The only bad thing I have to say about this book is that A Just Determination is a lot like the Caine Mutiny just in space, however I enjoyed this a lot more than the Caine Mutiny. Campbell has also obviously read the UCMJ (Uniform Code of Military Justice) and the JAGMAN (Judge Advocate General's Manual) and the Manual for Courts-Martial because he depicts a very realistic court room environment. Campbell describes the day to day life a young ensign straight out of the Navy Academy. Jack Campbell has served in the Navy and knows that navy life isn't very exciting. That said, there are no heroes here, no happy endings, and that makes the novel readable.įirst off, I was a little hesitant to listen to this book because of the bad reviews but I took the plunge and it was worth it. Bottom line: a leader's reality is much more equivocal and ambiguous than Hemry makes it sound in this story. Likewise, leaders are neither good nor evil, just human beings who, when thrown into the breach, are equally likely to do good or evil.

In my experience, the situations surrounding the tough decisions soldiers make when lives swing in the balance are never black and white. Second, because the story is told from the perspective of a junior officer (and perhaps for dramatic reasons), the portrayal of the commanding officer is annoyingly two-dimensional. I think Hemry must have realized this because he did a much better job of imagining a space tradition in the Lost Fleet Series. First, the wholesale application of US Naval tradition to a future space force is somewhat disconcerting as it gives the novel a bit of a split personality.

The story also reminds me of the sad tale of the USS Vincennes, whose crew shot down an Iranian airliner full of civilians. It's sort of a 'Caine Mutiny' in space, but without the mutiny. This is the story of a young military officer (the fact that the setting is in space is totally irrelevant to the story) who ponders the meaning of leadership when his commanding officer errs in the use of deadly force. I should say up front, I'm a fan of John Hemry's novels, especially the Lost Fleet Series. Leadership is leadership, regardless of setting.

A Just Determination by John G. Hemry