Book Review: Vanguard by Jack Campbell
Mogsy’s Rating: 2 of 5 stars
Genre: Science Fiction
Series: Book 1 of The Genesis Fleet
Publisher: Ace Books (May 16, 2017)
Length: 336 pages
Author Information: Website | Twitter
I really wanted to like my first venture into the military sci-fi of Jack Campbell, but sadly it was just not meant to be. To be fair though, Vanguard is the first book of The Genesis Fleet, a new prequel series to Campbell’s The Lost Fleet which I have not read, so it’s possible that I may be missing some of the context required to fully appreciate this book. Still, to the novel’s credit, I also think it was set up to be a perfectly fine jumping on point, so that, at least, was not a source of my issues. It actually took me a while to gather my thoughts and put my finger on what didn’t work, because after all, the book had an interesting premise, the characters were awesome, and the writing style was as good as I remember from the author’s fantasy novels, but ultimately I think it was the execution of it all that failed to hook me.
As I said, Vanguard is the start of a new prequel series, meant to explore the founding of the Alliance, one of the two major human powers involved in the interstellar war featured in The Lost Fleet books. While the technology for faster-than-light travel is still relatively new at this point, Earth is already no longer the only major hub for humanity in the universe, with new colonies springing up on more and more worlds. That also means, however, that the old order of law and protection has ceased to exist. Earth forces no longer have the will or resources to police the systems, and as a result, space piracy and corruption are on the rise.
In other words, it’s everyone for themselves as the rules start to break down and a lawless frontier mentality quickly takes hold. As aggressive worlds begin to prey on the weak, a new pacifist colony called Glenlyon is one of the first to fall victim to this rash of unruliness. Threatened by an enemy warship in their system, the desperate colony has little in the way of defense and thus are forced to turn to a group of former Earth soldiers for help.
At first, things were great with this book. I really enjoyed how it began. Something about the idea of wild space really appeals to me, and humanity’s uncontrolled spread through the universe was a good backdrop to the chaotic events taking place in this story. Life in the new colonies is full of danger and uncertainties, and the writing really gets that point across. In addition to the attack on Glenlyon, we also get to see how settlers traveling to new worlds face the risk of being captured and enslaved by pirates, or how new colonies can be the targets of sabotage or persecution. Only a few are willing to stand up for justice and do what’s right.
Which brings us to the characters, who are all compelling at least on paper. Heading up the main cast is former junior Earth fleet officer Robert Geary, whose name should be significant to fans of The Lost Fleet, since the character is supposed to be an ancestor of the main protagonist from the original series. Up next is a onetime enlisted Marine named Mele Darcy, a strong and capable woman trying to follow her own moral compass. Then there’s Lochan Nakamura, a disgraced politician who has left his old life behind for a chance at a brand new start, and he was probably one of the more interesting of the main characters. And finally, Carmen Ochoa was my favorite—an Earth official from Mars who was in charge of “conflict resolutions”, she has her own reasons for getting into this mix.
Everything was going well for the first few chapters, but then everything fell apart. One of the problems, I think, was pacing. I couldn’t help but feel much of the first half of the book could have been compressed because so much was the story here was filled with aimless back-and-forth between the characters, resulting in a narrative that kept spinning its wheels in place. The characters themselves I found intriguing, but my disinterest in their individual plot threads made it a struggle to connect with them on any deeper level. If I were in the habit of abandoning books, I might have thrown in the towel right then and there, but I pressed on in the hopes things would get better. The good news is, the story did pick up again after a while, but by then it was too late to turn my disappointment around, and I’m afraid even the superb action scenes at the end could not save the book’s lackluster and forgettable middle sections.
In the end, I suppose the potential of the story was there, but it was presented in a way that tried my patience and wore me down. This is not my first experience with the author, but this is my first time trying his military science fiction and admittedly I was tempted by the promise of a new series, new characters, and new stories when in retrospect I probably should have started with The Lost Fleet. You can be sure that’s in my plans now, and who knows, perhaps I will even revisit this series once I’m done to see if it gives me a new perspective. For now though, I’ll probably set The Genesis Fleet aside.
The BiblioSanctum 
Bummer, sorry you didn’t like it. From what you wrote though, I doubt you’d like Lost Fleet either. On the flip side, it means I’ll probably enjoy this quite a bit. 🙂
LikeLike
Ah well, thanks for letting me know! I guess I’ll stick with his fantasy for now 😀
LikeLiked by 1 person
Bleh! Was hoping this would be a good one since I do enjoy military sci-fi. Sorry it didn’t work out!
LikeLike
Me too, I was looking forward to reading Jack Campbell’s military sci-fi for like the longest time too! Oh well!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Great review! This is definitely not my genre. Hope you love your next read. 😉
LikeLike
Thanks! I do love space opera/military sci-fi, but the execution behind this one just didn’t quite work for me.
LikeLike
To say the truth, I did try reading “Dauntless”, the first book in the series this one should be a prequel to, but it ended up in the DNF section: reading your reasons for not enjoying this one I found they mirrored mine for “Dauntless” – somewhat shallow characterization and a lot of chatter that wanted to be informative and only ended up being distracting.
Now I’m curious to know what you will think of the main series, once you get to it…
LikeLike
Oof, that doesn’t bode well for my own hopes to take a shot at Dauntless, lol! When it comes to sci-fi, our tastes are relatively close, so I’m kinda wavering on whether or not I should give it a go anymore 😀
LikeLike
Sounds like my experience with the Lost Stars series, a spin-off series to the Lost Fleet, which I found to be very dry in the beginning so I DNF. Hmmm….I can’t remember much about the beginning of Dauntless. In the end it was good so I kept reading.
With your review of Vanguard, Maddelena’s comment about Dauntless, and my experience with Lost Stars, I wonder if beginnings just are tough for the author?
LikeLike
If you didn’t care for Lost Stars, you’ll definitely not enjoy Lost Fleet…
LikeLiked by 1 person
I LOVE Lost Fleet, The Syndicate view just didn’t appeal to me.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Really? Well, that is actually quite interesting. I’m going to have to re-think my whole recommendation thinking then.
LikeLiked by 1 person
If a book doesn’t make you question something then it didn’t do it’s job.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Perhaps! The only other experience I’ve had with the author involves his fantasy series, and I really liked that one. So it’s possible that maybe his sci-fi just isn’t for me!
LikeLiked by 1 person
oh pooh, I want some new sci.fi
LikeLike
I would try something else first 🙂
LikeLike
Too bad this one was my radar but now it isn’t anymore haha, it sounds like something I would probably end up DNFing quite soon so…
LikeLike
That’s too bad! I wish I’d liked it more though, I really do! But there was just too much talk and no action for me, at least not until it was too late.
LikeLike
That’s a shame this didn’t work out for you, I like that cover and I’ve heard of this author but haven’t read anything of his yet. I like the idea of wild space too and the chaos of it, but the pacing and character issues do sound hard to get past. Plus while I am a space opera fan I’m hit or miss with actual military scifi, so maybe I’d like it but there’s a good chance I wouldn’t too. Thanks for the review, good to know…
LikeLike
I love military science fiction, but…I guess I thought this one would be more action-oriented especially for a series opener. I’m still debating whether I want to try some of his other series, after reading some of the comments on here, I’m a little nervous now!
LikeLike
You’ve said it. This is why I am not into SciFi lately. One of what made me set it aside is the Sleeping Giants.
LikeLike
Oh, Sleeping Giants! That one was okay – it didn’t blow me away like it did for many others, but I thought the story was really unique and fascinating, which is why I decided to read the sequel.
LikeLike
Mmm, this probably wouldn’t appeal to me to be honest but Im sorry it didn’t work out better for you.
Lynn 😀
LikeLike
Pingback: Mogsy’s Bookshelf Roundup: Stacking the Shelves & Recent Reads | The BiblioSanctum