o here’s an interesting concept from 1977, an alien world where flying humanoid reptiles have been  preying on fish people. And since these fish people can’t fight for shit, they make a contract with the March People (cats, it appears, what with the fur, sliding claws and quick tempers) to fight their wars for them. So these fish somehow figure out how to build nimble biplanes (I’m thinking Newport 11s) and, quickly, dart-driven machine guns to protect everyone.

So that’s the set up; cats in planes dogfighting (catfightng) with spear-throwing bats.

Author S. Kye Boult (not his real name) produced this loose collection of stories for (I think) Analog. And I’ll say that, if Kye didn’t actually fly planes, he must have read a lot of World War One accounts because that part of the book felt natural and great. The flying was fun, the planes zippy, the cats overly proud. What’s not to like?

But unfortunately, the book drags a bit in places and the stories are choppy in their individualisms. In the second “story”, the river people produce a bomber and some Drak-away-spray (that will terminate all Drak offspring). Maybe this is genocide? Maybe not? After all, the Drak (is this a play off “Dracula”?) eat anyone and anything they can catch. So the Drak are sprayed yet, in story three, they are back in Eagle Day swarms. See, the actually storyline seemed shaky in places.

So we follow Baron Amarson as our main character through the interesting flight scenes and the draggy romance scenes (the heroine, a ground fighter feline and kick ass character out of Frazetta fantasy). In the end, they encounter bear-like creatures who fly massive gliders, who come looking for one of their number who happened to “Wrong-Way Corrigan” into the Baron’s land. It turns out that, fortunately, these gliders can loiter around while the baron sets up elaborate funeral observances for the new-comers to observes, using their lost pilots. it seemed a little odd, first-contact-wise, to assume your pageantry with corpses wouldn’t be viewed, perhaps, as barbaric and insulting. And man, did it take forever. Finally he manages to fly the bodies home, using a long-range cargo plane he happens to have (making me wonder – if you live in a fantasy land and you have planes, wouldn’t your first use of them be to spot out the lands (and possibly people) around you? Yeah, I know, constant war against the Drak and all, but really, you should get out more.

I guess that’s what difference a half-century has between reads. What I thought was way-cool back then is only “meh” now. Further, I followed this with Hammers Slammers, one of the all-time classics released at literally the same time – amazing, the difference in storytelling and punch between the two (watch for my coming review on the Slammers).

Anyway, I’m not sure why I kept that book for a half-century. It even survived the great purge. Maybe I’ll pick up a nickle at the used bookstore next time I’m over there. Or if you want it, and want it quick, let me know.

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