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He broke into a peal of nerve-jarring laughter which ended in something like a sob. "Get me a drink somebody, please," he pleaded. "Lord! I am tired."
This is the very first Biggles book, a collection of the first Biggles short stories, set in WWI and including his first appearance in "The White Fokker." He's introduced as a teenage pilot barely holding himself together, and the whole collection is understatedly harrowing. It's also full of exciting aerial warfare, fascinating period details, and cool concepts, plus an introduction by Johns in which he describes some of the experiences that inspired the book and says that most of the stories in it are more-or-less true.
These planes, or "machines" as they're often called, were made of canvas and wood, and were flown without parachutes or radio. (Pilots used hand signals (!) or plane movements to communicate.) If you were shot down, you generally died. But if you crash-landed, you could often literally get up and walk away. At one point someone gets a ride hanging on to a wing!
Dogfighting pilots were so close at times that they could see each other's faces and even expressions, and the aces on both sides knew each other's names and some personal details. It was a weirdly intimate kind of warfare.
The stories were published individually, but they connect to form a loose narrative. The flying sequences and the general sense that death is hanging over them all and can come at any moment when they're in the air gives the book incredible tension. In "The Packet," he's the third pilot to be sent on the same mission within a matter of hours, after the first two were killed trying. He has to pick up a packet of papers that are only twenty miles away; he'll be either back or dead within the hour.
Major Raymond appears in "The Balloonatics," in which he eggs on Biggles to risk his life for six bottles of whiskey! (To be fair, there was a mission of tactical significance involved, and Biggles would have been happy to do it without the prize.) I would bet money that this more-or-less really happened. That story would have fit right in as a M*A*S*H episode.
Algy Lacey is introduced in "The Boob" and plays a major role in "The Battle of Flowers," both of which also have a M*A*S*H-like feel. He's Biggles' cousin whom his aunt arranged to send to his squadron. Biggles has less-than-fond memories of him from childhood: "His Christian names are Algernon Montgomery, and that's just what he looked like--a slice of warmed-up death wrapped in velvet and ribbons."
Algy arrives with ten hours of flying Camels under his belt, and Biggles warns him that the average lifespan of a new pilot is 24 hours, but if he survives the first week he should be all right. He's serious, too. Of course, he shows his stuff in a pleasingly unexpected manner, and turns out to be even more of a courageous lunatic than young Biggles.
Marie Janis appears in "Affaire de Couer," which establishes that Biggles' type is "honorable and attractive German spy, any gender fine."
"The Last Show" sees Biggles so far gone that he's about to be sent home before he gets himself killed, but he has one last mission he's determined to fly...
Reading this without context, it's an excellent set of atmospheric, exciting war stories with interesting hooks. Read with the context of a bunch of other Biggles books, I kept thinking, "This poor kid!" He is SEVENTEEN.
I'd already read Biggles Learns to Fly, which has a similar tone, but this one is especially good to keep in mind as his and Algy's backstory when reading other books.
I ended up reading this off the Internet Archive link because the versions I could find online were so poorly formatted. I will eventually get a hard copy (It's on my wish list and my birthday is coming up JUST SAYING) but I wanted to read it sooner. Hopefully this is not the infamous bowdlerized edition where the pilots are risking their lives to win six bottles of lemonade (originally whiskey.) I wonder if the other pilots in that edition worry about Biggles because he's gotten so depressed and burned out that he's drinking half a bottle of lemonade before breakfast!
This is the very first Biggles book, a collection of the first Biggles short stories, set in WWI and including his first appearance in "The White Fokker." He's introduced as a teenage pilot barely holding himself together, and the whole collection is understatedly harrowing. It's also full of exciting aerial warfare, fascinating period details, and cool concepts, plus an introduction by Johns in which he describes some of the experiences that inspired the book and says that most of the stories in it are more-or-less true.
These planes, or "machines" as they're often called, were made of canvas and wood, and were flown without parachutes or radio. (Pilots used hand signals (!) or plane movements to communicate.) If you were shot down, you generally died. But if you crash-landed, you could often literally get up and walk away. At one point someone gets a ride hanging on to a wing!
Dogfighting pilots were so close at times that they could see each other's faces and even expressions, and the aces on both sides knew each other's names and some personal details. It was a weirdly intimate kind of warfare.
The stories were published individually, but they connect to form a loose narrative. The flying sequences and the general sense that death is hanging over them all and can come at any moment when they're in the air gives the book incredible tension. In "The Packet," he's the third pilot to be sent on the same mission within a matter of hours, after the first two were killed trying. He has to pick up a packet of papers that are only twenty miles away; he'll be either back or dead within the hour.
Major Raymond appears in "The Balloonatics," in which he eggs on Biggles to risk his life for six bottles of whiskey! (To be fair, there was a mission of tactical significance involved, and Biggles would have been happy to do it without the prize.) I would bet money that this more-or-less really happened. That story would have fit right in as a M*A*S*H episode.
Algy Lacey is introduced in "The Boob" and plays a major role in "The Battle of Flowers," both of which also have a M*A*S*H-like feel. He's Biggles' cousin whom his aunt arranged to send to his squadron. Biggles has less-than-fond memories of him from childhood: "His Christian names are Algernon Montgomery, and that's just what he looked like--a slice of warmed-up death wrapped in velvet and ribbons."
Algy arrives with ten hours of flying Camels under his belt, and Biggles warns him that the average lifespan of a new pilot is 24 hours, but if he survives the first week he should be all right. He's serious, too. Of course, he shows his stuff in a pleasingly unexpected manner, and turns out to be even more of a courageous lunatic than young Biggles.
Marie Janis appears in "Affaire de Couer," which establishes that Biggles' type is "honorable and attractive German spy, any gender fine."
"The Last Show" sees Biggles so far gone that he's about to be sent home before he gets himself killed, but he has one last mission he's determined to fly...
Reading this without context, it's an excellent set of atmospheric, exciting war stories with interesting hooks. Read with the context of a bunch of other Biggles books, I kept thinking, "This poor kid!" He is SEVENTEEN.
I'd already read Biggles Learns to Fly, which has a similar tone, but this one is especially good to keep in mind as his and Algy's backstory when reading other books.
I ended up reading this off the Internet Archive link because the versions I could find online were so poorly formatted. I will eventually get a hard copy (It's on my wish list and my birthday is coming up JUST SAYING) but I wanted to read it sooner. Hopefully this is not the infamous bowdlerized edition where the pilots are risking their lives to win six bottles of lemonade (originally whiskey.) I wonder if the other pilots in that edition worry about Biggles because he's gotten so depressed and burned out that he's drinking half a bottle of lemonade before breakfast!
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