember each other, and when later in the story they need help, they seek each other out. This is an episodic structure, but one which worked really well at least for me. Indications are that future books in this prequel series will follow some or all of these characters (at least the ones that don't die) on further adventures, and the nascent connections among them will eventually form the kernel of the Alliance. Or maybe the Alliance will form around them at an official level in part because they unofficially kept the whole thing going with spit and baling wire in the face of piracy and tyranny.
This Geary is not the near-deity that the other Geary is (at least not yet!). But like the other Geary, he benefits greatly from the respect, assistance, timely advice and direction (and weapons) offered by numerous strong women he meets. Fundamentally, this is probably what I love most about Campbell's writing.
As always, looking forward to more. I think this would work fine to read as an entry point to the universe.
The book follows a variety of people who leave their current planet to go further "down and out" in search of freedom, to avoid rules, to try to make a difference. They run into each other in the course of their travels, and then separate once again. But they remember each other, and when later in the story they need help, they seek each other out. This is an episodic structure, but one which worked really well at least for me. Indications are that future books in this prequel series will follow some or all of these characters (at least the ones that don't die) on further adventures, and the nascent connections among them will eventually form the kernel of the Alliance. Or maybe the Alliance will form around them at an official level in part because they unofficially kept the whole thing going with spit and baling wire in the face of piracy and tyranny.
This Geary is not the near-deity that the other Geary is (at least not yet!). But like the other Geary, he benefits greatly from the respect, assistance, timely advice and direction (and weapons) offered by numerous strong women he meets. Fundamentally, this is probably what I love most about Campbell's writing.
As always, looking forward to more. I think this would work fine to read as an entry point to the universe.