The Lost Fleet (Beyond The Frontier) Invincible Review

Mini-review #3
This is the third of a series of short reviews for military SF and mecha SF.  You will not see a review of something I don't like as it isn't worth writing about in that case, but I will tell you what works for me and what doesn't about the stories I did like.  When I was writing my Exocrisis Blue stories and trying to find places to post about it or reviews of other mecha SF I was unable to find any, so I'm creating my own hub. Now onto the review.  For the master list of reviews, click here.

Wow, you can tell from the long title of the blog post that this is a long series of books by Jack Campell.  Invincible is the second book in the Beyond the Frontier story arc for this series and it continues to ratchet up the old suspense while providing the fleet level, spaceship engagements that the fans of this series love.  The Lost Fleet series was the primary story arc that played out in the first six books and I won't go into detail as I don't want to spoil it, but you have political intrigue, alien mysteries, a vast and powerful opposing force, and a very long running battle to return home.

In the original story arc, "Black Jack" Geary is revived from cryosleep to find a much changed world.  A century of warfare has passed since he was frozen.  There have been massive casualties in the long running war between the Alliance ("the good guys") and the corporate Syndics.   This has decimated the fleet officer corps and the fleets on both sides now operate with far simpler tactics.  Being a reluctant, legendary hero, with mastery of old school fleet tactics, he becomes the ranking fleet officer that leads the fleet back home in a long journey through enemy space.  Much like Xenophon and the March of the 10,000.  In the second story arc he has been sent out on a one way mission into alien space to find out more about the Enigmas.  Why?  I'll leave that up to you to find out as it is core to the second story arc.

This is a recommended read for folk who like military SF fleet actions. Nothing revolutionary here, but it is a well told story and an enjoyable read.  After 8 books I'm enjoying this series more than the Destroyermen series (review #1) as it doesn't shift multiple battlefronts and focuses on a single fleet.  I read this on a copy borrowed from the public library as the current ebook pricing scheme by the publishers is insane right now for a copy.  I will not pay more than the price of a paperback book for a work of ebook fiction - period.

Does it have a cast of characters listing? 
No.  But it has a cast of ships/squadrons listing!  I found the number characters manageable, but lost track of the ships.

What is the scope / scale of the story? 
This series of books has a great deal of starship combat but on the fleet level.  Descriptions of combat are gritty with many explosions.  The sheer firepower involved in fleet actions means the battles are over relatively quickly, but there are several of them in each book.  

Does it have likeable characters?
Yes. Black Jack Geary, the fleet commander, develops mainly in the first few books, but he proves to have the mettle of legend.  The man fights his destiny to the end.  The romance angle doesn't really work for me, but it is a minor part of the story.

Does it have an entertaining storyline?
Yes. Many battles, searches for answers, scavenging for parts, supplies, and resources.  There are enough plot twists and surprises to keep it fresh.  In the current novel, Invincible, you meet aliens along with their tactics and ships.

How is the internal consistency / plausibility?
Good world building for an alternate future after a century of non-stop attritional warfare between two large human space factions.  One is a confederation while the other is a megacorporation.  Most of the story happens in the fleet but enough happens to give an idea of what the bigger picture is.

What cool bonus features are there? 
Superbattleships.  More aliens than you can shake a stick at.  Feels like it is setting up for a big political finale when the fleet reaches home.