By Fire Above: A Signal Airship Novel
By Fire Above is the rip-roaring new adventure in Robyn Bennis’s Signal Airship military fantasy series that Patricia Briggs hails as “full of sass and terrific characters.”
“All’s fair in love and war,” according to airship captain Josette Dupre, until her hometown of Durum becomes occupied by the enemy and her mother a prisoner of war. Then it becomes, “Nothing’s fair except bombing those Vins to high hell.”
Before she can rescue her town, however, Josette must maneuver her way through the nest of overstuffed vipers that make up Garnia’s military and royal leaders in order to drum up support. The foppish and mostly tolerated Mistral crew member Lord Bernat steps in to advise her, along with his very attractive older brother.
Between noble scheming, under-trained recruits, and supply shortages, Josette and the crew of the Mistral figure out a way to return to Durum—only to discover that when the homefront turns into the frontlines, things are more dangerous than they seem.
“Full of sass and terrific characters. Great storytelling. Loved it.” —Patricia Briggs
“Marvelous, witty and action-packed steampunk with exquisite attention to detail. Bennis’s writing is incredible, her vocabulary impressive, and she honest to God made me believe you could build an airship from spare parts.”—New York Times and USA Today Bestselling author Ann Aguirre
At the Publisher’s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
Another great adventure,
Nick Brett (Wiltshire, England) –
And the action, characters and witty dialogue kick right in and the pages are very hard not to keep turning.
This is high adventure and really good fun. Have we really got to wait a year for another one?
Loved the journey these characters make,
Bernat is a character that is still evolving and in this story his somewhat foppish, dandy like ways take quite a bashing. I wonât say too much but heâs possibly my favourite character but then again I do have a soft spot for brave Kember who makes such an impact in this book. Plus we see Roland , Bernats brother trying to court Josette but is he really man enough for her ?
Yes admittedly there are a lot of long descriptive passages as the author tries to bring the technology in this story to life but I found myself less bothered by that as I continued to read. I picked this because I enjoy steampunk but to my mind itâs really less steampunk and more just an alternative history. Donât expect magic or miraculous inventions because thatâs not what this world is about. Itâs about war, greed, those with power who abuse it and then ultimately those mere plebs, the little people who can rise up and make such a difference. The initial third or so didnât really capture my interest if Iâm brutal but as it hurtled towards the end I was completely riveted to the page. Itâs not a romance but I canât help but want Josette to see Bernat in a different light and no I donât care who he or she has previously slept with.
This voluntary take is of a copy I requested from Netgalley and my thoughts and comments are honest and I believe fair.