H. L. Sayler (1863–1913)

This was a difficult story for me to rate. The book was published in 1913, as part of a series called "The Aeroplane Book Series." The classic fictional story centers around two young men living near Calgary, Canada, who have the aeroplane bug. They create their own flying device called the Gitchie Manitou, which means "Great Spirit" in several Algonquin languages. The beginning of the story was interesting and I learned quite a bit about the Calgary area during the early 1900s. I gave it a lower rating, as the story development wasn't all that interesting during the last 40 pages of the book. Also, I got a bit tired of a few derogatory terms used and some references to shooting big game for sport. That probably would have been very representative of the time period though, and I generally do not support any revisions of historical stories to make them more socially/politically correct or sensitive.

Overall rating: 3 stars
ATW: Arctic/Antarctic, Canada, Calgary… (more)