A Just Determination

JAG in Space, Book 1

By: Jack Campbell

Narrated by: Nick Sullivan

Length: 10 hrs and 41 mins

Publisher's summary

Equipped with the latest weaponry, and carrying more than 200 sailors, the orbiting warship USS Michaelson is armored against the hazards of space and the threats posed in the vast nothing between planets. But who will protect her from the threats within?

Ensign Paul Sinclair is assigned to the Michaelson as the ship's lone legal officer, a designation that carries grave consequences when the ship's captain, Pete Wakeman, is ordered to return to port for court-martial. His crime: ordering the destruction of a civilian research vessel. What happens when a man of power breaks a law that reaches across the universe? The answer is for Sinclair to expose or to conceal, actions that could destroy the futures of both men.

BONUS AUDIO: Includes an exclusive introduction written and read by author Jack Campbell.

A Just Determination was originally published as "by John G. Hemry".

©2003 Ace (P)2009 Audible, Inc.

Law on a space ship

I enjoyed Jack Campbell's introduction to this new series, he tells how he came to write it. Nick Sullivan did an excellent job in narrating the story. This is not a story of battles but of the operation of a naval ship (this could have taken place aboard any naval vessel upon the sea as well as in space). Just out of the Naval Academy Ensign Paul Sinclair is assigned to the USS Michaelson and is assigned a secondary job as Legal Officer. Much of the book is about his duties as legal officer and the leadership abilities and personalities of the officers on non-Com's. For those who like military stories this is an excellent story and a good lead off for the upcoming series. I hope he can build as much drama in this series as he did with the Lost Fleet Series. Can not wait for to start book 2.

Very Enjoyable!

As a fan of the Lost Fleet series, I was happy to get the Audible version of this book from a recent sale. As expected from the author, we have a story of a personable and decent guy in a military world where people are people - good and bad. Most of the book is the main character acclimating to life on his new ship; it is near the end that an event happens and we go through a realistic type of military trial. Our protagonist isn't a lawyer and doesn't want to be one (he had a rudimentary legal course prior to assignment on the ship), but he has a strong personal sense of justice and that precipitates his participation in the trial.

Story: Paul Sinclair is an ensign newly assigned on the USS Michaelson. As he gets to know the crew - featuring a huge variety of characters from incompetent captain to high strung shipmates, he forms friendships, learns lessons, makes mistakes, and ultimately finds his place about the ship. But one event will change all that when the Michaelson is on patrol and encounters a foreign ship's incursion into their sovereign space. Misunderstandings mount, the foreign ship is destroyed, and a captain is put on court martial trial. Will Paul allow his active dislike of the captain to watch the man hang on trumped up charges - or will he defend someone no one else believes in?

Hemry/Campbell's ability to write likeable everyman characters and to populate his world with nuanced, flawed, but very believable people is clearly the strong part of the book. You'll like or hate Paul's crewman but none ever feel like cardboard cut outs. There are no evil villains or saints - some may be selfish, greedy, stupid, short sighted, or intensely loyal to the point of fault (sometimes all at once) but none ever feel like they are there simply to make the main character have something to do.

The trial goes for realism over drama so there is quite a bit of procedural stuff to get through. Since it is the last 1/4 of the book, it's not too problematic. The trial will, of course, hinge on the testimony of our main character. And will cause higher ups to notice and respect him - which may be unrealistic in itself. But this works as a dramatic fiction so I didn't mind it.

Once I had finished, I immediately purchased the next book. I found I wanted to read much more about this world (set perhaps a few centuries before the Lost Fleet - when there was still a United States). It is an easy read/listen and the narrator did an excellent job giving all the characters a unique voice.

Fun read.

I enjoyed the books setting and it gives a beliveable senario; military life in a deployment situation.

Great story about the JAG core

The story was well thought out as for the story line, With a great ongoing storyline to be in the future.

Lacking a solid plot

Listening to this novel was actually surprising. You expect something significant to happen ... but then it doesn't. The entire storyline is based around the tension that the main protagonist feels in undertaking what they believe they should do versus doing what others think they should. However, there is next to no real pressure to follow the others so that the tension seems all imaginary. The testimony which is provided contains nothing that would not be apparent in a reading of the 'orders' in question so the need for such testimony and tension seems questionable [not being a lawyer and not having personal experience in court I can't say for certain that this is redundant in courts but seems silly and makes the plot weak] As for the court room drama I found that there was probably too much time spent in the mundane actions in the court. The characters in the story are reasonable. The actual court scene and arguments have nothing to do with science fiction other than the events they deal with occurred in space. The initial part of the novel is interesting but finishes all top soon into a prolonged court drama.

Everyday life in the Navy, drab

This book never gets going, I was hoping for something exciting to happen but never did. Then it ended and I moved on