The Guns Above is a secondary world military fantasy, kind of like Steampunk meets the Napoleonic wars. There’s no magic here, but it features airships battles, humour, and dialogue that bounces back and forth like a frantic game of table tennis.
It’s not a grimdark story by any means, but the books I thought of the most while reading this were Joe Abercrombie’s First Law novels. Like that series, our protagonists include a tough, experienced war veteran who has a better instinct for war than the army’s inept and arrogant officers, and a preening, shallow fop who’s only interested in himself until he gets a taste of the real world. Archetypes we’ve seen before, but ones that possess a lot of potential to do something fresh with – which the author does.
Captain Josette Dupre shoulders the bulk of the narrative’s weight – as the first female airship captain, she has to contend with institutionalised sexism, skeptical crew members, and an army general who would love nothing more than to see her crash and burn (literally) to prove that women shouldn’t be on the frontlines.
Enter the general’s nephew, Lord Bernat. Initially only concerned with earning more money to fund his lavish and work-free lifestyle, Bernat is seconded to Josette’s crew to provide intelligence to his uncle. Josette sees right through his pretences, but the challenges they face aboard their airship eventually fosters a mutual respect. You can tell where the narrative is going, but seeing each character overcome their flaws and warm to one another is the best part of the story.
The language is clear and easy to connect with, though there’s perhaps slightly too much detail on how airships are held together in the earlier chapters. (That said, during battle scenes, this background knowledge does a good job of making us wince every time we read about a splintering piece of wood or burst water bag). The humour keeps the tone mostly light throughout, but there’s a welcome vein of snarky humour, and a few gruesome descriptions of injuries. This helps keep things grounded and believable.
Are there any negatives? Well, I found much of the supporting cast pretty two-dimensional, primarily the crew members of the Mistral who’re named but not given much of a personality beyond their job descriptions. This is only a minor niggle, as the pace kept me from dwelling on that too much. Additionally, the enemy army isn’t given much in the way of personality or motivation, but this is partly addressed early on when Dupre reels off a list of previous enemies and territories that have changed hands over the course of several years, which serves to underline the theme of war being pointless (who cares who the enemy is if killing ’em nabs you a promotion or a new medal, right?).
The Guns Above is an enjoyable yarn when it gets going, and the battle scenes and banter between its two main characters ensures you won’t get bored. Oh, and I love that cover art.
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