The Guns Above: A Signal Airship Novel
Robyn Bennis’s THE GUNS ABOVE is an adventurous military fantasy debut about a nation’s first female airship captain.
They say it’s not the fall that kills you.
For Josette Dupre, the Corps’ first female airship captain, it might just be a bullet in the back.
On top of patrolling the front lines, she must also contend with a crew who doubts her expertise, a new airship that is an untested deathtrap, and the foppish aristocrat Lord Bernat, a gambler and shameless flirt with the military know-how of a thimble. Bernat’s own secret assignment is to catalog her every moment of weakness and indecision.
So when the enemy makes an unprecedented move that could turn the tide of the war, can Josette deal with Bernat, rally her crew, and survive long enough to prove herself?
“Full of sass and terrific characters. Great storytelling. Loved it.” —Patricia Briggs
At the Publisher’s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
Graphic, beautifully imagined and grimly realistic fantasy,
There are some fabulously anarchic moments in this beautifully imagined (and edited) story (only one misspelled word in the whole book). Comparatively expensive, if the author receives enough to encourage a sequel, it will be money well spent. If you like this, try Sutherland’s Alexis Carew series and P.C. Hodgells Kencyrath series (but read them in order and don’t try to cheat!). Spend a few minutes familiarising yourself with the diagrams before reading, it definitely helps with visualising parts of the story.
Hilarious!!,
kick-butt female captain,
I would have liked to understand the characters as well as the battles. The book is heavy on detailed descriptions of air battles and light on the internal workings of the characters themselves. I liked them, but I wouldn’t say we get to know them well, Josette especially.
I would liked to compliment Bennis on having a man be attracted to ‘older’ (than him) women and not making it a joke. Allowing that women in their 50s (and beyond) can be sexy and sexual was a breath of fresh air.
Lastly, as an introduction to a series this works well. But it is just a slice of a larger pie. We meet the captain, crew and tag-along dandy. They bicker and fight a couple battles in a larger war. Then it ends, with the understand that there is more of the same to come. It felt a bit anchor-less.
Note: I received a copy from Netgalley. I chose to read and review it.