The Lost Fleet Beyond the Frontier: Guardian Review

This is a good book, not a great one. Campbell/Hemry uses his tried and true formula to finish the Lost Fleet trilogy with a flourish. The major issue with the novel is the formula is getting old, and many of the battles and character interactions seem to be repeated from other books.
The book still has all of the things fans of the series have come to expect. Great space battles, good character interaction, interesting politics, and moral decisions. Hemry  placed more emphasis on PTSD all solders feel, and how this could effect the many sailors in his universe. This added to the overall story and is a glimpse into the feelings of our current solders when they come back from years of war.
These are the highlights of the book. The rest of the story was situations the fleet had been in before and had to face again. The final battle seemed forced.  My impression was Hemry did not want to put a final battle in the book, but felt obligated to have one more for the trilogy finally.  It was a different enemy, but the end result was the same, Geary triumphed and won the day. Sorry if this is a spoiler, but if you have read the entire series then this will not be a shock to you. I am leaving off where the battle is and who the battle is against. This is the surprise. I think a more symbolic end to the trilogy would have been for Geary to lose a battle, or go down with Dauntless in another heroic act. Hemry probably has more story ideas for the universe so I understand not taking this track, but something different would have been a good change of pace.
The universe Hemry has created is an intriguing one and I really have enjoyed all of the books, but this one just felt slightly rehashed. Maybe since it is the 9th book for Geary, Hemry does not know where to take the character. He has triumphed over every obstacle and fought every demon. There is nothing more for him to do. This may be the last time we see Geary.  I could see Hemry having another character take center stage in another book series. Maybe Rione or another politician and having them work to rebuild the alliance through politics. Hemry is going to have to go in another direction with Geary, either having him play more of a political role, or taking a more exploratory role and traveling through the galaxy finding new lifeforms in a pseudo star-trek universe. Whatever it is I will read the novels and give them a chance. I am invested in the universe, and while I usually like my hero's with a few more warts I like John Black Jack Geary and look forward to any new adventures.