Review: Goshawk Squadron, by Derek Robinson

Goshawk Squadron, by Derek Robinson

I learned of this book via the fantastic 'By the Book' column featuring John Sandford, in which he drops the titles of a number of popcorny (and serious) novels with which I was wholely unfamiliar. I took it as a great opportunity to expand my reading into new areas, and a World War I flying genre book was certainly a new one for me!

While I may not have enjoyed it quite as much as Sandford, who calls it a 'minor masterpiece', I absolutely found it to be captivating, the action scenes vivid and engrossing, and the lean characterizations to be hard hitting and likely to stay with me for some time. The book opens very strongly and really blasts you into the grim world of WWI aviation bootcamp. The middle seemed to drag a bit, or at least become a little less transcendant. However, by the end we are really feeling the pressure and the inevitable crush of history as the Germans advance, the British press on, and the men and women caught in the middle try to remember what it is to live life.

Overall, it's something different, it's full of black humor which is at times really incredible, and is well worth your time to experience something new.