Glory to the King.
The Signal Airship series is a Steampunk adventure set in a Fantasy world where technology has reached a technology level allowing airships despite an otherwise Napoleonic era. It is written by Robyn Bennis.
The nation of Garnia is at war with the nation of Vinzhalia and has been for as long as Auxiliary Lieutenant Josette Dupree can remember. After she illegally seizes command of her ship following the death of her captain, she proceeds to achieve a great victory at the expense of her (male) commander's reputation. Assigned an experimental new ship with a spoiled lord as a spy, Josette must prove herself to be the captain her nation needs even if they don't necessarily deserve to win the war of conquest they've embarked on.
The novels in the series are:
- The Guns Above
- By Fire Above
This book series contains the following tropes:
- Affirmative Action Girl: Josette Dupre is the first female captain of a Garnian airship.
- Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Josette considers both of her parents to be this. Her father died of syphalis and her mother hits on much younger men. Not that Bernat minds.
- Aristocrats Are Evil: A Downplayed Trope example. They seem more spoiled and stupid than genuinely malevolent. Averted by Bernat in the end.
- Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Josette can't help but worry about her mother when Durum is conquered by Vinzhalia.
- Blackmail: Bernat does this to his uncle and gets Josette her command back.
- Breaking the Glass Ceiling: Josette Dupre becomes the first woman to command an airship in Garnia's Air Signal Corp. The army began accepting women mainly due to manpower shortages, but they're technically only auxiliary officers (so can't command "real" officers) and are supposed to be dropped off before their airships enter combat (which is almost never practical). Josette, contrary to regulations, took command of a damaged airship and did well enough to get appointed to full command of new one, but the general forced to appoint her is strongly hostile (since her heroics saved the day when his battle plans couldn't).
- Call a Rabbit a "Smeerp": "luftgas" and "inflammable air" are this society's terms for helium and hydrogen respectively.
- Cool Ship: The Mistral proves to be one despite Josette's suspicions.
- Daughter Of A Whore: Josette brings up how she was born exactly six months after her parents married.
- Doomed Hometown: Josette ends up having to defend her hometown of Durum from the Vinzhalians. She fails.
- Drill Sergeant Nasty: Sergeant Jutes does this to shake down the new airship crew, especially the female members.
- Friendly Sniper: Bernat turns out to be extremely good with a rifle. It is probably his only useful life skill.
- General Failure: Lord General Fieren is basically responsible for every failure the Garnian military suffers.
- Gray-and-Gray Morality: The nature of the conflict between Garnia and Vinzhalia. The two sides are fighting over resources in a territory they've exchanged and neither side has the moral high ground. The protagonist doesn't worry about these sorts of details, though.
- Lady of War: Josette is an unusual example as she is the protagonist. She is, however, grim and devoted to her job.
- Likes Older Women: Bernat finds women at their most attractive when they're in their forties or fifties.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: Lord General Fieren isn't a fan of women in the military but it's more this particular one which bothers him.
- Reassigned to Antarctica: Lord General Fieren wants to do this to Josette but he's been ordered to reward her by the King. So, he puts her on a highly experimental airship with a spy who will collect information on her.
- Ship Sinking: Bernat and Josette lost a lot of their supporters when Bernat slept with her mother.
- Shown Their Work: Quite a few technical details about the airships and combat is accurate to reality.
- Spoiled Brat: Bernat is a arrogant, lazy, spoiled rich idiot. He freely accepts an assignment to libel Josette in order to preserve his standing. He turns out to be sweet instead.
- Steampunk: A 17th century Napoleonic setting combined with early 20th century weapons.
- Sweet Polly Oliver: The military used to have quite a few of these when they weren't accepting women into the military. Josette was one of them.
- War Is Hell: A curious mixture of this and War Is Glorious. War is the only way which the lower classes can find any real glory or social advancement. It's also likely to get you killed or maimed.
- "Well Done, Son" Guy: Completely averted by Josette's relationship with her family. She holds both of her parents in contempt.
