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The Guns Above by Robin Bennis
Apr. 1st, 2018 06:30 pmThe Guns Above
4/5. Josette is the first woman to command an airship for her fantasy empire. Her problems include the foppish aristocrat set to spy on her, the war, and also misogyny.
I really enjoyed this. Someone who does not want this series to succeed slapped it with a blurb about being like Honor Harrington, which . . . yikes. But I read it in spite of that, and in spite of not really wanting to read a book about institutionalized misogyny. Which this is, definitely. But Bennis hits that balance just right – the dryly brisk tone, the humor, the occasional flashes of seriousness. So it's not like now we roll around in misogyny but instead yup, it's like that, isn't it.
But the real joy of this series is the two protagonists, who spend the whole book snarking and snapping and not getting each other and, very very secretly, coming to appreciate each other. And they're not going to fuck! AT least I'm 99% sure. Bennis really went out of her way to make that point in a most novel manner. I.e., she had him ( spoiler ), which, (1) that's a new one; and (2) lol.
So call it a promising new series with a lot of airship nerdery and sarcasm. And yeah, a scoopful more blood and trench warfare than I really needed, but you gets what you gets.
4/5. Josette is the first woman to command an airship for her fantasy empire. Her problems include the foppish aristocrat set to spy on her, the war, and also misogyny.
I really enjoyed this. Someone who does not want this series to succeed slapped it with a blurb about being like Honor Harrington, which . . . yikes. But I read it in spite of that, and in spite of not really wanting to read a book about institutionalized misogyny. Which this is, definitely. But Bennis hits that balance just right – the dryly brisk tone, the humor, the occasional flashes of seriousness. So it's not like now we roll around in misogyny but instead yup, it's like that, isn't it.
But the real joy of this series is the two protagonists, who spend the whole book snarking and snapping and not getting each other and, very very secretly, coming to appreciate each other. And they're not going to fuck! AT least I'm 99% sure. Bennis really went out of her way to make that point in a most novel manner. I.e., she had him ( spoiler ), which, (1) that's a new one; and (2) lol.
So call it a promising new series with a lot of airship nerdery and sarcasm. And yeah, a scoopful more blood and trench warfare than I really needed, but you gets what you gets.