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janna128's review against another edition
4.0
I picked this book up after finishing "Empire of the Summer Moon". I thoroughly enjoyed the author's writing style and figured I may enjoy this book, too.
While this tome provided a wealth of knowledge and interesting tidbits, it did not hit the same way as its predecessor. Part of that may have to do with the main character not being a person or group of people, but rather the main character is the rigid airship.
If you're someone who enjoys more scientific minded, horror novels, this is for you. If you're not, well... It might be a miss.
While this tome provided a wealth of knowledge and interesting tidbits, it did not hit the same way as its predecessor. Part of that may have to do with the main character not being a person or group of people, but rather the main character is the rigid airship.
If you're someone who enjoys more scientific minded, horror novels, this is for you. If you're not, well... It might be a miss.
egrupenhoff's review against another edition
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
3.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death and Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Alcoholism and Alcohol
chazzerguy's review against another edition
4.0
This really is my favorite kind of book... Historical non-fiction about some lesser known event filled with human foible... Good intentions but bad results.
The author does a great job of explaining all the engineering and aeronautical complexity of these big machines and why they really were just a TERRIBLE idea to begin with... A very entertaining read.
The author does a great job of explaining all the engineering and aeronautical complexity of these big machines and why they really were just a TERRIBLE idea to begin with... A very entertaining read.
exelone31's review against another edition
4.0
Really interesting story on the history of zeppelins and their ultimately fatal ends. Some really insane facts about the production of these gigantic floating ships, including how the inner "balloons" of the ships were made out of thousands and thousands of pounds of cow intestines.
I feel like the format could have been a little bit better, there was kind of a flashback/flashforward cadence at points, when I feel like keeping the attention on the fatal night of R101's demise would have been easier to follow. There were also quite a few characters introduced that became hard to follow after a while.
That said, one of the most interesting characters was Marthe Bibesco, who wasn't mentioned much, but seemed to have had a fascinating life.
I feel like the format could have been a little bit better, there was kind of a flashback/flashforward cadence at points, when I feel like keeping the attention on the fatal night of R101's demise would have been easier to follow. There were also quite a few characters introduced that became hard to follow after a while.
That said, one of the most interesting characters was Marthe Bibesco, who wasn't mentioned much, but seemed to have had a fascinating life.