Fearless by Jack Campbell (Book Review)

Jack Campbell’s Lost Fleet series was a part of my 25-in-14 reading challenge where I attempted to, and succeeded in, reading at least the first novels in 25 different series, across a multitude of genres. Reading Dauntless proved to be quite a fun experience actually because I went in expecting some serious military SF, and the experience was much different to that expectation. It had some nice hard-SF elements to it, but they were sufficiently explained for a layman and the writer kept his focus on the characters and the story itself.

Fearless is the second novel in the series and carries on over from the events at the end of Dauntless with Captain John “Black Jack” Geary and his ragtag Alliance fleet scoring a resounding victory against the Syndics. It was definitely a great moment to end the novel on and Jack Campbell ups the stakes and everything else in the sequel. John has been fighting for unity and discipline and cooperation between the various ships of the fleet since he took over, massively disadvantaged in a lot of ways, and Fearless is just another major test for him as he continues to lead the fleet out of the Syndic Worlds and back home to the Alliance.

Supergirl #38 (Comics Review)

DC’s Supergirl experienced yet another creative team change about 2 months back, and thankfully, it has been a good change for once, with a team that is focused on empowering and developing the titular character without making her suffer through yet more angst and family issues that were so… roughly executed in the first three years of the rebooted title. Putting the character in a school-environment in outer space has done wonders for the character as far as I’m concerned, and that’s what I want to see more of, as this particular story is developed further.

The first 2 issues by the new creative team did a lot to flesh out the new phase of Supergirl, as the titular character met some new people, honed her abilities further, and learned more about the wider galaxy. At the same time, she has also had somewhat of a tough time fitting in, having had to contend against some natural biases among her fellow students at Crucible Academy, and that’s where this book really excels I think. Goes without saying that the art by Emanuela Lupacchino, Ray McCarthy, Hi-Fi, Rob Leigh and Tomeu Morey has also worked out really well with the new direction.

Justice League #38 (Comics Review)

Geoff Johns’ Justice League, DC’s flagship team title, has seen a resurgence in recent months once all the madness with Forever Evil got over, Lex Luthor joined the team, and then the AMAZO virus broke out. I skipped the title for more than half the year in 2014, and only came back to it last month, wanting to know what was happening in the title, and also excited to see Jason Fabok and Brad Anderson take over as the artists on the issue. And it has been good actually, better than I expected, that’s for sure. The writing is great, the art is great, and that’s really all I wanted from the title during Forever Evil.

This past week’s Justice League #38 sees the only two uninfected members of the league take on the villain they consider to be Patient Zero for the AMAZO virus. Batman was around as well, but he did get infected towards the end of the issue, and now we deal with the fallout of all of that, even as we learn that duplicitous Lex Luthor had a yet another ace up his sleeve and that he’s still a manipulative bastard as ever, his membership into the League notwithstanding. This was a seriously good issue, and I’m definitely along for the ride.

Grimm Fairy Tales: Realm War #6 (Comics Review)

With all the meta-level shenanigans that have been going on in Zenescope’s Realm War: Age of Darkness series of late, it is easy sometimes to lose sight of the small details. But they are always there, and each issue focuses on something different from the rest. This then ends up giving space to some of these mysteries to develop in each issue, and that’s what I love about this ensemble-cast series, that it focuses on both the meta and the more immediate stories so you get a healthy balance of both.

In Realm War: Age of Darkness #6 from this past week, we finally learn one of the biggest secrets of the Grimm Universe, and thus are able to finally figure out why Robyn has been such an important character since her birth, and why Lucinda the Dark Queen courted her so damn much, eventually turning over the Realm Knight to the cause of the evil and mighty Dark Horde. But that’s not everything here since we also get to see how Sela and the others are holding up in the face of constant attacks by the Dark Horde and how it is breaking them all on an emotional level.