Skylark's Song
Skylark's Song
Then she elbowed Al to the side and wriggled into the gutter of space between him and the snotty blond kid whose name she never bothered to remember. She set her oversized canvas satchel and its precious cargo under the bench with more care than she had shown her meal tray, bracketing it between her knees.
Child apprentices started young in the shipyards—fourteen, if they could afford to stay in school; eleven, if they needed the money. Robin had needed the money, so she had six years to develop the whippet muscular of a mid-flight engineer. And since she was smaller, shorter, and lighter than most of her colleagues, Robin’s pilot, Wade, could bring up two more cases of ammunition than his cohorts. Robin was not—so—secretly grateful that he liked that advantage, too. It meant that she didn’t have to work in a laundry, cleaning shirts like Al’s with her mother.
Al made a dramatic, twisting face of agony, clutching his arm where her elbow had landed.
Robin snorted at him. “Oh shut up, you baby.”
The Skylark’s Song is the first volume in a duology set in a steampunk world that has been at war for 10 years. Robin, 17, is a mid-flight engineer in the Air Patrol, one of the crew of two in a glider that engages in combat with enemy craft and goes on bombing runs. The plot delves into race and class. Robin is a Sealie, considered the lower class. Her pilot, Wade, is a Benne, from the upper class. They are fighting against the Klonne who appear to be winning this seemingly endless war. Because of the constant bombing which has destroyed homes, the populace is suffering hardships, including the need for rationing and having to scrounge in the rubble.
Robin’s parents want her to marry and settle down; her friend Al wants romance; and most of the Benne want her to remember her proper place in the local social system. When Wade is seriously injured by the infamous enemy pilot known as the Coyote, Robin’s heroics in getting their crippled gilder back to base result in her being promoted to pilot and her friend Al to become her mid-flight engineer. Robin’s success as a pilot draws the attention of the Coyote, who challenges her to a mid-air duel. Benne pilots who resent Robin sabotage her craft, and she is shot down. Robin survives is taken captive by the Coyote, but Al dies.
The Coyote tries to gain Robin’s trust or at least get her to repair a mysterious rocket pack that could end the war in favor of the Klonne. His advances confuse her, but, in the end, Robin plots her escape. The story ends with Robin on the loose in enemy territory.
The novel provides readers with a complex plot, aerial combat in a steampunk setting, and romance. The on-again-off-again hint at romance between the Coyote and Robin is handled well. Major characters like Wade and Al are injured or die. The fate of the Coyote is left hanging at the end of the book along with questions such as is he evil or is he honest and telling Robin the truth.
The Skylark’s Song is a well-written tale of adventure and romance, one that touches on serious issues such as race and class as well as the futility and horror of war.
Ronald Hore, involved with writers groups for several years, dabbles in writing fantasy and science fiction in Winnipeg, Manitoba, under the pen name R.J.Hore.