A review by pedanther
Biggles Forms a Syndicate by W.E. Johns

adventurous fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.25

It's a pretty slight story, even compared to other Biggles novels I've read. The villain's a pretty perfunctory plot device who doesn't even qualify as the biggest threat of the novel, where the environmental hazards are much more significant. And being set in the British-occupied Middle East there's that thing where the depiction of even the sympathetic Arabs is a bit off. Still, it moves along at a good clip and passes the time.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Confinement, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Gun violence, Racism, Islamophobia, Colonisation, War

Confinement:

One of the dramatic set-pieces of the novel is a sequence in which two people are trapped in a cave by a rockfall and not rescued for several days.