Leviathan

The Lost Fleet: Beyond the Frontier, Book 5

By: Jack Campbell

Narrated by: Christian Rummel

Length: 10 hrs and 38 mins

Publisher's Summary

The Lost Fleet delivers thrilling combat on a grand space-opera scale. Now Admiral John "Black Jack" Geary embarks on a brand-new mission - to defend the Alliance from itself - in New York Times best-selling author Jack Campbell's latest action-packed novel....

Two Syndicate World star systems have fallen prey to a mysterious fleet of warships - a fleet controlled entirely by artificial intelligence - that is now targeting Alliance space. The warships are no mystery to Geary. They were developed by his government to ensure security but malfunctioned. If the Syndics learn the truth, the war with the Alliance will resume with a vengeance.

As the government attempts to conceal the existence of the AI warships - and its role in their creation - Geary pursues them, treading a fine line between mutiny and obedience. But it soon becomes clear that his fleet is no match for the firepower of the machine-piloted armada.

With the help of the Dancer species of aliens, Geary has tracked the AI ships to their secret base in the supposedly mythical Unity Alternate star system where his fleet, the last hope of the Alliance's future, will end the conflict at any cost....

©2015 John G. Hemry (P)2015 Audible Inc.

Critic Reviews

"One of the best military science fiction series on the market." (Monsters and Critics)

The Alliance Strikes Back!

This is perhaps one of the most poignant books in the series thus far. Yes as a wise man once said "Great men are forged in fire. It is the privilege of lesser men to light the flame. Whatever the cost." This time Geary and his closest must pay a high price to save the Alliance from itself.

Leviathan was brilliant. I loved every second, even the emotionally painful parts. I have been feverishly wanting a book that dealt with the political pieces of the Alliance. Boom, here it is! Yet every little twist and turn of the political knife could have jumped off the pages of today's newspapers. Political responsibility.. what is it? Who is responsible? Who holds the reigns?

I am disapointed that Mr. Hemry (Jack Campbell) no longer does the Audio introduction for each book... but that is such a small complaint against such brilliant writing. Thank you for giving us a quick peek into your imaginative world.

As always Christian Rummel personifies the people of this series. His work in bringing these characters to life has shown he is a master at his craft.

Just Brilliant.

Great Story/Conclusion?

Not certain if this is the end of the series or not but it does feel like there is closure here. More great detailed fleet battles against a very challenging enemy. I would love to get more details on certain detainees and factions in the alliance and to see what the outcome and fallout entail ultimately. Over all though another great Black Jack story!

The One We've Been Waiting For!

Recovering from the last installment, "Leviathan" is a strong finish to the Lost Fleet series - if indeed this is the end.

This does seem like a good spot to end it on, though. Astonishingly, Campbell has tied up not only the main conflicts and issues up to this point, but also most of the loose ends of the subplots, and mysteries that have been lingering around since the early days.

This book is chock-full of the space battles that have made this series so popular, raising the stakes the highest we've seen them yet, and pushing the peril to levels we've not seen since the climactic finish against the Syndics. This one throws out all the stops, ladies and gentlemen; it's undeniably the series' climax, and in many ways it feels well worth it. The characters have all come into full fruition, and it's pretty remarkable considering that we never really leave John "Black Jack" Geary's viewpoint for the entire run of these books. I think he's done just about all he can with Black Jack, and certainly the other characters have hit the top of their arcs as well.

If you've been following this series, this is the one you've been waiting for. Well done, Campbell - you pulled it off.

Break required between this book and the previous

What did you like best about Leviathan? What did you like least?

I really enjoyed that the main the main story lines progressed. That fact that a new side story arc wasn't introduced is both fantastic and disheartening at the same time. A few of the other story arc are still open though, which allows for hope for more books.

I was reasonably disappointed in how the space battles flowed, they were much too quick this time. In previous books that felt like they took a long time because of the speeds and distances involved they are required to take lots of time, but this time I didn't have as clear a picture in my head how they were setting up back to back maneuvers and being required to executing them so quickly. Maybe the ships were flying more of parallel courses and they were just criss-crossing regularly (like braided/twisted strands of hair).

I elaborate on the headline in the "any additional comments" section.

Have you listened to any of Christian Rummel’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Christian Rummel always puts forth a great performance. I didn't expect Geary to sound so gruff as he hasn't sounded as gruff in the past, but all other characters were still their familiar sounding selves.

Do you think Leviathan needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

*SPOLIERS* This question begs for a spoiler style answer, I recommend skipping this guided question and moving on to "Any additional comments" if you haven't read this book yet.

I think that Leviathan needs a follow-up book because I want to know more about the cleaning up of the government and fleet head quarters. I also want to know what can be done about the Enigma issue, can their be peace with those creatures? Is the Enigma fleet also a "cold mind?" Are there prolonged peaceful relations with the Dancers, what can they teach humanity? Is it possible to have peaceful relations with the Herd? Are there more creatures out there to be discovered? Are the syndicate worlds able to exist in peace with the alliance, does trade pick up again (these might be covered in the Lost Stars series). Who has influence on Earth and what can or should be done about that? Who keeps covertly and overtly trying to kill Geary, are they stopped or do they ultimately succeed?

Any additional comments?

Due to the large gap between the previous book in this series and this book I took the time to re-listen to all of the Lost Fleet series as well as the previous books in this series (Lost Fleet Beyond the Frontier) and I've decided that this series references the original series too much and takes up to much time in it's books rehashing events from those books. I fear that re-listening to both series again so close to the release of the new book may have ruined my experience with this book.

I think that Mr. Hemry would do well to find a better publisher/editor that helped him to straddle that line between spending too much time recapping past events and potentially leaving the reader confused because they forgot something from 10 books ago. Unfortunately for Mr. Hemry you can firmly plant both feet on both sides of the line at the same time. Maybe a new publisher will let him name the books as he sees fit (this was a problem in the original series and may not be a problem any more).

I personal don't think any of the books in either The Lost Fleet or The Lost Fleet Beyond The Frontier books can stand alone as a complete story because they build on what has come before, because of that I'm disappointed when so much time is spent making sure the reader is informed for the 11th+ time that Geary spent 100 years in survival sleep and how that leaves him adrift in this time instead of being firmly grounded; though his being rooted in his own time, the past, has worked out really well for him. Maybe the issue isn't so much that we are informed so many times in both series but that it takes longer to say than what I just wrote about on the topic in that horrible run on sentence.

So, if you just finished Steadfast and want to jump straight into this book I recommend waiting so that some of the details become a little bit fuzzy, don't forget everything though, then when you do listen to this book the recapping will be welcome instead of annoying.

Captivating story

Jack Campbell is one of my favorite Sci-Fi authors and this book “Leviathan “does not disappointing.

Apparently the Alliance Worlds has created a fleet of ships that operate on Artificial Intelligence, only the flag ship has a human on board. The Alliance has kept the existence of the AI fleet a secret. Two syndicate world Star Systems have fallen prey to this “dark fleet.” Now they are attacking Alliance space and Geary goes out to stop them. The dark fleet has the AI programmed with the tactics of the legendary Black Jack Geary.

Geary is having problems stopping this dark fleet. He calls for help from the Dancer species of aliens. Geary must stop this fleet before the Syndicate Worlds think the Alliance is renewing the war. Victoria Rione attempts to discover information and stop this fleet. In this book a few of the major long term characters in this series die a hero’s death.

The book is well written and moves at a fast pace. Lots of action and space battles, Campbell fully understands the implications of 3-D combat in space and does not waste the reader’s time with dry explanations, he just flows it simply into the story. Christian Rummel does a great job narrating this series.

Weirdly rough.

This is an amazing ending to this part of the story, but there are a lot of weird problems that come from his writing style. It has a lot of small errors and problems that add up in weird ways. The ending is good though.

Almost like it was written by a different author

Really really really struggling to listen to this one, I would have already given up if it was not the last book of the series. It is so bad. I assume the author was just done with the series at this point. Seriously like a rough draft. Terrible dialog, personalities that don’t match the rest of the series, regression of tactics and overall story, worse pacing. Extremely disappointed.

Awesome

Awesome book. Very exciting battles & character development. I didnt think the author could WOW me more but he did. Awesome all the way thru. By the end, I was n tears of sadness & happiness. Very emotional journey. Loved the whole series. Thank you John G/Jack for an awesome, an epic story :)

Damn Aliens, My Brain Hurts

The first couple of chapters expand upon the epilog of Book 4, tying things up nicely. The rest of the book is interesting but confusing. It appears the human government likes dead heroes best; any live heroes must be immediately return to conflict areas and any situation or action performed that will increase the chance that live heroes will transition into the more useful dead hero category is appreciated. The book spends another chunk pursuing the "aliens" but we learn very little new information about them. The pivotal event of the book left me confused as to who is the the real enemy.

There has to be at least one more book otherwise the series should have ended at Book 4. I wouldn't recommend purchasing this book unless another (Book 6) has been released

A Good Ending

I have listened to all the Lost Fleet books. they have been well written, and given me a much better perspective of the realities of space travel. Leviathan is a good cap stone to this aspect of the story. Christian Rummel did an excellent job. He has on all the List Fleet books.

Brilliant space opra

Just finished the whole 5 book series one after the other.
I did not want to put it down great action some intrege a little politics but welded into the story very well well done jack Campbell I will be ordering more of yours
Mr Rummels was brilliant and voice characterisation was of the charts
thank you for over 35hrs of brilliant listening

Excellent space saga.

Brilliant book, well read and fast paced action. All the books in this series have kept me thoroughly entertained.

Unity 151

Enjoyed the book. I don’t think it’s the strongest of this series but a nice ending.

Satisfying end to the series

I had forgotten how moving the end to this series is. The narration brings that to life, and more.

One of the best series I've experienced

I consumed this series in the space of a month on my travels. What a truly wonderful narrative with loveable characters. I'm going to miss Blackjack and the wonderful people of Dauntless very much now that I have completed this series.

You have to listen to it

A book loved the story great narration 5 stars I highly recommend listening to this book 👍👍👍⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Strong finish

Haven't found many other books with as good space combat
A good end to the series.

Great Final

A good follow on series. This was a great Final installment to the series. All the storylines completed.

Amazing end to an amazing series

Having worked my way through this series I now have a Battleship sized hole in my life. I have come to love the characters, shared their highs and lows, even shed a tear in the final book when certain people are lost. Thanks to the author for your dedication and perseverance, I know you are prob sick of the whole Universe but would love to hear more of the world you have created. As to the narration, what a wonderfully talented artist who skips from person to person and always leaves you with the image of the individuals. Thank you all for sharing my life over the last many months.. rgds Stephen

fantastic end to a great series

fantastic end to a great series. very intense but written in a way where compfortable with the end yet still wishing you could meet the main characters ten years later for dinner and ask 'what's new'.