John Hemry

John Hemry is an American writer of military SF, drawn on his experience as an United States naval officer. He wrote two series under his own name, the Stark's War and Paul Sinclair series. Poor sales had him resort to a pen name Jack Campbell for The Lost Fleet series; its success has lead to the reissue of his earlier work (with both bylines listed on the cover).

The Other Wiki has more here.

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Works by John Hemry that have their own pages

• The Lost Fleet

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John Hemry provides examples of the following tropes:

• Altar the Speed: In Against All Enemies
• Armchair Military/The Neidermeyer: Almost all the officers Stark faces. One lieutenant colonel is shown to be a worthwhile leader, but it's very rare for someone like that to be promoted even as high as captain. Army captain, significantly lower in rank than a Navy captain (although it's made pretty clear that the Navy has gone downhill in much the same way).
• Burial in Space: In A Just Determination
• Could Say It, But...: Sharpe gets quite huffy about detailing the things he can't do owing to his legal status (but someone else whose contact information he won't give, but it's in the directory, could do).
• Covers Always Lie: The reissues of the Stark's War books all show a soldier, presumably Stark, aiming a gun and wearing a sleeveless combination torso armor and equipment webbing. Bareheaded, too. The series is set on the Moon, so all combat, unless repelling a surprise attack, is actually done in an armored spacesuit.
• Famed in Story: Someone explains to Paul that he's this
• A Friend in Need: Most of the junior officers
• Glory Hound: Captain Wakeman
• Incorruptible Pure Pureness: Paul Sinclair
• Indestructible Edible: Fruitcake, shot into space as "a warning to all the universe of the awful culinary weapons available to the human race." After a billion years in vacuum, it will be just as tasty as it is now.
• It's All About Me: Captain Wakeman in A Just Determination
• Leader: Herdez gives quite a talk on it in A Just Determination
• Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: An explanation offered for certain occurrences is ghosts
• Meaningful Name: The McClellan tank
• Reassigned to Antarctica: One threat in Stark's War is guard duty at the lunar pole "for so long she'll think she's a space penguin."
  • At the end of the Paul Sinclair series, he's made enemies in high places (at least one admiral and some key Defense Department civilians have reason to dislike him for exposing wrongdoing), and somebody changed his assignment orders to a four-year posting on Mars. Paul's captain is outraged just hearing about it, but there's nothing he can do.
• Single Woman Seeks Good Man: Why Jen warms to Paul
• The Slacker: Sykes looks like this. The word "looks" is important.
• Smoking Gun: In Rule of Evidence
• Space Is Noisy: Simulated
• Stealth in Space: With extreme difficulty -- much discussed in A Just Determination
• Unable to Cry: Carl Meadows in A Just Determination
• Up to Eleven: In the third Stark's War book, the unit gets the word that the corrupt U.S. government has pressured the United Nations into declaring Stark and his troops international outlaws, not legitimate military. The sergeant handling intelligence points out that this means:

"Speaking of which, as I just reported, we're now at war with every country on Earth. That must be some kind of record."
Bev Manley nodded agreement. "I for one am proud. And with Ethan Stark leading us, this might be just the beginning. We may yet encounter an alien species and end up at war with them, too."

• Would Not Shoot a Civilian: in A Just Determination
• Wrong Genre Savvy: Jen warns Paul he's read too many books about knights in shining armor
• You Are in Command Now: A limited duty officer points out to Paul that it could happen to him.