★★★★★ (of 5)

• Full Title: The Guns Above
• Author: Robyn Bennis
• Year: 2017 (mine was library hardcover)
• Pages: 351
• Genre: Science Fiction, Steampunk
• Publisher: Tor Books (Macmillan)
• ISBN 978-0-7653-8876-6 (hardcover)

 

Summary

On the author’s blog, two days before this book was officially released in 2017, she called it “a steampunk fantasy filled with witty dialogue and ladies who shoot people”, which is relatively accurate. (The only “fantasy” element is the setting: a planet much like Earth around World War 1, but with different country names and women in combat.)

Main character Josette Dupre is an airship officer in a military that has only recently allowed women to participate so fully, though there are still many restrictions. The book opens just after she (illegally) took command of her airship after the loss of its captain, becoming something of a hero in the press but a thorn in the side of the patriarchal aristocrats in charge. The story follows Dupre as she is assigned to another (experimental) airship, set up to fail, and a Lord’s son along for the ride as a spy. There are battles, narrow escapes, the gritty reality of war, and yes, witty dialog. The Lord’s son, Bernat, goes through quite the character arc as he experiences the lives of the airship’s crew and the dangers of warfare in the skies and on the ground.

 

The Good

For my tastes, everything about the book was good, so much so that I’m surprised I hadn’t heard of it before seeing it on my local library’s “new books” display four years late.

The descriptions of the airship, action, and battles were clear and concise, painting pictures of the scenes without clogging the story’s movement. Everything felt natural and realistic (given the setting, of course), and it was easy to lose oneself in the story — I felt like I was there. The characters were widely differentiated and well-described — many were archetypes but they didn’t feel like carbon copies of characters, they felt like these people.

And, though my own knowledge of airships is meager, it seemed as if the author had done extensive research into their operation and development, including the jargon of the people who would operated them. Further, the world in the background — the invented nations and their histories, the lifestyles of both the wealthy and the common people, the types of clothing and business establishments, methods of long-distance communication, etc. — seemed solidly fashioned as well.

One way I decide whether to check out a book from the library, if I’ve never heard of it before — and after seeing the cover and flyleaf — is reading the opening line. I have a pretty good track record of selecting books on the strength of the first sentence or two, and this one had a strong first paragraph (and yes, for some reason, the first paragraph was on page 13):

“Josette Dupre woke atop a bleak and stony hill, her head throbbing, her uniform soaked in blood, and the thunder of the cannons still echoing in her ears. Incandescent embers danced above her, swarming past her body and disappearing into the oily smoke all around.”

—page 13

At the beginning, there were superb drawings of the airship and its “hurricane deck”, helpful for picturing where most of the story takes place. I wish there had also been a rough map of the region in question, but it wasn’t terribly necessary — the author did a good job of plotting the area with directions and distances in print.

It’s difficult to reproduce in a short review examples of the “witty dialog” mentioned above, because a lot of it was back-and-forth conversation and would require extra-long quotations. Some of it referred back to other situations so it only becomes funny if one has been reading the book. But there were a handful of short quotes that I think reproduce well, like the following, when Bernat is having trouble sending a message:

“Why even have battles when they’re such a vile inconvenience to everyone?”

—page 23

Or this one, which is Josette’s unspoken reaction to being warned about giving orders to male crewmembers:

“Oh, of course. They couldn’t have her ordering male lieutenants around on the flimsy pretext that she outranked them.”

—page 43

And, unlike far too many books-in-a-series these days, this one can be read alone. There is enough of a conclusion at the end to feel closure, at least for now. Yet it leaves open quite a few possibilities for continuation, should one be interested in the second book (By Fire Above, 2018).

 

Points Off For...

I didn’t take off any points for anything. The only thing I wish I’d seen more of was the history of the nations involved in the conflict. As it was, we only got a few hints of what kind of world this is. (From context, it seems like a mix of the late 1800s and early 1900s, and in an area something like southeastern Europe or the northern Middle East.) But I’m easily persuaded that the author couldn’t fit such a history into this story without bogging it down, and so left it out.

 

Conclusion

I enjoyed the novel thoroughly, but especially so knowing it was the author’s debut. There were few dull moments, and I’m looking forward to the sequel.

(For the record, the last book I awarded five stars was Native Son, back in September 2020.)