A great read, especially when there are only a few with the Crimson Skies subject matter.

books:


	• Crimson Skies Eric S. Nylund, Mike Lee, ... Del Rey, 2002 - 320 pages average customer review:based on 8 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Crimson Skies storyline heads for the chop shop

Was interested after seeing that the video game the visual, in depth storyline behind it was heading for novella format. After reading it I was a bit dismayed the way some of the villains were portrayed and I feel there was some loss of detail here that could have been avoided with a little bit of research. If you liked the video game and the characters involved with that you may or may not like this.

The descriptions of the ships and planes and other various craft was not only spot on but extremely elaborate and at least in that standpoint I feel that the writings stayed true to the main course of characters and their lifeline in the sky. Perhaps with enough success we shall see more Crimson Skies novels on the shelf in the future.

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Fun, but sloppily written

'Crimson Skies' is an enjoyable read, and serves to provide some detailed background material to the game. While all three of the stories were well done and had good character development (although the bad guy in the second story should have been a bit nastier), I found the 'technical' side of the stories to be sadly lacking. Granted, 'Crimson Skies' is a fantasy set in an alternate world. But when you start describing helium-filled Zeppelins as having steel frames, extensive armor plating and batteries of five inch guns, you are leaving all resemblance to reality far behind. I guess some might consider this to be poetic license, but to me it just seems like sloppy research. I mean, the U.S. Navy really did develop a series of airships in the 30's that were designed to launch and recover fixed-wing aircraft. In the age of the Internet, it's pretty easy to find the history, plans and specifications of the 'Akron' or the 'Hindenburg'. Why describe Zeppelins that defy the laws of physics when, with a few hours of research, you could describe realistic airships instead? For another example, the final story makes use of the fact that the hero has a 'secret weapon': his mechanic has equipped his plane's engine with a 'nitro boost' system - but it can only be used for short periods of time because 'the pump has to build the nitro pressure back up'. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that by the 1930's people had figured out how to build pressurized canisters. And even the briefest research into the history of drag racing would show that the time limit on the use of nitrous oxide was based on the fact that the dramatically increased horsepower tended to cause engines to throw rods, pistons and other normally internal engine parts through the side of the block. The problem with nitro wasn't running out of it, but shutting it off before the engine blew up. So why did the author invent an elaborate problem that doesn't exist, when the real problem is both simpler and more dramatic? The stories actually have some very clever ideas in them (like using nitrous oxide in an airplane engine, or building a Zeppelin with a full-length flight deck), but they're spoiled by the authors not bothering to find out how these ideas could actually work.

A little serious research would have paid off in other ways as well. The 1930's was a Golden Age of Aviation, and the chances for an airplane buff to play 'what if" are almost unlimited: What if a helicopter like the Bell 47 was developed in the '30's? What if Howard Hughes had gotten the Spruce Goose to fly? How about some top-secret plans for the fighters and bombers that were really used in WWII? Did the wide spread use of military Zeppelins preclude the development of navel Aircraft Carriers? (this last point was a serious debate in real life). And a little research into how to fly airplanes (or better yet, a few hours of actual flight instruction in a Cessna) would have yielded much more realistic descriptions of the flight scenes. Of course, I'm sure this book was targeted at people who are into video games rather than those who are seriously into classic airplanes. And I didn't expect the publisher to hire a Martin Caidin or a Tom Clancy to write a tie-in book to a video game. But they could have at least given the three authors a copy of Microsoft Flight Simulator and said "Here, play with this for a week and then write the story".

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Pretty Good!

Short Review for quick buyers,
I liked this book. I was hoping more on Nathan Zachary (the main charcter of the Video Games) But its got some pretty cool tales on his enimes like Paladin Blake.
This is for the aviator or mystery type reader.
Check it out!

A land divided... ...and reunited in air fantasy.

What an excelent composition of histories based as an excellent follow up or add on to the Crimson Skies game. Just addictive reading and I'm just thinking about buying the other Crimson books. Again, as in the Halo series, hope to see the movie soon!

A great read, especially when there are only a few with the Crimson Skies subject matter.

This has everything that you could want in a crimson skies novel, and it even goes into more backgrounds of characters like John Kahn...it was a fun read, and nice to hear the story base of after the seccession of numerous states, the United States became a bunch on nations...or something like that.

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reviews: page 1, 2

Welcome to the world of Crimson Skies. The United States is a land torn apart by epidemic and war. With chaos on the ground, America?s highways have been forced into the skies, a lawless new frontier where the flying ace?hero, pirate, villain?is king. Here are the exciting, danger-packed adventures of three such daredevils.

The Case of the Phantom Prototype. A hefty payday convinced dogfight genius Paladin Blake to fly a top-secret aircraft into the Mojave Desert. But on this job, Blake must not only save himself, but thousands of others slated for death by an unseen foe.

?Genghis? Kahn & the Manchurian Gambit. Why is the notorious leader of the Red Skull Legion pirate gang rescuing a lady in distress, returning gold, and duking it out in blazing air battles from Manhattan to Manchuria with no plunder in sight? Wonders never cease.

Bayou Blues. Ever since flying ace Nathan Zachary made a pirate ship out of a stolen zeppelin, the gentleman air-pirate and his ?Fortune Hunters? gang have roamed the globe in search of money, fame, and adventure. But a double-dealing Cajun sky-thief, a crooked businessman, and a pair of star-crossed lovers may just trump this ace in a high-stakes, high-altitude con game.

Swashbuckling adventures of your favorite flying aces, in all their guts and glory, against a backdrop of blazing

CRIMSON SKIES
Crimson Skies, Xbox, and the Xbox Logos are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. Used under license. Copyright© 2001 Microsoft Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

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