- Paperback: 768 pages
- Publisher: Forge Books; First Edition edition (Jun 14 2004)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0765342170
- ISBN-13: 978-0765342171
- Product Dimensions: 17 x 10.7 x 4.3 cm
- Shipping Weight: 340 g
- Average Customer Review: 1.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
A century of aviation and world history are revisited in novelist and historian Fleming's latest offering, which tracks the development of the airplane from a fantastic toy into a potent economic and military force. In the early 1930s, Frank Buchanan is a brilliant and conscientious aircraft designer, and Adrian Van Ness is his unscrupulous business partner in the increasingly powerful airplane industry of California. Associates, wives, mistresses, sex clubs and gallons of booze accompany them through peace and war as their initial idealism fades into cynicism. Real-life personalities make appearances: Charles Lindbergh survives airmail night duty and famously flies solo to Paris; JFK is regularly treated to the services of a high-class whore; and a giggling Richard Nixon is shown a porn flick before getting a promo film pitch for a new aircraft. The book is at its best in its aerial set-pieces. Ancient Hollywood cameras grind out brilliant recreations of the old barnstorming days; Spads and Fokkers reenact WWI, looping and crashing earthward in plumes of smoke. Later, in terrifically exciting scenes of WWII air warfare, B-17 Flying Fortresses lumber to unpublicized destruction on forays over Europe, while daring low-level fighter bomber attacks on Japanese fleets turn the tide of the war. Interwoven with such potent scenes are clandestine romances, in which women are rarely more than sexual fodder for macho males. Pulpy dialogue and supersonic metaphors abound, but Fleming knows how to turn history into captivating fiction.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
"I don't read Thomas Fleming just to learn about American history. I read Thomas Fleming because I want to smell what the Americans in that time smelt, to see as our ancestors' saw, and most important to feel every emotion, every thought, and every moment that the people of our country felt."-W. E. B. Griffin, New York Times bestselling author of the Brotherhood of War series
"Thomas Fleming is one of my favorite writers because he combines powerful storytelling with the skills of a superb historian."-John Jakes, New York Times bestselling author of North and South
"Fleming's in-depth knowledge of period and culture, his ability to separate the myth from the reality, both help you discover the very essence of what it means to be an American."-Margaret Truman, New York Times bestselling author of the Capital Crimes series
"Thomas Fleming is one of my favorite writers because he combines powerful storytelling with the skills of a superb historian."-John Jakes, New York Times bestselling author of North and South
"Fleming's in-depth knowledge of period and culture, his ability to separate the myth from the reality, both help you discover the very essence of what it means to be an American."-Margaret Truman, New York Times bestselling author of the Capital Crimes series
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
The dark brown whiskey splashed sullenly over the ice in the bottom of Cliff Morris's glass. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
The dark brown whiskey splashed sullenly over the ice in the bottom of Cliff Morris's glass. Read the first page
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Concordance
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Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
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Most helpful customer reviews
1.0 out of 5 stars
Adequate, But Dreadful,
By
This review is from: Conquerors of the Sky (Hardcover)
When the first sentence talks about scotch whiskey acting sullenly, you know you're in for a dreadful non-treat. It doesn't get any better. The author builds his story about a large aircraft company, where the principals are flitting about. Not in real life!The writing is disjointed, unable to keep a thread going. It seems the author uses up his supply of adjectives on each page. I got to page 24, then quit in disguist. If this book ever makes paperback, which would be a waste of even more paper, that would be a discredit to Tom Doherty Associates.
1.0 out of 5 stars
Decent story, lousy writing,
By
This review is from: Conquerors of the Sky (Hardcover)
Fleming's story is decent enough, but it's just a stringing together of a variety of familiar incidents involving various aircraft manufacturing companies and aviation pioneers. Even that is marred by the inclusion of several howlingly inaccurate items about aircraft and aerodynamics, revealing the author's lack of expertise in the subject. And to top it off, the writing is execrable, and that's being nice about it.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
1.0 out of 5 stars (4 customer reviews) 5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars
Adequate, But Dreadful,
By Robert A. Bushnell - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Conquerors of the Sky (Hardcover)
When the first sentence talks about scotch whiskey acting sullenly, you know you're in for a dreadful non-treat. It doesn't get any better. The author builds his story about a large aircraft company, where the principals are flitting about. Not in real life!The writing is disjointed, unable to keep a thread going. It seems the author uses up his supply of adjectives on each page. I got to page 24, then quit in disguist. If this book ever makes paperback, which would be a waste of even more paper, that would be a discredit to Tom Doherty Associates. 5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars
Decent story, lousy writing,
By James E. Beckman - Published on Amazon.com
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Conquerors of the Sky (Hardcover)
Fleming's story is decent enough, but it's just a stringing together of a variety of familiar incidents involving various aircraft manufacturing companies and aviation pioneers. Even that is marred by the inclusion of several howlingly inaccurate items about aircraft and aerodynamics, revealing the author's lack of expertise in the subject. And to top it off, the writing is execrable, and that's being nice about it.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars
Pass over this one,
By Scruffy Scirocco - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Conquerors of the Sky (Paperback)
If you're looking for a romance novel, this is the place. If you're looking for a novel about flying, fliers, and aircraft, go look for something by Tom Wilson. If James Michener had set out to write Peyton Place, this would be the result. The male characters are angst-ridden caricatures, the females are all sex-obsessed nut-jobs. The flying sequences are virtually non-existent. There were two - count `em, TWO! -- flying sequences from WWII! The author has never been there, and knows nothing about the culture or history of flight. I gave up halfway through the book. This one's bound for the used book store as a trade-in.
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