The Lost Fleet: Courageous

This is an excellent series with great characters.

Every military engagement is incredibly well written, giving thought to the many problems actual space combat has. It's truly one of the best takes on sci fi naval engagements.

Unfortunately, the character writing is atrocious and hasn't gotten better from the last couple of entries.

Everybody fits neatly into an archetype: the irredeemable idiots who's only role is to question and cause dissent only to get put down, the honorable officers who are conpetent and side with the main character, and the evil characters who are evil. I honest to god could barely tell the difference between characters in each archetype - they hit the exact same narrative beats and it gets quite exhausting reading dialogue after a whole.

I actually groaned out loud when I first started reading the first two chapters. The irredeemable idiots were dealt with in the last book, so of course the author introduces another set of them saying they were the last set's "proteges". They serve the exact same purpose in the exact same way - to question and be put down. What was the point, exactly? To give us a new hate sink?

On top of that, the main characters have remained relatively static throughout the series thus far. The main character is constantly feeling the burden of command, with doubts about his legacy. Desjani is all business. Rione is mysterious. There are flashes of development and levity, but they're often forced or brushed over quickly. It's always onwards to the next engagement.

Overall, this series has tons of flaws, but the combat is written so well that it is single handedly keeping me interested.

Great book. Love this series.