A pair of intriguing, antagonistic characters, steampunk airships, a dry sense of humor, and feats of derring-do are at the heart of The Guns Above, a debut novel by Robyn Bennis. The novel’s strong focus on the action beats as well as the main characters marry a sense of character along with large helpings of crunchy detail to a finely honed level. Lieutenant Josette Dupre is the first female airship commander in Gandian history. She is determined, ambitious, intelligent, strong-willed, and has a delightfully dry and snarky sense of humor. She’s also keenly aware of the precarious nature of women in the Signal Corps, and her own command an even more tenuous position. At the beginning of the novel, she is convinced that she has lost her command after the destruction of the Osprey, even in service of stopping an enemy advance. Thus when she instead is given the brand new but experimental, cantankerous, and ill-designed airship Mistral, she will not allow a command, even of a potential deathtrap, to be taken from her. In a real sense, the novel is a story of the relationship of a commander to her new airship, with all the pitfalls and joys of that, especially as it turns to be a trial under fire.