Lions of the Sky by Paco Chierici

If you are a fan of air combat books or ever watched the movie Top Gun three or more times then you MUST read this book.   Slammer is a Naval aviation flight instructor.   He is tired of instructing and wants to get back to the fleet.   He is coerced into taking one more class and it has two (gasp) female aviators in it.  Results are not predictable.

Slammer and the other “good ole’ boys” are not overly thrilled with the integration of women into the fraternity of fighter pilots.   Female pilots are fine but testosteronely (no it is not in the dictionary) speaking men are more suited to combat than women from some of the male fighter pilot’s perspectives.   Obviously they have never seen a female in full banshee mode defending her children or they would recognize that women are often far more likely to utilize over kill to insure a situation doesn’t arise again.

Dusty and Quick are the handles of the two female pilots.  Dusty’s perception that the ends justify the means shows her some success.  Quick is less prone to using anything but her flying skills to succeed.

An ambitious Chinese general initiate a situation that tries the skills of the “nuggets” (newly minted fighter pilots) and threatens to start a global conflict.   Slammer discovers some of his preconceived notions are correct and some are incorrect.

The life of a fighter pilot is documented and the perils of Navy Aviation are clearly shown. This book was a page turner and I highly recommend it.

This book may have been received free of charge from a publisher or a publicist. That will NEVER have a bearing on my recommendations.