This is a spin-off of The Lost Fleet Series that focuses on the Syndicate, who were the bad guys in the Lost Fleet Series. This book follows two syndicate CEOs, Artur Drakon and Gwen Iceni, as they join together to stage a coup against the Syndicate government, and to establish Midway as an independent star system. I avoided this series for a long time, as I was doubtful a spin-off would work, and while I’m still not sure this will be as good as the Lost Fleet Series, I have to hand it to Jack Campbell: he knows how to write a good military space opera.
The Lost Fleet is one of my favorite book series of all time (S tier!), and I’ve read all 14 books in it, so it was fun to see big parts of that story from this other perspective. It’s also intriguing to see if Jack Campbell can turn Syndicate CEOs into protagonists you would root for. There’s an interesting tension between them doing good versus evil. Sometimes, this tension works well, as learning to do things “the right way” (i.e., the way Black Jack Geary would’ve done them) creates fantastic moments of character growth. Sometimes, this tension doesn’t work, and it feels like the Syndics are acting in artificial ways just to make the plot work.
There’s also an interesting tension between the two main protagonists, Drakon and Iceni. Drakon controls the ground forces and Iceni controls the navy. Like all Syndic CEOs, they don’t trust each other, but in order to make the coup work, they are forced to work together. Seeing their relationship develop creates more fun character growth moments. Add to that the battles against the Syndic government, the constant threat from the internal security service (“the snakes”), the uneasy alliances amidst other rebelling Syndicate planets, and the looming threat from the Enigma race, and you get the setting for what could turn out to be an excellent new series. On to the next book!
