Steamy Science Fiction

The late 19th and early 20th centuries -- particularly the time between the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 and World War 1 -- seem to be a favorite era for steampunk science fiction writers to set some alternative history stories involving steam-engine dirigibles and the battles in which they fought.

Robyn Bennis sets her 2017 debut novel The Guns Above in such a world, beginning the story of Josette Dupre as she serves the aerial navy of Garnia in the midst of deadly war. Women have been allowed in the Garnian navy, but never in command of an airship and indeed, most of the time prohibited from even being aboard in combat. Josette will change all of that, but part of the reason is that she has angered a high-ranking officer who puts her on an untested experimental ship in order for her to either fail or get killed. He even places a spy aboard also, with orders to chronicle or pitch in, if possible, on either option. Josette knows this and would have no problem with the spy, if he weren't rather charming and, incredibly, a much better and fairer person than his employer.

Bennis spends significant time describing how the airships work and how the crews have to work them -- regular shifting of ballast, for example, is needed whenever a crew member decides to go from the front of the ship to the back. It's detailed, because Bennis is a scientist and this kind of thing is important, though not much more distracting than descriptions of ship rigging in Napoleonic naval fiction. But the technical side isn't worked into the overall narrative as seamlessly as it might be, and it squeezes out space that could have fleshed out some characters beyond the two leads.

As such novels do, The Guns Above winds up with our heroes in a spectacular battle against overwhelming odds that will require bravery, cunning, strength, endurance and more luck than all Ireland for them to survive. Some of the survivals are pretty much given, but the point of stories like this is much more how survivors make it and what it costs them than the simple "Will they or won't they?" Bennis' answers to the how and what questions are interesting enough to make a second cruise with Josette and her crew worthwhile.

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The era also makes a good time frame for young adult sci-fi, as there are still enough old-fashioned social morés to keep the sexual content relatively chaste but things have begun to progress enough that plucky female heroines can rise to the occasion and demonstrate heroism through their courage and intelligence. So Jon Del Arroz begins his stories of Zaira von Monocle in such a time, as her native Rislandia faces off against the evil Wyranth Empire in 2017's For Steam and Country.

Zaira's mother died years ago, and when her father disappeared more recently she was left alone to run the family farm, with help from her neighbors. But a lawyer has found her and shown her what her father left her as a legacy: his airship. Although Baron von Monocle served the King of Rislandia, he was the sole owner of the ship and Zaira may now do as she pleases with it. When she journeys to the capital to discuss the matter with the king, she learns that her father was quite a bit more than he seemed, and that the conflict between her country and Wyranth has dimensions and dangers she knew nothing about.

Del Arroz doesn't make Zaira an impossibly competent Mary Sue; showing her as being very much a 16-year-old doing her best in a situation well outside her comfort zone. She makes mistakes, she lets people down, she puts herself and others in danger and then she learns from her errors. It's a nice character arc.

But it's only outlined rather than fully painted, and the majority of the other characters in the book are much less well-developed. Like most YA novels, the emphasis is on keeping reader interest while moving from beginning to end rather than on dawdling over character or plot points. The aeronautics are more assumed than explained and sometimes they or the geography involved get confusing. In spite of that, though, younger readers could find a lot worse examples than the brave, honest and compassionate Zaira von Monocle who insists on equal treatment and proves herself well worthy of the same.