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A review by caitcoy
The Guns Above by Robyn Bennis
5.0
The Guns Above is a fast-paced military action adventure following the first female airship captain as she attempts to guide her new ship and crew to glory even as her enemies both foreign and domestic do everything they can to bring her down. After daring actions in battle and a sympathetic press lead to her becoming captain of her own ship, Josette Dupre has to muster a crew capable of respecting a woman in leadership where there have previously been none and deal with the imposition of a foppish aristocrat who's just waiting for his chance to undermine her and provide the ammunition for her superiors to break her down a rank. Not to mention somehow help win the war that her country has been fighting and losing for years. No pressure though.
This was one of the books on my 5 star predictions list that I created for myself earlier this year and it's nice to know that at least one of the books completely hits the mark. The Guns Above is definitely in the military sub-genre of fantasy and features lots of airship battles and more naval/technical terminology than you might be expecting. Even with that, the action scenes are spectacular and I loved all of it.
The action and military elements are balanced with some truly loveable characters, even though Josette herself is very prickly. She's smart, she's capable but she's not always the best with people and it takes a particular crew to gel with her. I really enjoyed that Josette was willing to take risks but also screwed up sometimes and had to make up for it. It made her much more sympathetic as a character and I ended up enjoying the banter between her and the aristocrat even more than I expected.
Overall, while I was expecting to enjoy The Guns Above, I was surprised by just how much I loved it. I do tend to enjoy military fantasy but it was refreshing to have a female lead in a military fantasy who knew exactly how smart and capable she was and never tried to hide it but also wasn't perfect. This is easily a new favorite and I'm curious to check out the sequel.
This was one of the books on my 5 star predictions list that I created for myself earlier this year and it's nice to know that at least one of the books completely hits the mark. The Guns Above is definitely in the military sub-genre of fantasy and features lots of airship battles and more naval/technical terminology than you might be expecting. Even with that, the action scenes are spectacular and I loved all of it.
The action and military elements are balanced with some truly loveable characters, even though Josette herself is very prickly. She's smart, she's capable but she's not always the best with people and it takes a particular crew to gel with her. I really enjoyed that Josette was willing to take risks but also screwed up sometimes and had to make up for it. It made her much more sympathetic as a character and I ended up enjoying the banter between her and the aristocrat even more than I expected.
Overall, while I was expecting to enjoy The Guns Above, I was surprised by just how much I loved it. I do tend to enjoy military fantasy but it was refreshing to have a female lead in a military fantasy who knew exactly how smart and capable she was and never tried to hide it but also wasn't perfect. This is easily a new favorite and I'm curious to check out the sequel.