Courageous (Lost Fleet Series #3) Book

I came very close to not picking up this book. The Lost Fleet series was, based on my read of the previous books, kind of a mixed bag. The space fleet battles were fantastic. I especially liked the way the author handled relativistic problems. On the other hand, the often card board interactions of the characters and the terrible relationship between Geary and Rione were painful to read.

I'm glad I stuck with the series. Dotted throughout books one and two were breadcrumbs that pointed towards something else - something bigger than the war between the Alliance and the Syndicate. In Courageous, those hints become something more.

The Fleet is winning engagement after engagement. The Syndicate forces were reeling as the Fleet entered another system. Supplies were running low, but they were confident that they could restock and resupply by raiding the Syndicate bases. It was at that moment that a massive Syndicate fleet entered the system. Low on food, fuel cells and munitions, Geary and the Fleet have no choice but to flee.

Geary, of course, manages to come out on top in some great ship-to-ship battles. The Syndicate forces are defeated, and not too many of his ships are destroyed. But Geary and his intelligence officers are puzzled by some intercepts they received. The Syndicate Fleet hadn't intended on arriving in the system where the Alliance Fleet was wreaking havoc. They had expected to come out of the Hypernet Gate in an entirely different system. Somehow, the gate had malfunctioned. But the Hypernet Gates (ill understood at best) never malfunctioned.

Did some alien intelligence alter their course? And why would this alien intelligence move the Syndicate Fleet? If they wanted to destroy Geary's Fleet, how could they possibly monitor the situation of the fleet in one system and then shift the Syndicates? Were they capable of instant communications across uncounted light years?

This is great stuff. This is why I read science fiction. There is a mystery, the roots laid so subtly that I really wasn't looking for it. In this book, the mystery slapped me in the face. I'm interested now (despite Geary's slightly card board personality).

Four broadsides out of five. I was going to drop the series if this book had been more of the same. This book really shined. I've already picked up the next one.