B
Bullethead
Guest
I'm currently reading The Two-Headed Eagle, by John Biggins. This is the 4th book (and sadly, the last so far) of his series on the fictional character Otto Prohaska, an officer in the Austro-Hungarian navy in WW1. In this book, to avoid a scandal, Otto has been seconded to the Fliegerkorps as a 2-seater observer fighting the Italians on the Isonzo Front in the latter 1/2 of 1916. He eventually returns to the navy and flies seaplanes for a while in early 1917.
Biggins writes excellent historical fiction and has researched the time, place, and subject matter very well. The whole Danubian Monarchy, how it worked, and the tools it used are all pretty much terra incognito these days, at least on this side of the pond, so you'll learn a lot reading it. On the specific subject of WW1 airplanes, there are all kinds of cool little technical tidbits on the difficulties that our hero has to deal with while flying very obscure planes
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Oh and BTW, if you think you're having trouble getting your kill claims confirmed, you ain't see NOTHING compared to Prohaska's problems.
The "Prohaska" series has been compared to GM Fraser's "Flashman" series. They are similar in a number of ways, with the hero getting caught up in long strings of disasters and misadventures, meeting famous people from real life, and interspersed with humorous episodes. The main difference is that Harry Flashman is a worthless human being whose troubles are all of his own making, usually caused by womanizing and drink. Otto Prohaska, OTOH, is a very decent, sympathetic guy who is victimized by cruel fate and the mind-bogglingly petrified Habsburg bureaucracy. I highly recommend both series.
If you're interested, the other books in the "Prohask" series is as follows:
1. A Sailor of Austria. This covers all of his WW1 career except his stint as a pilot. In this book, he's a successful U-boat commander, so you learn a lot about primitive WW1 subs. It goes to the bitter end, with the destruction of Austria-Hungary. It's a good book but leaves you feeling rather sad because the guy's whole world has come crashing down.
2. The Emperor's Colored Coat. This covers the years of about 1910 to 1914, during with Otto serves with the Danube Gunboat Flotilla, gets kidnapped by Serbian terrorists, and ends up fighting at Tsing-Tao. This is the most Flashman-like book of the series, because the misadventures mostly start from an ill-advised romance.
3. Tomorrow the World. This covers 1902-04, when Otto was in the Austrian naval academy. The bulk of the book covers his world tour aboard a wooden sailing corvette, which is a real voyage of the damned, full of tragi-comic incidents and weird characters.
Throughout all these books, Prohaska mentions his later life, such as running gunboats in Paraguay and being in the Polish navy. Unfortunately, Biggins hasn't taken the series any further in many years
Biggins writes excellent historical fiction and has researched the time, place, and subject matter very well. The whole Danubian Monarchy, how it worked, and the tools it used are all pretty much terra incognito these days, at least on this side of the pond, so you'll learn a lot reading it. On the specific subject of WW1 airplanes, there are all kinds of cool little technical tidbits on the difficulties that our hero has to deal with while flying very obscure planes
.Oh and BTW, if you think you're having trouble getting your kill claims confirmed, you ain't see NOTHING compared to Prohaska's problems
.The "Prohaska" series has been compared to GM Fraser's "Flashman" series. They are similar in a number of ways, with the hero getting caught up in long strings of disasters and misadventures, meeting famous people from real life, and interspersed with humorous episodes. The main difference is that Harry Flashman is a worthless human being whose troubles are all of his own making, usually caused by womanizing and drink. Otto Prohaska, OTOH, is a very decent, sympathetic guy who is victimized by cruel fate and the mind-bogglingly petrified Habsburg bureaucracy. I highly recommend both series
.If you're interested, the other books in the "Prohask" series is as follows:
1. A Sailor of Austria. This covers all of his WW1 career except his stint as a pilot. In this book, he's a successful U-boat commander, so you learn a lot about primitive WW1 subs. It goes to the bitter end, with the destruction of Austria-Hungary. It's a good book but leaves you feeling rather sad because the guy's whole world has come crashing down.
2. The Emperor's Colored Coat. This covers the years of about 1910 to 1914, during with Otto serves with the Danube Gunboat Flotilla, gets kidnapped by Serbian terrorists, and ends up fighting at Tsing-Tao. This is the most Flashman-like book of the series, because the misadventures mostly start from an ill-advised romance.
3. Tomorrow the World. This covers 1902-04, when Otto was in the Austrian naval academy. The bulk of the book covers his world tour aboard a wooden sailing corvette, which is a real voyage of the damned, full of tragi-comic incidents and weird characters.
Throughout all these books, Prohaska mentions his later life, such as running gunboats in Paraguay and being in the Polish navy. Unfortunately, Biggins hasn't taken the series any further in many years