KNIGHTS OF THE AIR

This first installment of a series offers a bloody war story ensconced in a tale of friendship.

The protagonist of Stewart’s novel is the revenge-driven Lance Fitch. Lance’s bucolic youth in East Africa ends in 1914 when a sadistic German officer has two of his Native friends killed and his younger brother Francis gets badly injured. Skilled hunter Lance later assassinates the officer. Soon after, Lance and another brother, Will, join the British infantry to fight in France. But Will is killed in a German artillery attack that is aided by reconnaissance planes. This brings the shellshocked Lance to a turning point. He decides that family and friendships are a weakness. He joins the Royal Flying Corps in order to better “kill Huns,” with retribution becoming his primary mission. Lance also forms an unlikely partnership with a pilot, Maj. Lord Arthur Wolsey, becoming a machine-gunner for the officer. Eventually, Arthur convinces Lance to join 100 Wing, an elite squad that targets the Flying Circus of “The Red Baron.” Against his wishes, Lance finds himself forming bonds with this new family despite its regular losses. Throughout, master tactician Lance’s obsession with vengeance keeps butting up against the moral requirements that he serve as a good teammate and leader. He struggles to discover a balance between the two. In the Historical Notes afterword, Stewart, a native of East Africa, explains that this book is the first volume in a series telling “ripping yarns” based on Arthurian legends and the air war of 1916 to 1918. He succeeds admirably, blending historical characters and events into an entertaining fictional story. The author manages this despite building his narrative around Lance, a character who’s often unlikable in his single-mindedness, although he later displays some laudable traits. Sanding the protagonist’s rough edges is Arthur, who tolerates Lance’s insolence since the aristocrat places more value on his talents. Most of the other characters prove disposable, but this is war, after all. Stewart brings to colorful life a time when battles took on a new look thanks to daring pilots inside flimsy aircrafts.

A rousing yarn that deftly delivers both a wartime adventure and a character study.