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Fatal Mission: The Life and Death of the Crew of the Naughty Nan 467 SQN RAAF
by Mal ElliottFatal Mission is the story of Australian navigator Oscar Furniss, just one of 55,000 young men who perished while flying for Bomber Command during World War II. Lovingly crafted by his nephew, Mal Elliott, this book brings to life a young man whose name was never spoken by his family and who was a stranger to his modern-day descendants. Elliott follows Oscar from his carefree childhood in the Blue Mountains through his training over the vast emptiness of Canada to the mist-shrouded patchwork landscapes of Britain and on to the hostile skies of occupied France. He uses the accounts of the two surviving aircrew to piece together the events of the fateful night that saw most of the crew of Lancaster JA901, affectionately know as Naughty Nan , perish as pilot Colin Dickson heroically manoeuvred his burning aircraft away from the towns and villages that dotted the landscape. This has been a difficult book for Elliott to write as it contains a harrowing description of his uncle’s last moments. The terrible impact of the deaths of the aircrew are vividly described alongside the miraculous tales of the two survivors. But for the family of Oscar Furniss there would be no miracle, just the lingering weight of deep and lasting grief. This is a story that moves beyond the technical descriptions of bombing missions to describe the human toll of conflict. It underlines the crucial importance of commemoration, of refusing to allow those who perished in war to be forgotten. Theirs was a sacrifice that we who live in freedom should never forget.
Fatal Orbit (Nolan Kilkenny #Vol. 4)
by Tom GraceNolan Kilkenny is about to propose to his NASA astronaut girlfriend Kelsey when a mysterious satellite blackout forces Kelsey to board the space shuttle Liberty to investigate. Kilkenny soon realizes that his would-be fiancée is in grave danger—targeted miles above Earth by a weaponized spacecraft called Zeus. A ruthlessly determined Nolan must track down the tycoon creator of Zeus to prevent silent terror from being launched from the sky—and he'll have to confront a billion-dollar conspiracy, an army of ruthless thugs, and apocalyptic weapons technology that defies comprehension.
Fatal Thunder (Jerry Mitchell #5)
by Larry BondJerry Mitchell returns inFatal Thunder, a gripping thriller fromNew York Timesbestselling author Larry Bond. India and Pakistan are stalemated in a war that India launched to "remove the threat of terrorism, once and for all. " But India's early successes have stalled, and with the coming spring, the tide may turn against them. A small but powerful group of Indian senior military officers and civilian security officials, without the knowledge of the rest of the Indian government, have decided to strike at China, Pakistan's backer and India's recent enemy in the Littoral Alliance War (Shattered Trident). The conspirators plan a bold attack that will leave Pakistan without a patron and protector. India could then finish their military campaign sure of success. To avoid any blame for the attack, the group has obtained Russian-made nuclear warheads from a renegade Russian arms merchant with access to the stolen weapons. Fitted to standard Russian torpedoes and delivered covertly by INSChakra, the warheads will shatter China's economy. Girish Samant, until recently the captain ofChakra, discovers hints of the far-reaching conspiracy and reaches out to an old enemy, the only person he can trust, Jerry Mitchell.
Fatal Voyage: The Sinking of the USS Indianapolis
by Dan KurzmanShortly after midnight on July 30, 1945, the Navy cruiser USS Indianapolis was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine in the Philippine Sea. The ship had just left the island of Tinian, delivering components of the atomic bomb destined for Hiroshima. As the torpedoes hit, the Indianapolis erupted into a fiery coffin, sinking in less than fifteen minutes and leaving nine hundred crewmen fighting for life in shark-infested waters. They expected a swift, routine rescue, unaware that the Navy high command didn't even realize that the Indianapolis was missing. Help would not arrive for another five days. Drawn from definitive interviews with key figures, Fatal Voyage recounts the horrific events endured as the number of water-treading survivors dwindled to just 316. Each gruesome day brought more madness and slow death, from explosion-related injuries, dehydration, and, most terrifying of all, shark attacks. But the pain did not end when the men finally returned home: The Indianapolis's commander, Captain Charles B. McVay III, was court-martialed for causing the clearly unavoidable disaster. With a new afterword chronicling the fifty-five-year campaign by Indianapolis survivors and their supporters to win public vindication for Captain McVay, this classic is restored, along with memories of the Indianapolis crew.
Fate is the Hunter
by Ernest K. Gann"This fascinating, well-told autobiography is a complete refutation of the comfortable cliche that 'man is master of his fate.' As far as pilots are concerned, fate (or death) is a hunter who is constantly in pursuit of them...there is nothing depressing about FATE IS THE HUNTER. There is tension and suspense in it but there is great humor too. Happily, Gann never gets too technical for the layman to understand." (Saturday Review)
Fate is the Hunter: A Pilot's Memoir
by Ernest K. GannThe copper-bottomed classic from a memorable and courageous pilot.FATE IS THE HUNTER is a fascinating and thrilling account of some of the more memorable experiences Ernest K Gann had in the air. He's flown in both peace and war and come close to death many times. Here he reveals the characters he's known and the dramas he's experienced, portraying fate (or death) as a hunter constantly in pursuit of pilots. This is a fabulous account of both the history of aviation and one man's life in the air.
Fateful Rendezvous
by Steve Ewing John B. LundstromFighter pilot Butch O'Hare became one of America's heroes in 1942 when he saved the carrier Lexington in what has been called the most daring single action in the history of combat aviation. In fascinating detail the authors describe how O'Hare shot down five attacking Japanese bombers and severely damaged a sixth and other awe-inspiring feats of aerial combat that won him awards, including the Medal of Honor. They also explain his key role in developing tactics and night-fighting techniques that helped defeat the Japanese.In addition, the authors investigate events leading up to O'Hare's disappearance in 1943 while intercepting torpedo bombers headed for the Enterprise. First published in 1997, this biography utilizes O'Hare family papers and U.S. and Japanese war records as well as eyewitness interviews. It is essential reading for a true understanding of the development of the combat naval aviation and the talents of the universally admired and well-liked Butch O'Hare.
Father Duffy’s Story; A Tale Of Humor And Heroism, Of Life And Death With The Fighting Sixty-Ninth [Illustrated Edition]
by Joyce Kilmer Father Francis Patrick Duffy[Includes 8 photograph illustrations]On the northern half of Times Square in the heart of New York is a square named after Father Francis Patrick Duffy, a priest whose faith in God was only matched by the attachment to his flock. He is mainly known for his legendary exploits as chaplain of the Fighting Sixty-Ninth regiment (renumbered the 165th in Federal Army List) in the First World War. The regiment, composed of mainly troops of Irish heritage, had historically been at the forefront of the Civil War fighting at Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville and Gettysburg. When the regiment marched to battle in the First World War, the troops were also mainly of an Irish Catholic background, headed by Father Duffy, who was never content to see the men of his charge go off to the front alone and frequently went into the maelstrom of battle as a stretcher bearer. Duffy and his regiment fought at Lunéville enduring a gas attack, before engaging at the Battle of the Ourcq and taking part in the two major American offensives at St. Mihiel and in the Argonne.Perhaps no finer compliment to him was paid by the regimental commander who stated that he and his actions were the key to the keeping unit's morale high. A fine memoir by a towering figure in American First World War history."Diary/memoir, June 1917--April 1919. Duffy was chaplain of the 165th Infantry, 42nd Division. An exciting account by the legendary chaplain, recounting his exploits in St. Mihiel, the Argonne, and elsewhere."- p. 120, Edward Lengel, World War I Memories, 2004, The Scarecrow Press, Lanham Maryland, Toronto, Oxford.
Father Meany and the Fighting 69th
by Burris JenkinsFather Meany and the Fighting 69th, first published in 1944, is a moving account of U.S. Army chaplain Stephen J. Meany and his time with the 165th Infantry Regiment (the famed Fighting 69th of the New York National Guard) during their battle for Makin Island in November 1943. The night before the landing, Meany heard the confessions of the men, and at 2 a.m. he celebrated Mass. That morning, Father Meany boarded a landing craft and arrived on the beach at 8 a.m. Six hours later Meany was hit and fatally wounded by a sniper's bullet while going to the aid of a wounded soldier. Included are 20 pages of illustrations by author Burris Jenkins Jr.
Father Mississippi: The Story of the Great Flood of 1927
by Lyle SaxonA history of the river with firsthand accounts and photographs of the 1927 flood. Saxon’s description of the discovery, exploration, and settlement of the delta combined with his collection of personal accounts makes for a compelling blend of personal, political, geographical, and historical facts. The book, considered as much a documentation of the disaster as an impassioned plea for help, demonstrates just how volatile an environment the Mississippi River region was and continues to be.-Print ed.Lyle Saxon (1891-1946) ranks among Louisiana's most outstanding writers. During the 1920s and 1930s he was the central figure in the region’s literary community, and was widely known as a raconteur and bon vivant. In addition to Father Mississippi, Lafitte the Pirate, and Children of Strangers, he also wrote Fabulous New Orleans, Old Louisiana, The Friends of Joe Gilmore, and was a co-author of Gumbo Ya-Ya, with Edward Dreyer and Robert Tallant. During the Depression, he directed the state WPA Writers Project, which produced the WPA Guide to Louisiana and the WPA Guide to New Orleans.
Father Night (Jack McClure Series #4)
by Eric Van LustbaderNew from Eric Van Lustbader, the author of The Bourne Legacy and The Bourne Betrayal, comes Father Night, the thrilling fourth installment in the New York Times bestselling Jack McClure series. A tidal wave of reform is sweeping across the Middle East. Many lurk in the shadows, eager to seize power - giants of a vast criminal underworld, fueled by revenge and vengeance. Their wars know no end. Their power knows no bounds. At the center of it all are two men who are inches away from holding the world in their hands: one is known as Dyadya Gourdjiev and the other is known only as the Syrian. Department of Defense special agent Jack McClure has followed this trail of shadows and lies right into the arms of Gourdjiev's alluring, powerful granddaughter, Annika Dementiev. The lovers are in Moscow when news of Dyadya's failing health draws a slew of vultures - circling, anxious to seize the empire of secrets he spent a lifetime building. Jack and Annika find themselves locked in battle to ensure his safety. . . but when it comes to Dyadya, nothing is as it seems. Alli Carson, the child of a dead US president, has become Jack's surrogate daughter. While Jack is in Russia, Alli is targeted by a cyber-stalker who knows more about her than anyone should. With no one to trust but her friend, Vera Bard, Alli is determined to discover the truth, but her path forces her to come face-to-face with the nightmarish terror of her past. As these two stories play out, Secretary of Defense Dennis Paull, with the help of detectives Nona Hendryx and Alan Frain, follows a trail of lies, corruption, and secret pacts that begins with Washington D. C.'s Head of Detectives. All paths collide at the feet of one man, an old legend adapting to an ever-changing landscape. . . a man history might have forsaken, but whose heinous evil is still very much alive: Father Night.
Father and Son: A Memoir
by Jonathan RabanA NEW YORKER BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR • A poignant memoir of love, trauma, and recovery after a life-changing stroke, twinned to a powerful account of his father's experience in World War II, by a winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award.&“A beautiful, compelling memoir...Raban&’s final work is a gorgeous achievement.&” —Ian McEwan, New York Times best-selling author of Lessons In June 2011, just days before his sixty-ninth birthday, Jonathan Raban was sitting down to dinner with his daughter when he found he couldn&’t move his knife to his plate. Later that night, at the hospital, doctors confirmed what all had suspected: that he had suffered a massive hemorrhagic stroke, paralyzing the right side of his body. Once he became stable, Raban embarked on an extended stay at a rehabilitation center, where he became acquainted with, and struggled to accept, the limitations of his new body—learning again how to walk and climb stairs, attempting to bathe and dress himself, and rethinking how to write and even read.Woven into these pages is an account of a second battle, one that his own father faced in the trenches during World War II. With intimate letters that his parents exchanged at the time, Raban places the budding love of two young people within the tumultuous landscape of the war&’s various fronts, from the munition-strewn beaches of Dunkirk to blood-soaked streets of Anzio. Moving between narratives, his and theirs, Raban artfully explores the human capacity to adapt to trauma, as well as the warmth, strength, and humor that persist despite it. The result is Father and Son, a powerful story of mourning, but also one of resilience.
Father, Soldier, Son: Memoir of a Platoon Leader In Vietnam
by Nathaniel Tripp"Father, Soldier, Son will stand as one of the finest soldier memoirs of the Vietnam War . . . If all that has been written about the war in Vietnam, in fiction and nonfiction, has made it a familiar story to some, Tripp overcomes cliché by individualizing every well-known fact." -- The Boston GlobeNATHANIEL TRIPP GREW UP fatherless in a house full of women and he arrived in Vietnam as a just-promoted second lieutenant in the summer of 1968 with no memory of a man's example to guide and sustain him. The father missing from Tripp's life had gone off to war as well, in the Navy in World War II, but the terrors were too much for him, he disgraced himself, and after the war ended he could not bring himself to return to his wife and young son. In "some of the best prose this side of Tim O'Brien or Tobias Wolff" (Military History Quarterly), Tripp tells of how he learned as a platoon leader to become something of a father to the men in his care, how he came to understand the strange trajectory of his own mentally unbalanced father's life, and how the lessons he learned under fire helped him in the raising of his own sons."Not since Michael Herr's Dispatches has there been anything quite as vivid, gripping and soul-searing," raved the Washington Post, and the Chicago Tribune said "the description of combat in the jungles of Vietnam are authentic and terrifying, as good as any I have read in fact or fiction."
Fathers and Daughters: from When Heaven and Earth Changed Places
by Le Ly Hayslip Jay WurtsThe youngest of six children in a close-knit Buddhist family, Le Ly Hayslip was twelve years old when U.S. helicopters landed in Ky La, her tiny village in central Vietnam. As the government and Viet Cong troops fought in and around Ky La, both sides recruited children as spies and saboteurs. Le Ly was one of those children. In this harrowing selection from the memoir of a girl on the verge of womanhood in a world turned upside down is a poignant picture of Vietnam, then and now, and of a courageous woman who experienced the true horror of the Vietnam War—and survived to tell her unforgettable story.A Vintage Shorts Vietnam Selection. An ebook short.
Fathers and Forefathers
by Slobodan SelenicA touching story of cultural difference and tested loyalties. Set in Belgrade before WWII, Fathers and Forefathers tells the story of the marriage between a Steven, a Serb, and Elizabeth, an Englishwoman. After meeting at an English university they marry and leave England to build their life together. Steven's narrative and Elizabeth's letters home reveal two very different personal accounts of the difficulties this involves. Raised in Serbia their son, Mihajlo, is ashamed of his mixed parentage and rebels against his non-Serbian ancestry. On the eve of the war, Steven's loyalties are challenged when his counsel is sought by both the Serbian king and the opposition. He resolves to keep his distance from the conflict, but Mihajlo's more radical response forces him to become involved, and tragedy engulfs the family.
Fathers of the Lega: Populist Regionalism and Populist Nationalism in Historical Perspective (Routledge Studies in the Modern History of Italy)
by George NewthThis book investigates the historical roots of the Italian Republic’s oldest surviving political party, the populist far right Lega (Nord), tracing its origins to post-war Italy. The author examines two main case studies: the Movements for Regional Autonomy (MRAs), the Piedmontese Movement for Regional Autonomy (the MARP) and the Bergamascan Movement for Autonomy (the MAB), both of which formed a first wave of post-war populist regionalism from 1955 until 1960. The regionalist leagues which later emerged in both Piedmont and Lombardy in the 1980s – and which would later form part of the Lega Nord – represented in many ways a revival of the MRAs’ populist regionalist discourse and ideology and, therefore, a second wave of post-war populist regionalism. Despite this, neither the MRAs nor the twenty year gap between these waves of activism have received the attention they deserve. Drawing on a series of archival and secondary sources this book takes an innovative approach which blends concepts and theories from historical sociology and political science. It also provides a nuanced examination of the continuities and discontinuities between the MRAs and the Lega from the 1950s until time of publication. This contributes to debates not only in contemporary Italian history, but also populism and the far right. While rooted in historical approaches, the book’s interdisciplinarity makes it suitable for students and researchers across a variety of subject areas including European history, modern history, and political history.
Fault Lines in Global Jihad: Organizational, Strategic, and Ideological Fissures (Political Violence)
by Assaf Moghadam Brian FishmanThis book deals with the causes, nature, and impact of the divisions within the jihadi movement, and the splits between jihadis and other Islamic groups. Fault Lines in Global Jihad offers a systematic and comprehensive examination of the broad range of divisions that contribute to the weakening of the jihadi movement. It separates these divisions into two broad categories, namely fissures dividing jihadis themselves, and divisions separating jihadis from other Muslim and Islamist groups. The first part of the book covers intra-jihadi divisions, highlighting tensions and divisions over strategic, tactical, and organizational issues. The second part of the book addresses several important case studies of jihadi altercations with other Muslim and Islamist groups of non-jihadi persuasion, such as the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas, and the Shii community. More than simply an enumeration of problems and cracks within al-Qa’ida and its cohorts, this book addresses critical policy issues of relevance to the broader struggle against the global jihadi movement. The editors conclude that these divisions have and continue to weaken al-Qa’ida, but neither in an automatic nor in an exclusive fashion—for these divisions render the global jihadi movement simultaneously vulnerable and more resilient. This book will be of much interest to students of jihadism, terrorism and political violence, Islamism, security studies and IR in general.
Fear
by John Berger Malcolm Imrie Gabriel ChevallierAn NYRB Classics Original Winner of the Scott Moncrieff Prize for Translation1915: Jean Dartemont heads off to the Great War, an eager conscript. The only thing he fears is missing the action. Soon, however, the vaunted "war to end all wars" seems like a war that will never end: whether mired in the trenches or going over the top, Jean finds himself caught in the midst of an unimaginable, unceasing slaughter. After he is wounded, he returns from the front to discover a world where no one knows or wants to know any of this. Both the public and the authorities go on talking about heroes--and sending more men to their graves. But Jean refuses to keep silent. He will speak the forbidden word. He will tell them about fear. John Berger has called Fear "a book of the utmost urgency and relevance." A literary masterpiece, it is also an essential and unforgettable reckoning with the terrible war that gave birth to a century of war.n the battlefield? He responds like a man: "I was afraid." Acclaimed as "the most beautiful book ever written on the tragic events that blood-stained Europe" for five years, prosecuted on first publication as an act of sedition, Fear appears for the first time in the United States in Malcolm Imrie's poetic and prizewinning translation on the hundredth anniversary of the outbreak of World War I, the conflict with which the twentieth century came into its own. Chevallier's masterpiece remains, in the words of John Berger, "a book of the utmost urgency and relevance."
Fear In Battle
by Donald Horton John DollardJohn Dollard (1900-1980) was a psychologist and social scientist best known for his studies on race relations in America. From 1942 to 1945 he served as a consultant in the Morale Services Division the United States Department of War, during which time he and fellow psychologists at Yale University's Institute of Human Relations produced a study titled "Fear and Courage under Battle Conditions." The study investigated fear and morale of soldiers in modern combat conditions. With the active assistance of the Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade interviews with Lincoln Brigade veterans were carried out and a questionnaire distributed. Three hundred veterans who had served as volunteers with the Abraham Lincoln Brigade during the Spanish Civil War replied and became the research subjects for the study.This book presents the findings from this intensive study for the purposes of military value.
Fear Itself: A Novel (The Jimmy Nessheim Novels #1)
by Andrew RosenheimA homegrown Nazi conspiracy threatens to destroy America in this historical FBI thriller: &“A stirring successor to Frederick Forsyth&” (The Independent). Washington, DC, 1940. Jimmy Nessheim, a young special agent in the fledgling FBI, is assigned to infiltrate a new German American organization known as the Bund. Ardently pro-Nazi, the Bund is conspiring to sabotage American efforts against Adolf Hitler. But Nessheim&’s investigation soon uncovers something far more sinister—and it leads directly to the White House. Drawn into the rarified world of Washington&’s high society, Nessheim is caught in a web of political intrigue, secret lives, and a lethal plot that could rewrite history. With sharp wit and a keen eye for period detail, author Andrew Rosenheim brings to life an America at the crucial period before it entered World War II. He seamlessly weaves into the narrative larger-than-life figures such as J. Edgar Hoover, Clyde Tolson, and Lucy Mercer Rutherford, as well as historical events like the 1939 pro-Nazi rally held at New York City&’s Madison Square Garden.
Fear Up Harsh
by Tony Lagouranis Allen Mikaelian"Something really bad happened here. " So begins Army interrogator Tony Lagouranis's first briefing at Abu Ghraib. While Lagouranis's training stressed the rules of the Geneva Conventions, once in Iraq, he discovered that pushing the legal limits of interrogation was encouraged. Under orders, he-along with numerous other soldiers-abused and terrorized Iraqis by adding "enhancements" like dogs, hypothermia, and other techniques to "Fear Up Harsh"-the official tactic designed to frighten prisoners into revealing information. And he saw others do far worse. The first Army interrogator to publicly step forward and break the silence surrounding these tactics, Lagouranis reveals what went on in Iraqi prisons- raising crucial questions about American conduct abroad. .
Fear: An Essay in Historical Interpretation
by Jan T. GrossPoland suffered an exceedingly brutal Nazi occupation during the Second World War. Close to five million Poles were killed. Of these, more than half were Jews killed in the Holocaust. Ninety percent of the world's second largest Jewish community was annihilated. But despite the calamity shared by Poland's Jews and non-Jews, anti-Semitic violence did not stop in Poland with the end of the war. Jewish Holocaust survivors returning to their Polish hometowns after the war experienced widespread hostility, including murder, at the hands of their neighbors. The bloodiest peacetime pogrom in twentieth-century Europe took place in Kielce, Poland, a year after the war ended. Jan Gross's Fear is a detailed reconstruction of this pogrom and the Polish reactions to it that attempts to answer a perplexing question: How was anti-Semitism possible in Poland after the war? Gross argues that postwar Polish anti-Semitism cannot be understood simply as a continuation of prewar attitudes. Rather, it developed in the context of the Holocaust and the Communist takeover: Anti-Semitism eventually became a common currency between the Communist regime and a society filled with people who had participated in the Nazi campaign of murder and plunder, people for whom Jewish survivors were a standing reproach. The Polish poet Czeslaw Milosz said that Poland's Communist rulers fulfilled the dream of Polish nationalists by bringing into existence an ethnically pure state. For more than half a century, what happened to Jewish Holocaust survivors in Poland has been cloaked in guilt and shame. Writing with passion, brilliance, and fierce clarity, Gross at last brings the truth to light.
Fearing the Worst: How Korea Transformed the Cold War (Woodrow Wilson Center Series)
by Dr. Samuel F. Wells Jr.After World War II, the escalating tensions of the Cold War shaped the international system. Fearing the Worst explains how the Korean War fundamentally changed postwar competition between the United States and the Soviet Union into a militarized confrontation that would last decades.Samuel F. Wells Jr. examines how military and political events interacted to escalate the conflict. Decisions made by the Truman administration in the first six months of the Korean War drove both superpowers to intensify their defense buildup. American leaders feared the worst-case scenario—that Stalin was prepared to start World War III—and raced to build up strategic arms, resulting in a struggle they did not seek out or intend. Their decisions stemmed from incomplete interpretations of Soviet and Chinese goals, especially the belief that China was a Kremlin puppet. Yet Stalin, Mao, and Kim Il-sung all had their own agendas, about which the United States lacked reliable intelligence. Drawing on newly available documents and memoirs—including previously restricted archives in Russia, China, and North Korea—Wells analyzes the key decision points that changed the course of the war. He also provides vivid profiles of the central actors as well as important but lesser known figures. Bringing together studies of military policy and diplomacy with the roles of technology, intelligence, and domestic politics in each of the principal nations, Fearing the Worst offers a new account of the Korean War and its lasting legacy.
Fearless (Fiction Without Frontiers)
by Allen Stroud&“Fast-paced, gripping hard SF with death in hard vacuum waiting at every turn.&” — Arthur C. Clarke Award winner Adrian TchaikovskyAD 2118. Humanity has colonised the Moon, Mars, Ceres and Europa. Captain Ellisa Shann commands Khidr, a search and rescue ship with a crew of twenty-five, tasked to assist the vast commercial freighters that supply the different solar system colonies. Shann has no legs and has taken to life in zero-g partly as a result. She is a talented tactician who has a tendency to take too much on her own shoulders. Now, while on a regular six-month patrol through the solar system, Khidr picks up a distress call from the freighter Hercules…FLAME TREE PRESS is the new fiction imprint of Flame Tree Publishing. Launched in 2018 the list brings together brilliant new authors and the more established; the award winners, and exciting, original voices.
Fearless (The Lost Fleet #2)
by Jack CampbellOutnumbered by the superior forces and firepower of the Syndicate Worlds, the Alliance fleet continues its dangerous retreat across the enemy star system. Led by the legendary Captain John "Black Jack" Geary who returned to the fleet after a hundred-year suspended animation, the Alliance is desperately trying to return home with its captured prize: the key to the Syndic hypernet and the key to victory... Geary is convinced that the Syndics are planning to ambush the fleet and finish it off once and for all. Realizing the fleet's best (and only) chance is to do the unexpected, Geary takes the offensive and orders the fleet to the Sancere system. There, a multitude of possible routes home give the Alliance fleet a better chance of avoiding their pursuers--and an attack on the Sancere shipbuilding facilities could decimate the Syndic war effort. Weary from endless combat, the officers and crew of the Alliance fleet can't see the sense in charging deeper into enemy territory, prompting a mutiny that divides them and leaves Geary with higher odds against him than ever before...