Ascendant

By: Jack Campbell

Narrated by: Christian Rummel

Length: 9 hrs and 59 mins

Publisher's Summary

A young fleet officer and a marine stand together to defend their colony in the continuation of the powerful and action-packed Genesis Fleet saga from New York Times best-selling author Jack Campbell.

In the three years since former fleet officer Rob Geary and former marine Mele Darcy led improvised forces to repel attacks on the newly settled world of Glenlyon, tensions have only gotten worse.

When one of Glenlyon's warships is blown apart trying to break the blockade that has isolated the world from the rest of human-colonized space, only the destroyer Saber remains to defend it from another attack. Geary's decision to take Saber to the nearby star Kosatka to safeguard a diplomatic mission is a risky interpretation of his orders, to say the least.

Kosatka has been fighting a growing threat from so-called rebels - who are actually soldiers from aggressive colonies. When a "peacekeeping force" carrying thousands of enemy soldiers arrives in Kosatka's star system, the people of that world, including Lochan Nakamura and former "Red" Carmen Ochoa, face an apparently hopeless battle to retain their freedom. It's said that the best defense is a good offense. But even if a bold and risky move succeeds, Geary and Darcy may not survive it....

©2018 John G. Hemry (P)2018 Audible, Inc.

A good story while we wait for Blackjack to come back

I enjoy this series, however I am not kidding myself into thinking that a lot of my enjoyment is due to the story being around a Geary...

I look at this series as something to add depth and color to the main Lost Fleet series.

While I will buy the next of course, I really want another Blackjack book.

Wow.

Tension from beginning to end. I sometimes had to concentrate to remember which of the numerous cast was which, and the audio narration never paused to indicate changes in location or point of view. Being familiar with most of the characters from book one helped, and I thoroughly enjoyed accompanying them through their new perils.

A Rousing Tale

This is book two of the Genesis Fleet Series. It is a prequel to the Lost Fleet Series. Campbell is a master storyteller. The book is well written and has the most interesting characters. The book contains lots of action and a great space battle. I have become a big fan of Campbell and cannot wait for his next book.

The book is ten hours. Christian Rummel does any excellent job narrating the series. Rummel is an actor and voice-over artist as well as an award-winning audiobook narrator.

An adventure.

Enjoyed the trip and journey this book takes you on. Fast pace and ties seamlessly in the story line from the first book.

Must have more!

The only problem I have with this book is the wait! I had to wait for it to come out, and now I have to wait for the next one. Granted, you know the characters are ultimately going to be successful; but that's not the point! These are the stories of how they got there! This is how you write a prequel!

Great book with 2 somewhat-minor flaws

Like all the other Lost Fleet-related books I really enjoyed Ascendant. It does however continue the same two flaws as the first book in the sub-series.

1: Either the narrator is reading just a little too fast or the audio was sped up in post-production. This isn't an issue I've had with any of the other books by this narrator outside of the Genesis Fleet series. Slowing the audio down to 0.9 of normal greatly improved things. (But did confuse me briefly when I started another book afterwards and wondered why the reader of that book was speaking so slowly, before remembering the settings change.) I'm hoping that this issue will be corrected in future books, but if not there's always the adjust playback speed option.

2: Like almost all prequel books the author couldn't resist the urge to connect _everything_ to the future books. It's fine that it's covering the foundation of the Alliance, that's what we signed up for. But it seems like every important named character in the other Lost Fleet books has a same-named ancestor who played a key role in that struggle. Unfortunately there's no real way out of the issue at this point now that the characters have been established. I can mostly push my annoyance to the back of my brain, but every so often it just rears up and I find myself thinking "If someone named 'Washington' became a famous US general today there's no way that people wouldn't be constantly asking them 'are you related to _that_ George Washington'?"

First time I have been disappointed in his book.

I found the book to be good but I think the series is written only to give his readers something more to cling on to. All of the family lines and how they came to be, etc.

First book was significantly better

The book has no new conflict in the plot. The characters are static and lack depth. The dialog caused me physical pain. There is little to no world building or new sci fi elements. The first book in the series was significantly better.

Horrible book. I kept waiting for it to get good.

Boring. I guess if I'd heard the first book i might have gotten into this one. As it stands this was a horrible waste of a credit.

Like popcorn sci-fi but worse

I found myself just waiting for this one to be over. The only compelling storyline is that of Rob Geary, the rest of the characters don’t feel compelling to me at all.

I could break it down into lots of small details why it was a mediocre story, but to sum it up: this book does not seem true to human nature.

An excellent second instalment

This second book builds well on the foundation laid in the first. Having read or listened to all the lost fleet books it is great to see how the “ancestors” founded the Alliance.
The audio production is well performed, with similarities of character (eg Lee Cadagan being similar to Victoria Ramone) being shown by voice and accent. Well done one and all.
How long till the next one?

the origin story continues

As always the characters and their actions are the most interesting part of the book and politicians are idiots.

good sci fi

love the books loved the audio book, 5 stars might be over the top but I have a soft spot for these series.
I also highly rated this audio guy I breeze through these audio books he is costing me a lot of money lol

Another great outing for The Genesis Fleet

Another brilliant book by Jack Campbell brought to life by the great narration of Christian Runners. HOORAH!!!!!!

Goodies vs Baddies in Space

Undemanding storytelling of good vs evil in space. Well narrated. A good accompaniment to all the gardening I've been doing in lockdown.

brilliant a real adventure!!!

this book is honestly the best book anyone could want to read, a real cliff-hanger!

exciting sequel to vanguard

well thought through and exciting story. some great strong female characters in this space odyssey!

Great prequel

As a prequel to the Lost Fleet series this works well but it can also be treated as a stand alone series. Only two in this series far hopefully more to follow.

excellent narration

The narrator is brilliant and kept me listening to the end. A great story about the start of the alliance vs the syndicates worlds

Good but preferred book1

Should have listened as soon as I finished book1 and may have got into it better
One of my favourite SCifi authors and the story lines are always pretty good