Two very nice people told me they thought this book would be a hit for me and they were absolutely right! This military fantasy world fit right into mTwo very nice people told me they thought this book would be a hit for me and they were absolutely right! This military fantasy world fit right into my "favorite" slots and ticked all the boxes. Author Robyn Bennis has given readers a debut novel that feels more like the work from a published author with multiple novels to her credit. This was fun to read with the snarky, witty comments flying back and forth between Josette Dupree and Bernat Hinkal at every opportunity. Josette is trying to prove that women can serve well in His Royal Majesty's Aerial Signal Corps and in her case pilot an airship. Bernat is the spy, sorry - observer, on her airship who is being paid to dig up the dirt on how incompetent she is. That shouldn't be too hard, right? After all, she is just a woman.
The comments fly thick and fast while fulfilling the function of explaining the setting of this fantasy world with the airships playing a vital role in the many wars these folks are constantly fighting. The steampunk style mechanics of the airships is explained fully along with the use of armament aboard the ships to fight other ships in flight or troops on the ground. The Bernat character should have been the villain of the piece but he was just so darn complicated that I loved reading on to find out what the author had in store for him by the end of the book. Some of the battle scenes, especially the final one, went on long enough that I got tired of them, but I still wanted to see what was going to happen to all the characters. The second book in the series has already been published so you can jump straight into that one after you finish the first. ...more