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'Or Even Eagle Flew' Review

Having Amelia Earhart as the eighth US Battle of Britain pilot as a premise is absolute twaddle of course (there were NO Eagle squadrons in the Battle of Britain, sorry Ben Affleck), even more unlikely than a Polish woman flying & fighting in 303 Squadron.

It still sounds interesting though.

A more believable, but less exciting role for Earhart would be ferrying US and Canadian aircraft across the Atlantic.
 
Is there something I'm missing about the title?

It feels really clunky, but like, I'm just a scrub, so I assume that Harry Turtledove and his publishers are better at this than me. I suspect it's a reference I'm not getting.
 
Is there something I'm missing about the title?

It feels really clunky, but like, I'm just a scrub, so I assume that Harry Turtledove and his publishers are better at this than me. I suspect it's a reference I'm not getting.
It's a lesser-known quote from High Flight, the same poem that a zillion others (including me) nicked "to slip the surly bonds of earth" from.

"Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
of sun-split clouds, — and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of – wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there,
I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air....

Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace.
Where never lark, or even eagle flew
And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
– Put out my hand, and touched the face of God."
 
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Having Amelia Earhart as the eighth US Battle of Britain pilot as a premise is absolute twaddle of course (there were NO Eagle squadrons in the Battle of Britain, sorry Ben Affleck), even more unlikely than a Polish woman flying & fighting in 303 Squadron.

It still sounds interesting though.

A more believable, but less exciting role for Earhart would be ferrying US and Canadian aircraft across the Atlantic.

Again I'd recommend reading it, because you seem to be basing your judgement on what you think its about rather then its actual content.
 
It's a lesser-known quote from High Flight, the same poem that a zillion orders (including me) nicked "to slip the surly bonds of earth" from.
Ah. Many thanks. As the second half of a line in isolation, the clunking is perhaps to be expected.

Very clever, in fact, as "where never" actually acknowledges @Arthur_Phuxache's quibble about there being no US pilots in the BoB.
 
Again I'd recommend reading it, because you seem to be basing your judgement on what you think ita about rather then its actual content.

Well, I'm just going from the promotional material, and that 99% of alternative history about the WW2 air war is, y'know, implausible wish fulfilment bollocks.

I'll get round to reading it eventually.
 
I do like poems like that which seem almost designed to mine titles from. The Second Coming being another one.
I always joked that every single line of that one became an episode of "Andromeda" which is a slight exaggeration - they only used four or five lines from it ("The Widening Gyre", "Pitiless as the Sun", "Its Hour Come 'Round at Last", etc.) and they just had a lot of other episode titles from similar sources.

Of course it's also where Turtledove extracted "The Centre Cannot Hold" from, bringing us back on topic.
 
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