By: Charles A. Cornell
"And what about our hopes, Busbee? When did dreams become such a luxury?"
"I guess when nightmares became so cheap."
DragonFly isn't a book I would typically go for, but I'm really glad that I read it. This book mixes an alternate WWII historical fiction with science fiction and a bit of steampunk.
Veronica Somerset is an RAF pilot trying to navigate the male dominated military. She is an experience pilot and would like to fly in combat instead of boring mail routes. When Ronnie is assigned to Enysfarne Naval Base in Cornwall, she finally gets a chance to prove herself. Engineer Nigel Pennbridge has discovered a crystalline, quadra-hydrogen fuel system with strange crystals that only seem to be at Enysfarne. With this new technology, Nigel has built the DragonFly, a plane that has the ability to win the war for the British against HItler's sorcerers and mechanically enhanced warriors.
DragonFly begins with action and may seem to be like any WWII novel, Veronica's train is being attacked on her way to the Naval base. Right away we get to see her bravery and intuition in a combat situation. I was very pleased that there is a female pilot as the main character and her story is not dominated by romance, but action and heroism. Ronnie proves herself over and over as a good pilot and good soldier throughout the story. The alternate history and science fiction aspects of DragonFly were really different and kept me reading. All of the new types of planes were interesting (the pictures helped with this!) as well as the crystal technology that fueled the DragonFly. The Druidism and Sorcery inclusion made for a nice spin and managed to make Hitler and the Nazi's even more terrifying.
Veronica Somerset is an RAF pilot trying to navigate the male dominated military. She is an experience pilot and would like to fly in combat instead of boring mail routes. When Ronnie is assigned to Enysfarne Naval Base in Cornwall, she finally gets a chance to prove herself. Engineer Nigel Pennbridge has discovered a crystalline, quadra-hydrogen fuel system with strange crystals that only seem to be at Enysfarne. With this new technology, Nigel has built the DragonFly, a plane that has the ability to win the war for the British against HItler's sorcerers and mechanically enhanced warriors.
DragonFly begins with action and may seem to be like any WWII novel, Veronica's train is being attacked on her way to the Naval base. Right away we get to see her bravery and intuition in a combat situation. I was very pleased that there is a female pilot as the main character and her story is not dominated by romance, but action and heroism. Ronnie proves herself over and over as a good pilot and good soldier throughout the story. The alternate history and science fiction aspects of DragonFly were really different and kept me reading. All of the new types of planes were interesting (the pictures helped with this!) as well as the crystal technology that fueled the DragonFly. The Druidism and Sorcery inclusion made for a nice spin and managed to make Hitler and the Nazi's even more terrifying.
