Steel and Song
-
- $3.99
-
- $3.99
Publisher Description
Airwitch Tova Vanaskaya's choices are few: use her magic to fly an elite aircraft in the Grand Duchy's army or be shipped to the trenches. But invoking too much magic can kill the wielder, and her Cossack captain has a hell-bent-for-leather streak that pushes her to the brink. It’s a good thing she’s not afraid to push back.
Airship captain Piers Dashkov lost his friends, family ties and self-respect in a rash act years ago, so it's fine by him if the odds of surviving a dogfight are slim to none. His goal is simple: find redemption through valor and regain his lost honor in death if not life. He needs the smart-mouthed airwitch to achieve that impossible goal, but he never thought she would prove to be his salvation.
While the enemy is on the move, and whispers of revolution echo from the salons of the noble Cossack Houses to the tenement slums of Muscovy, one reckless night of passion creates a connection that will reverberate fatally for nations as well as for Tova and Piers.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Bolton's steampunk Aileron Chronicles open with this disappointing tale of elemental magic in an alternate early 1900s Russia. Tova Vanaskya, a headstrong young S mi woman, is an airwitch who can manipulate wind to lift aircraft, a crucial skill in the war between Russia and the Franks. After being conscripted from her tiny village, she is soon picked up by Cossack military commander Piers Dashkov, who uses her magic to lift his aileron. Bolton (The Gisbornes of Nottingham) fills the setting with evocative period detail and a look at the hierarchical structures of Russian elite, but the characterization of the two main leads is formulaic and trite. Tova is the typical spunky, talented heroine and Dashkov the typical brooding, secretly vulnerable anti-hero, and their eminently predictable interactions detract from what would otherwise be a capable, genre-broadening work. (BookLife)