Longer review to come.

+ interesting world-building (steampunk-ish, aeronauts in airships, war, demons, more)
+ plenty of strong ideas, here and thoughtful comments on war and casualties,
+ solid prose

- unconvincing characterization (especially of female characters)
- unbalanced structure (time and setting jumps, omitted fragments leading to main POV's meeting)
- uneven pacing
- weak ending

All told a solid read.

I received a copy in exchange for a honest review from NetGalley.

Air balloons, steam engine driven, wars and demons.. an excellent start to the steampunk series by the author Tim Stretton. The design and functioning of the balloon driven by steam, the battle scenes, human nature have all been wonderfully captured and written in this book. The story revolved around the three characters: the coward, the warrior and the warriors brother and how each of them are affected by the war and how they behave as a result of this.
Highly recommend this steampunk book and will eagerly wait for its next installment to arrive