rainbase
18 September 2014, 05:17 AM
The Astonished Earth, Book One: The Rise Of The Red Baron (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00MB22F8K/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00MB22F8K&linkCode=as2&tag=theaerodrome&linkId=UNOBO5HBIZSE5JOX)
By Christopher Beck
Always on the prowl for World War One themed aviation novels, I jumped at the opportunity to read this first volume of Christopher Beck's highly anticipated series that promises to trace the careers of some of the legendary fliers of The Great War. Book One, "The Rise Of The Red Baron" takes place from mid-July to mod-September of 1914.
This novel opens shortly before the declaration of war, with the young Dutchman Anthony Fokker's trip to the great flying ground at Johannisthal on the suburbs of Berlin. Not yet a success as an aircraft manufacturer and still an outsider to the Kaiser's military establishment, the reader is presented with an acutely rounded portrait of Fokker, both ambitious and yet treading lightly; still unsure of what his role will eventually be.
From here, the action quickly shifts to Western Prussia, on the last day of July (and the eve of war) where Leutnant Manfred von Richthofen prepares to lead his cavalry unit against the Russian forces massing across the Polish border. The adventures of the young Uhlan officer in the opening weeks of The First World War will occupy the body of this first volume of Beck's continuing series. Along the way, this beginning novel will also introduce us to future heroes Oswald Boelcke, Louis Strange, Lanoe Hawker and the Frenchman Roland Garros.
So, in a nutshell, this is the period covered in Book One of the series. While "The Astonished Earth" isn't the first novel to take on The Red Baron as a central character, Beck's portrayal of the young Von Richthofen, trained since boyhood to lead men into battle yet still unsure and questioning his own leadership capabilities, gives the reader a protagonist of greater depth and believability than earlier works have offered up. Jeff Shaara's sprawling 2004 "To The Last Man", for instance, also featured Von Richthofen as its centerpiece, but generally read more like a history textbook and tended to leave readers cold with its workmanlike yet predictable portrayals. Not so in "The Astonished Earth", where the Great War's future ace-of-aces absolutely comes alive on the written page. The final scenes of Book One will find the young Ulhan now on the Western Front, faced with the dawning realization that the age of the great cavalry charges have passed, as the war rapidly begins to settle into the stalemate of trenches, barbed wire and machine gun emplacements that will characterize the coming years.
I'll certainly be looking forward to the next installment of this promising series. In this first work, author Beck has handily demonstrated an intimate knowledge of the time period and pulls off the not-so-easy task of giving his readers a finely detailed narrative, rich in vivid description, that literally jumps off the page without once sacrificing believable characters and good old fashioned story telling. In addition, as a lifelong student of the men and machines of history's first airwar, I am happy to point out that I found no errors, minor or glaring in the author's descriptions of the actual aircraft and flying scenes in this novel. While most of this first book takes place on the ground, I'll be excited to see Mr. Beck "strut his aviation stuff" in the coming volumes.
In summation, I heartily endorse "The Astonished Earth" as a "must read" work for both similar minded fans of the topic and, in general, anyone looking for a terrific historical novel. Well done, Mr. Beck, write on, sir!
By Christopher Beck
Always on the prowl for World War One themed aviation novels, I jumped at the opportunity to read this first volume of Christopher Beck's highly anticipated series that promises to trace the careers of some of the legendary fliers of The Great War. Book One, "The Rise Of The Red Baron" takes place from mid-July to mod-September of 1914.
This novel opens shortly before the declaration of war, with the young Dutchman Anthony Fokker's trip to the great flying ground at Johannisthal on the suburbs of Berlin. Not yet a success as an aircraft manufacturer and still an outsider to the Kaiser's military establishment, the reader is presented with an acutely rounded portrait of Fokker, both ambitious and yet treading lightly; still unsure of what his role will eventually be.
From here, the action quickly shifts to Western Prussia, on the last day of July (and the eve of war) where Leutnant Manfred von Richthofen prepares to lead his cavalry unit against the Russian forces massing across the Polish border. The adventures of the young Uhlan officer in the opening weeks of The First World War will occupy the body of this first volume of Beck's continuing series. Along the way, this beginning novel will also introduce us to future heroes Oswald Boelcke, Louis Strange, Lanoe Hawker and the Frenchman Roland Garros.
So, in a nutshell, this is the period covered in Book One of the series. While "The Astonished Earth" isn't the first novel to take on The Red Baron as a central character, Beck's portrayal of the young Von Richthofen, trained since boyhood to lead men into battle yet still unsure and questioning his own leadership capabilities, gives the reader a protagonist of greater depth and believability than earlier works have offered up. Jeff Shaara's sprawling 2004 "To The Last Man", for instance, also featured Von Richthofen as its centerpiece, but generally read more like a history textbook and tended to leave readers cold with its workmanlike yet predictable portrayals. Not so in "The Astonished Earth", where the Great War's future ace-of-aces absolutely comes alive on the written page. The final scenes of Book One will find the young Ulhan now on the Western Front, faced with the dawning realization that the age of the great cavalry charges have passed, as the war rapidly begins to settle into the stalemate of trenches, barbed wire and machine gun emplacements that will characterize the coming years.
I'll certainly be looking forward to the next installment of this promising series. In this first work, author Beck has handily demonstrated an intimate knowledge of the time period and pulls off the not-so-easy task of giving his readers a finely detailed narrative, rich in vivid description, that literally jumps off the page without once sacrificing believable characters and good old fashioned story telling. In addition, as a lifelong student of the men and machines of history's first airwar, I am happy to point out that I found no errors, minor or glaring in the author's descriptions of the actual aircraft and flying scenes in this novel. While most of this first book takes place on the ground, I'll be excited to see Mr. Beck "strut his aviation stuff" in the coming volumes.
In summation, I heartily endorse "The Astonished Earth" as a "must read" work for both similar minded fans of the topic and, in general, anyone looking for a terrific historical novel. Well done, Mr. Beck, write on, sir!