Courageous is the third book in Jack Campbell’s military SF/space opera series called The Lost Fleet. As with the previous books, it tells the story of John “Black Jack” Geary, a legendary starship captain thought killed in combat a hundred years earlier, only to be found in suspended animation in an escape capsule.
Once revived, he finds that the galaxy has been caught up in a war between two factions — the Alliance (a liberal democracy on the verge of collapse) and the Syndics (a corporate meritocracy gone horribly wrong). He’s thrust into command of the Alliance fleet just after its disastrous assault the Syndic home world.
Courageous sees Geary continuing his efforts to get the fleet back home to the Alliance while simultaneously trying to teach the Alliance Navy the meaning of honor and compassion, two concepts that have been horribly warped (in the case of honor) or abandoned (in the case of compassion) over the last of 100 years.
As with previous books, Courageous is at its best when focusing on naval and Marine combat between the two factions. It occasionally gets bogged down with Geary’s angsty struggle to live up to the legend that his name has become … as well as the temptation to resist using that legend’s power. This book also sees him having to deal with a Syndic navy that’s wising up to his tactics, which ratchets up the tension for both him and the reader. Geary’s won battle after battle against the Syndics, but it seems likely that he’s going to lose — and possibly lose big — sometime soon.