Vanguard (The Genesis Fleet, #1)
This is basically a prequel to the original “Lost Fleet” series. You don’t have to know any of the lost fleet to begin this, so this is not a bad place to start. You have the progenitor of the Geary clan, a few other things that you might be interested in (like Kosatka has its beginnings here, as well as Glenlyon).
Its otherwise a mostly “Jack Campbell” book. The protagonists are knights in shining armor, female mary sue’s, and otherwise mostly super hero’esque characters. Everyone around them is lost, mostly incompetent, or flat out corrupt and evil. You have the starts of the syndic fleet around them, so you know that’s who the bad guys are going to be.
The fleet combat here, which was mostly the draw of the Lost fleet series is fairly small as there aren’t much of a fleet, but rather the beginning of ones. The enemies are of course, every bit as incompetent for the heroes to be able to overcome overwhelming odds.
The problem with all of Jack Campbell’s books is mostly that the characters are mostly flat and 2 dimensional. They’re either evil, or they’re good, or they’re super supportive or super smart. There isn’t much of a nuance or character growth in anyone.
With that said, its an easy breezy read and you can probably finish most of his books in a day, which is something to be said in and of itself.
There’s not much else to say, yo’ure reading these books because you want your Saturday morning cartoons in a book format. :)