They were looking for an alien race, they found much more – this is how the second volume of the Outer Space series can be summed up . Admiral Geary’s fleet in Invincible will no longer have time for political games …
Invincible
Jack Campbell (meaning John G. Hemry) served in the US Navy and wrote several military science fiction series, stubbornly referred to by Polish Wikipedia as space operas. This is so confusing that you won’t experience any fantasy elements, not even princesses, in the series The Lost Fleet and its sequel, Outer Space . Their heroes are military, and sometimes even the military itself, with its hierarchical organization and connections with international politics. In addition to the action, they offer detailed descriptions of the equipment, tactics and style of work of seafarers.
In the first volume of Outer Space, we could read about how the Alliance fleet was preparing to leave its territory – it fought time for repairs, saved resources … The Admiralty, as always, turned out to be “kind and competent”, so Geary and his subordinates had their hands full . After their departure, they managed to pacify the too cunning DON Syndics and pull a lot of VIPs out of his POW camps, causing considerable ferment with their presence. At the very frontiers of human territory, the admiral struck up an informal deal with another leader of his former enemies. As I wrote earlier – there was a lot of politics there, sometimes interesting, but slowly developing.
Invincible , in turn, is almost the same action punctuated by attempts to understand the Aliens. The Alliance fleet affects the territory of the Enigmas – a race that has long followed people and planned to expand into the planetary systems we occupy. We saw one of them – human traces were thoroughly obliterated there, only new buildings and installations of the winners remained. It is not entirely clear what the cities and the Aliens themselves look like, because they are masters of secrets, hiding and staying unnoticed – that’s why they were given this and not another name.
Enigma fights are difficult and bloody. Almost nothing is known about their nature, so it is difficult to predict possible action strategies. It is difficult to say even anything about their biology, because we have not managed to catch any of them alive or even examine the remains of the clash – the space ninjas want to remain unknown so much that they prefer to commit suicide, rather than reveal the enemy even residual information.
We are not alone at all
One race of aliens seems to humankind enough trouble and novelty, but Campbell is not resting on his laurels. It turns out that there are more in our part of the universe. Will they be as aggressive as the Enigmas? Does humanity live, until now unaware of anything, surrounded by enemies sharpening their teeth at our planets? To what extent does Alien knowledge about hypernets and the “geography” of the cosmos coincide with ours? How well are they technically developed?
As you remember, the Dreadnaught already mentions a group of xenologists, civilian specialists sent with Gery to explore space. My favorite invincible third- party characters are Dr. Setin (I still feel like writing that name as SETI-n) and Dr. Shwartz who works closely with him. They both gather information about the Aliens and use it to formulate hypotheses that will enable Geary to fight. The entire fleet, instead of clashes, would prefer to communicate with the Enigmas, but even scientists have no idea how to convince them to do so.
It’s just a fact-finding mission
The Alliance fleet was to travel beyond the borders of human territory only to initially estimate the borders and the number of Enigmas. She was not sent to war, but without communication, even fleeting contact becomes a conflict. The reconnaissance raid in this volume turns out to have far more serious consequences than just destroying the peace of the Aliens. Was Geary once again making historic changes?
A very serious book emerges from my descriptions. This is just one of its layers – Campbell also allows himself a lot of humor, especially in dialogues. For example, you will enjoy reading about how the fleet makes up names for Aliens, their territories, and equipment. While the descriptions are sometimes read slowly, the dialogues in The Invincible are fluid and enjoyable. A lot of credit goes to Robert J. Szmidt, who already in these books shows the translation talent that you can fully appreciate in the concert translation of Wyldu Kings. You can read the review of the third volume right away – we wrote it in 2017!