Contemporary Authors

• The Guns Above Tor (New York, NY), 2017

• Robyn Bennis - http://www.robynbennis.com/about.htm

  Robyn Bennis is a scientist living in Mountain View, California, where she works in biotech but dreams of airships. She has done research and development involving human gene expression, neural connectomics, cancer diagnostics, rapid flu testing, gene synthesis, genome sequencing, being so preoccupied with whether she could that she never stopped to think if she should, and systems integration. Her apartment is within sight of Hangar One at Moffett Airfield, which was once the West Coast home to one of America's largest airships, the USS Macon.The Guns Above is her debut novel

• RT Book Reviews - https://www.rtbookreviews.com/bonus-content/q-a/guns-above-robyn-bennis

  TAKE TO THE SKIES WITH ROBYN BENNIS’ THE GUNS ABOVE
  Thu, 04/06/2017 - 2:52pm — Emily Walton
  reddit
  MONTHLY EDITION: (#399) May 2017
  If you’re looking for a fresh, new fantasy to get lost in, take to the skies with Robyn Bennis’ The Guns Above. Flying in from Tor in May, this debut novel follows Josette Dupre as she stumbles (bloodily) into the role of the first female airship captain Garnia has ever seen. But her new position is fraught with trouble when General Lord Fieren assigns his foppish aristocratic nephew, Lord Bernat, to accompany her crew … while recording and overstating any false step she makes!

  But when Josette discovers enemy information, it’s up to her, her crew and the maturing Bernat to prove themselves. We were excited to learn more about the crew of the airship Mistral — luckily Robyn answered all of our questions and more!

  RT: Josette is the first female airship captain the country of Garnia has ever seen, and while she has the skills to back it up, her promotion is quickly used as political tool. What is it about Josette that drives her regardless of what others think?

  Robyn: Alcohol. No, wait. That's what drives me regardless of what others think.

  For Josette, though she'd never admit it, her drive comes from her upbringing. She grew up in Durum, a backwater of Garnia where she had to hunt if she wanted to eat. She was conceived out of wedlock — a topic of gossip even as she was growing up — and raised by a single mother after her father died. So she's been enduring bad attitudes and fighting through them for her entire life.

  None of this quite prepares her when she's put in the crosshairs by her own commanding officer, however. To keep going through that level of abuse, she'll need to draw strength from her friends, her love for her ship, and … yeah, maybe some alcohol.

  Meanwhile, Lord Bernat is sent by his uncle to spy on Josette and her crew for political leverage. Foppish and money hungry, Bernat and Josette have very little in common. What will it take for Bernat to begin to see Josette in a different light?

  As is often the case, they have more in common than they realize, and each has qualities the other would admire if given the chance. That's one of the most insidious things about prejudice. It masks personal virtues, impeding respect and making itself that much harder to eradicate. For Bernat to see the real Josette, he'll have to experience the sort of personal growth and clear-sighted reflection that usually takes years. Then again, aboard a flying death trap in the middle of a war zone, a faster sort of personal growth can sometimes occur.

  Your apartment is within sight of Hangar One at Moffett Federal Airfield in California. How did real world planes and ships inspire your detailed and intricate descriptions of airships? How did you go about researching and creating their design?

  It started with a flight on an actual airship — the Eureka — out of Moffett. While cruising over Silicon Valley aboard a real-life Zeppelin, I divided my time between staring in awe out the windows and peppering the pilot and co-pilot with questions. That was the foundation, and atop that I laid books on airship design, histories of storied airships, and War Department manuals on their operations. Very little of that information actually made it into the book, because that would be boring, but it shows through in the pages. Plus, if there's ever a zombie apocalypse, I'll have a good start on building my own airship.

  Can you tell us a little about your worldbuilding and where your inspiration comes from?

  The worldbuilding in the air was, if not easy, then at least natural. From the very start, I wanted to bring the Age of Sail to a steampunk world, so I drew inspiration from a source I knew intimately: Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin series. I blended that period feel with real, historical airship services to create Garnia's Royal Aerial Signal Corps.

  The social and political aspects of Garnia required more deliberate planning, which goes to show the sacrifices I'm willing to make for my art. With more than a little assistance from my awesome editor, Diana Pho, I looked for the everyday experience of people living in great societies as they went into decline: Rome, the Golden Horde, and Byzantium in particular. In those societies, decline was accompanied by more and pettier squabbling among the leadership class. And though the history books don't often focus on the day-to-day life of the lower classes, it's difficult to read the histories of those empires and not suspect that the common folk smelled disaster long before their rulers did. I've worked to capture a taste of that in the Garnia we see through Josette and Bernat's eyes.

  Your book cover is stunning. Did you have any input regarding the design?

  I know, right? I love that cover so much. Tommy Arnold and the Tor art team did an amazing job. As is pretty typical at a big publisher, I had limited input into the cover — which bothered me right up to the moment I saw it. Now I'm quite happy with the process, because you sure can't argue with the results.

  This is your debut novel — congratulations! What’s your advice to budding SF/F authors?

  Six words: read, read, read, write, write, write. Read everything you can, and write whenever you can snatch a free moment. Apart from being born with freakish natural talent, that's how you make it.

  After this engrossing read, fans are sure to be clamoring for more! Are you working on anything else right now?

  I'm happy to report that I've just turned in revisions for the sequel to The Guns Above, which currently bears the working title, By Fire Above. So readers are guaranteed at least one more adventure with Josette and Bernat. Apart from that, I have some ideas simmering in the back of my head, ranging from supernatural to space opera. We'll just have to see where the winds take me.

  We’re ready to embark! Pre-order your copy from one of these retailers: Amazon | B&N | Kobo | iBooks | Indiebound

10/19/2017 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1508464914680 1/2
Print Marked Items
The Guns Above
Frances Moritz
Booklist.
113.16 (Apr. 15, 2017): p28.
COPYRIGHT 2017 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist_publications/booklist/booklist.cfm
Full Text:
The Guns Above. By Robyn Bennis. May 2017. 352p. Tor, $25.99 (9780765388766); e-book (9780765388773).
Josette Dupre takes everyone by surprise when she takes command of the Garnian airship after her captain died,
turning the tide of battle. Lauded by journalists for leading a stunning victory against the Vin, Josette has been
reluctantly rewarded with command of a new ship, the Mistral. Tagging along for the ride is the general's foppish and
destitute nephew, Lord Bernat (Bernie to his friends), who is assigned to document evidence of Josette's incompetence.
Through aerial tests, near disasters (including dinner with Josette's mother), blatant sexism every time they land, and
unexpected airship battles, Bernie and Josette develop a mutual respect. They work through an assortment of obstacles
to reach the final battle against the invading Vin. Hidden in with the character exploration are snippets of the world
history and the science behind airships, with each disaster filling in details on how many ways an airship can be
destroyed. Bennis has crafted an exciting new world that will attract steampunk fans of all ages and leave them hoping
for more.--Frances Moritz
Moritz, Frances
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Moritz, Frances. "The Guns Above." Booklist, 15 Apr. 2017, p. 28+. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA492536152&it=r&asid=fd9d54f13a7cb6a0fbce29aaf5bbabcf.
Accessed 19 Oct. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A492536152
10/19/2017 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1508464914680 2/2
The Guns Above
Publishers Weekly.
264.11 (Mar. 13, 2017): p63.
COPYRIGHT 2017 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
The Guns Above
Robyn Bennis.Tor, $25.99 (352p) ISBN 978-07653-8876-6
Napoleonic military fiction gets a steampunk spin in this debut novel of battling airships and an embattled captain.
Josette Dupre, who's been made the first female commander in the Garnian Royal Aerial Signal Corps thanks to her
heroic wartime action, is handed a "revolutionary" new design (which is to say, a dangerous untested prototype) by a
senior general who wants to get rid of her. With her well-trained crew, including the general's snitching nephew, Dupre
improves the design, uncovers a second-front invasion by the enemy, wins over the spy, and makes a spectacular laststand
defense of her homeland. Bennis writes a pleasing mix of banter ("Hoping to leave a good-looking corpse?" "I
couldn't avoid it if I wanted to") and gritty battle scenes, combining both the adrenaline rush of combat and its
horrifying results, and never indulging in too-sudden social victories that might cheapen the long struggle against
embedded prejudice. Agent: Paul Lucas, Janklow & Nesbit Associates. (May)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"The Guns Above." Publishers Weekly, 13 Mar. 2017, p. 63. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA485971639&it=r&asid=e280c4fa03d8d3142e314bdd5ad9f764.
Accessed 19 Oct. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A485971639

• Amazing Stories Magazine
  http://amazingstoriesmag.com/2017/08/book-review-guns-robyn-bennis/
  Word count: 526

  Book Review: The Guns Above by Robyn Bennis
  John Dodds August 21, 2017 Alternate History, Novel, Review, steampunk 0

  SearchHome › Alternate History › Book Review: The Guns Above by Robyn Ben...
  This first novel by Robyn Bennis, The Guns Above (Tor), is a rip-roaring steampunk fantasy set in an alternate world with a French feel, perhaps around the 19th century. It features airship and ground battles aplenty, a feisty heroine (airship captain Josette Dupres), a dissolute fop, Bernet, who becomes her unwilling sidekick, layers of dialogue heavy on the double entendres, and plenty of politics, mainly of the sexual kind.

  Having survived a battle in which she saved many men, though, with no real memory of having done so, Josette is put in charge of an experimental airship, with as motley a crew as you’ll find this side of Jack Sparrow’s band of merry men. She is charged with patrolling the front lines of Garnia, while at the same time testing the new ship. There are several problems she has to contend with. First, the crew don’t trust her expertise. Then there is the temperamental airship itself, which never seems to do what it’s supposed to – including being faster and much more manoeuvrable than others in the Garnian fleet. Not the mention the enemy invasion, which is introduced in explosive style, as you can imagine.

  While there is a great deal to admire in the novel, I felt that the first third was laborious, going into minute detail about the construction and workings of the airship, a blow by blow account of recruiting its crew members and little sign of the story itself getting off the ground.

  Having said that, once the air and ground battles begin, the action is relentless, exciting and fantastically well-written. Some scenes were intensely gripping, as bullets and bombs rip through airships and crews alike. There are perilous near-misses and powerful scenes involving the deaths and maiming of characters we have come to like (or at least become invested in). There is also lashings of witty dialogue, such as the entirely plausible acidic banter between crew members, and the caustic, teasing exchanges by Josette and Lord Bernet, just hinting at a “will they, won’t they?” subplot.

  Overall there is much to admire in The Guns Above, and the standard of writing is first-class. However, it rather belabours the steampunk science, pouring lavish detail throughout on the mechanics of the airship, the most fully-realized character in the novel. I say that because generally the characterization of the humans feels a little sketchy and I would like to have seen a little more depth to the main players at least. On the other hand, I suspect this is only an opening gambit for a potential series and as such Robyn may be simply doing a slow unfolding of the lives of the key players. Certainly, if full on action is your thing, you’re bound to have a great time reading this novel, and it is easily strong enough to leave readers wanting more.

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• Fantasy Literature
  http://www.fantasyliterature.com/reviews/the-guns-above/
  Word count: 1852

  The Guns Above: An airship captain and a dandy fop walk into a bar…
  Readers’ average rating:
  The Guns Above by Robyn BennisThe Guns Above by Robyn Bennis
  Robyn Bennis’ debut novel, The Guns Above (2017), is a fun blend of flintlock rifles, airships, military exercises, and wry commentary on both gender politics and “military intelligence.” There’s enough whip-smart dialogue to make any reader laugh out loud, and readers who are mechanically inclined will love the detailed descriptions of gears, flight tests, and ballast.
  Josette Dupre is the first female airship captain in the Garnian Aerial Signal Corps, a promotion which may as well be a death warrant: her homeland, Garnia, is at war with the neighboring country of Vinzhalia over a contested bit of land, and her new rank comes with appointment to a “revolutionary new design” for airships — an appellation which generally signifies doom. Even worse, a ridiculous young aristocrat named Lord Bernat Hinkal has been added to her crew with the instruction to secretly report on her unsuitability for duty, thus proving that women have no place in the military. If Captain Dupre is to survive any of this with her life and reputation intact, she’ll need a strong crew, a sound ship, and more than a little luck.
  The Guns Above by Robyn Bennis fantasy book reviewsJana: The Guns Above was more accessible than I was expecting, especially with the pre-release comparisons I’d seen to Patrick O’Brian’s AUBREY-MATURIN series of nautical historical novels (which I’ve tried to read, but don’t capture my interest). Even though Bennis creates many of the technological elements out of whole cloth, she describes them in a layman-friendly way so that when characters interact with an airships’s components, I could easily visualize the airship’s jackscrews or gearbox with enough clarity that I wasn’t distracted from the plot or dialogue. Similarly, the moments of ship-to-ship warfare are written in such a way that there’s little to no confusion as to who is doing what, or which airships are engaging in cannon fire among the clouds. It was a little harder for me to picture ground warfare among hundreds or thousands of troops, but I read that as a deliberate distancing from Bennis, since the crew members aboard the Mistral often share that difficulty.
  The Guns Above by Robyn Bennis fantasy book reviewsMarion: Because the airships are “ships” it’s almost impossible to avoid the Patrick O’Brian comparison. For me, in terms of access and clarity for a lay reader, the book reminded me more of the early entries in Bernard Cornwell’s SHARPE’S RIFLES series; for a couple of reasons. One is the idea that neither Sharpe nor Dupre are generally considered officer material. In The Guns Above, Dupre’s appointment is overtly political while Sharpe was field-promoted, but each of them is an outsider. The other similarity is how easily the books invite the reader into their worlds.
  I loved how clear Bennis made the descriptions of the airships and other settings, and it was a stroke of genius to show us the airship Mistral for the first time through the eyes of self-indulgent fop Bernat, who has never seen such a thing before.
  Jana: Societally speaking, I think it was a smart choice for Bennis to make the point that while Josette Dupre is the first appointed female airship captain, she’s not the only woman in the ranks of the Garnian military. Women aren’t forbidden from enlisting, but they’re often given ranks like “Auxiliary Lieutenant” and “Auxiliary Private,” or left as Ensigns. Giving Captain Dupre command of a mixed-gender crew and then placing the plot’s focus on scouting missions or testing the limits of their experimental airship, rather than wacky sexual hijinks or hand-wringing over whether women will faint at high altitude, keeps the reader focused on military matters and the excitement of the unknown. There are those who wish to see Captain Dupre permanently grounded strictly due to her gender — chief among them being Lord General Fieren, who sets Lord Bernat Hinkal at his task of espionage against Dupre — but her crew supports and respects her, and that was very important to me.
  Marion: I thought Bennis set up a mixed-gender army and the resistance to it very smoothly. That said, one role reversal, the relationship between Private Grey and Bernat, seemed like a cheap shot even though it was played for laughs. This is one of those situations where, had the genders been reversed, I doubt we would be chuckling. At the very end, though, the resolution is great and sets up for a brilliant line delivered by Dupre. This, honestly, is my biggest nit to pick with the story.
  Jana: I agree; Grey’s “courtship” of Bernat read far too much like sexual harassment in the workplace, especially because most of their interactions take place aboard the airship, meaning that he has no option to go somewhere safe. He’s trapped on board a skyborne vessel with a sexually assertive (not quite aggressive) individual who won’t take no for an answer. (I was reminded powerfully of a scene in The Empire Strikes Back, when Han makes overt advances toward Leia and forces her to accept a kiss — and what can she do about it? How can she escape or reject him without putting herself in even more danger?) It’s supposed to be played for laughs, but I didn’t find it funny … though it does ultimately allow for Dupre to take a shot at men being in the army, and that one moment was priceless.
  Marion: There is just enough world-building here, I think. We see right where this civilization is technologically, and we see that the country Dupre and Bernie call home is being deliberately misled by its government. That sets up some good suspense. One of the blurbs refers to the world as “Ruritanian” and that made me laugh, but the allusion to Anthony Hope’s Prisoner of Zenda is accurate. This is an historical novel of an imaginary world. There is no magic or weird science, which leaves the story free to concentrate on the characters, the politics and those suspenseful battles.
  Jana: I suspect that one of The Guns Above‘s elements which will get the most discussion is the snappy dialogue and internal monologues, whether seasoned crew members are having fun at Bernat’s expense or in scenes where he and Dupre bring drastically different viewpoints to shared experiences. In a novel which is, ostensibly, about a long-term war that claims lives and destroys towns, it’s important for the author to be able to balance the tone between comic and serious, and Bennis succeeds. There are lighthearted moments and plenty of verbal sparring matches, and Bernat’s recorded observations of Dupre’s captaincy are hilariously overwrought, but death and destruction are given appropriate respect.
  Marion: I loved the action here. I think we see three aerial battles, one infantry battle from the air and one from the thick of the fight at ground level. Even more than the action, I loved watching the development, or revelation, of Bernat Lord Hinkal and Josette Dupre. Bernat has more depth than I expected, and Dupre emerges on the page as a pure warrior, which meant that I especially loved the exchange between her and Bernat, or “Bernie,” at the very end of the book. Dupre is also smart, clear-sighted about the realities of the military, and unsure of herself in moments, and I thought that was well-done.
  I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I am looking forward to reading other books in the series.
  Jana: Agreed! All in all, The Guns Above was entertaining and well-written, despite a few issues of tone and some questionable character behavior. It’s a promising start to what should be a fascinating series, and is sure to please fans of military history novels as well anyone who’s dreamed of traveling aboard an airship.
  Published May 2, 2017. In the tradition of Honor Harrington and the high-flying Temeraire series, Bennis’s THE GUNS ABOVE is an adventurous military fantasy debut about a nation’s first female airship captain. They say it’s not the fall that kills you. For Josette Dupre, the Corps’ first female airship captain, it might just be a bullet in the back. On top of patrolling the front lines, she must also contend with a crew who doubts her expertise, a new airship that is an untested deathtrap, and the foppish aristocrat Lord Bernat, a gambler and shameless flirt with the military know-how of a thimble. Bernat’s own secret assignment is to catalog her every moment of weakness and indecision. So when the enemy makes an unprecedented move that could turn the tide of the war, can Josette deal with Bernat, rally her crew, and survive long enough to prove herself?

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  May 2nd, 2017. Jana Nyman and Marion Deeds´s rating: 4 | Robyn Bennis | SFF Reviews | no comments |

  JANA NYMAN, with us since January 2015, is a freelance copy-editor who has lived all over the United States, but recently settled in Colorado with her dog and a Wookiee. Jana was exposed to science fiction and fantasy at an early age, watching Star Wars and Star Trek movie marathons with her family and reading works by Robert Heinlein and Ray Bradbury WAY before she was old enough to understand them; thus began a lifelong fascination with what it means to be human. Jana enjoys reading all kinds of books, but her particular favorites are fairy- and folktales (old and new), fantasy involving dragons or other mythological beasties, contemporary science fiction, and superhero fiction. Some of her favorite authors are Bradbury, James Tiptree, Jr., Madeleine L'Engle, and Philip Pullman.
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  MARION DEEDS, with us since March 2011, is retired from a 35-year career with county government, where she met enough interesting characters and heard enough zany stories to inspire at least two trilogies’ worth of fantasy fiction. Currently she spends part of her time working at a local used bookstore. She is an aspiring writer herself and, in the 1990s, had short fiction published in small magazines like Night Terrors, Aberrations, and in the cross-genre anthology The Magic Within. On her blog Deeds & Words, she reviews many types of books and follows developments in food policy and other topics.

• RT Book Reviews
  https://www.rtbookreviews.com/book-review/guns-above
  Word count: 446

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  Genre:
  Fantasy
  Published:
  May 2 2017
  Publisher:
  Tor Books
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  5 GOLD: Phenomenal. In a class by itself.
  4 1/2: TOP PICK. Fantastic. A keeper.
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  THE GUNS ABOVE
  Author(s): Robyn Bennis
  Bennis’ latest is an inventive military fantasy that will grab readers at the first page. Delightful, memorable characters make up Bennis’ debut, along with her concise, amusing storytelling. Lord Bernat’s likable, pompous charm is a nice contrast to Josette’s blunt aloofness. Both characters are delightfully appealing. The depiction of war and battle is done with credible detail, adding good tension to a cleverly crafted plot. Without a doubt, Bennis’ latest is a highly entertaining read.
  After pulling off an unexpected victory in the war between her country and their long-standing enemy, Lieutenant Josette Dupre is given an unexpected reward. At a meeting in a museum with her superior, The General Lord Fieren, Josette is promoted to the rank of senior lieutenant and granted her own airship, The Mistral. Yet Josette’s excitement is tempered when she is faced with commanding an airship that is a “revolutionary new design,” the flying of which could lead to a risky outcome, and a new crew who barely has confidence in her. Add to that Lord Bernat, a charming, inept aristocrat, recently recruited by Fieren to go on Josette’s airship to keep watch for any of her missteps. It is a test of her will as she commands The Mistral through a bloody war with the hope of keeping her ship intact, and herself and her crew alive, including the annoying Lord Bernat. (TOR, Apr., 352 pp, $25.99)
  Reviewed by:
  Melanie Bates