Monday, September 17, 2012

Devil Wings Over France: An Air War Thriller by James Reasoner

Back in the 1930s, Air War pulps were hugely popular. Writers like Frederick Nebel, Raoul Whitfield, Lester Dent and David Goodis, among many others, churned out millions of words detailing the thrilling battles between American aces and German pilots in the skies over Europe.

Several air fighters even got their own magazines, including The Lone Eagle, Dusty Ayres, and the most popular air war hero of them all, G-8. The magazine G-8 and his Battle Aces ran for 110 issues, and the secret of its longevity was that he wasn't fighting just Germans. Like other great Hero Pulp heroes, G-8 went up against threats that crossed the line into the worlds of fantasy, science fiction and the supernatural.

Well. Fast-forward eighty years, and we find James Reasoner, who's written tales in just about every other pulp genre, introducing his own air war hero, American ace Dave "Dead-Stick" Malloy, in Devil Wings Over France. I can't say much about the plot of this adventure without giving too much away, but suffice it to say that Malloy is a worthy successor to G-8, and I'm hoping more tales of his WWI heroics will be coming soon.

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5 comments:

  1. Charles GramlichSeptember 17, 2012 at 6:31 AM

    Yeah, I enjoyed this one considerably!

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  2. Jerry HouseSeptember 17, 2012 at 6:44 AM

    Yep, a nifty story!

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  3. Glen DavisSeptember 17, 2012 at 9:45 AM

    That's definitely a genre that needs a revival.

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  4. shonokinSeptember 17, 2012 at 10:08 AM

    Very interesting, thanks for the heads up. I'd like to add that as a big time fan of G-8 for many years, I was delighted to start reading the very similar Philip Strange adventures by Donald Keyhoe which have IMO superior writing to Hogan's.

    I talk about it some here:
    http://thepulpreader.blogspot.com/2011/08/phantom-ace.html

    Anyway I look forward to checking out "Devil Wings" as it sounds very promising.

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  5. Cap'n BobSeptember 18, 2012 at 1:27 AM

    Thanks for the heads up. This one sneaked up on me.

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