The Flying Legion

The main character, known only as the Master, puts together an expedtion of disaffected WW1 veterans still hungry for adventure, and sets off in a stolen aircraft to liberate the treasures of Araby.

The tone is very autocratic, which is surprising given the socialist leanings of the author as evidenced in his other works. Also typical is the frequent perilous and narrow escapes that occur with clockwork regularity. In today's perspective, this reads like a role playing adventure, the player characters taking the role of the Legion and the endless mobs played by various factions through the book.

Still, all that said, this book is one of his better efforts. Not as preachy as The Air Trust, or as full of overblown language as Darkness and Dawn, and more tightly written than both of those.

The story has some obvious plot holes, and the ending chapters are inexplicably both brutal and sentimental, which left this reader rather puzzled and dismayed. This leaves this book as one that should be read only as an insight into SF of the eary 20th century.