mikerickson reviewed Raven One by Kevin Miller
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3 stars
What an unexpectedly interesting read this was. I say that primarily because there was no central overall plot or conflict for roughly the first half of the book... but I didn't mind because the dramatic action being described was engaging enough to hook me. On the one hand this feels like the "wrong" way to write and structure a novel. On the other hand, it doesn't matter because fighter jets are fucking awesome.
We follow a US aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf in the mid-2000's (references to Outkast and The Black-Eyed Peas really hammer the timeframe we're dealing with), and focus on an individual pilot with occasional POV shifts to other characters. But before you even get to the fiction, there's a glossary of terms some five pages deep that you're gonna wanna study beforehand because there is a ton of navy jargon that's thrown at the reader. At …
What an unexpectedly interesting read this was. I say that primarily because there was no central overall plot or conflict for roughly the first half of the book... but I didn't mind because the dramatic action being described was engaging enough to hook me. On the one hand this feels like the "wrong" way to write and structure a novel. On the other hand, it doesn't matter because fighter jets are fucking awesome.
We follow a US aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf in the mid-2000's (references to Outkast and The Black-Eyed Peas really hammer the timeframe we're dealing with), and focus on an individual pilot with occasional POV shifts to other characters. But before you even get to the fiction, there's a glossary of terms some five pages deep that you're gonna wanna study beforehand because there is a ton of navy jargon that's thrown at the reader. At times I did find myself having to slow down and decipher the dialogue and abbreviations that characters were throwing at each other, but it felt more rewarding than tedious. If nothing else, this felt accurate and authentic as hell.
It does take a while for events to begin building on each other and give a sense of narrative momentum in a conventional sense because a good portion of the first half of the book follows a single night where a young pilot (with the unfortunate nickname of "Sponge Bob" because he's the youngest of the squad) is having a rough time landing back on the carrier. This was such a stressful reading experience that I didn't even care that we spent so much time on it. But we do eventually see some development in our protagonist, and touch on themes of race in the military, gender in the military, nepotism in the military, and "what the fuck am I even doing all the way out here?" in the military.
The climax did feel a bit abrupt to me, but to be fair, fighter jet dogfights at supersonic speeds do tend to resolve themselves quickly. I've dabbled in military fiction a few times now, and this felt like one of the more believable depictions of what real-world combat looks like; no one-man hyperviolent Rambo fantasies going on here. I haven't decided if I'll continue with this series, but I appreciated the breath of fresh air in the genre that wasn't trying to score unnecessary domestic culture war digs and instead focused on - you know - the military serving its actual function in a fictional scenario.
