THE EMPRESS OF THE CLOUDS

A female airship pilot battles an evil industrialist, a Prussian militarist, and a sexist society in this debut steampunk adventure.

In 1896, after Heinz Amstel, a German engineer and businessman in Joplin, Missouri, turns up dead—electrocuted and torn apart by coyotes—his widow, Evaline, known as “Evvy,” is left with a mountain of debt; custody of young Bettina, Heinz’s daughter by another woman; and the bankrupt remnants of Heinz’s airship company, which offers paying customers the best airborne experience that money can buy. She duly learns to fly the dirigibles herself, and she becomes famous when she pilots a group of Baptists and a newspaperman through a tornado to a safe landing. Unfortunately, Evvy is shadowed by minions of Prussian Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin, who claims that his stolen designs were the basis for the superairship that Heinz was secretly building, The Empress of the Clouds. She’s also stalked by Georgia tycoon Erasmus Marchand, who’s planning to fit Empress with a death ray and overthrow the government by zapping President William McKinley’s inauguration from the sky; his new regime, he says, will simultaneously reinstitute slavery and establish a Jewish national homeland in the United States. Evvy’s quest to thwart the various plots, assisted by chivalrous deputy Sean McTavish, leads her into ever more dangerous scrapes, all heading toward a rare dirigible dogfight. Ultican’s period fantasy is all about the newfangled gear. Evvy is a STEM-focused heroine who’s endlessly inquisitive about horseless carriages, electric dynamos, fluorescent goggles, and other marvels, forever flummoxing patronizing men with her knowledge and skill. The narrative sometimes drifts like a giant balloon, and the characters’ schemes and motivations aren’t always plausible. But Ultican’s straightforward prose makes the science and engineering interesting and the action scenes gripping: “The girders twisted and snapped, emitting unearthly high-pitched tones as heavy bolts and metal beams hurtled through the atmosphere, scattering the terrified onlookers who now desperately sought to escape.” Readers who love derring-do with charismatic, old-school technology will find this a diverting read.

A wonkish but rousing fantasia.