Fata Morgana

What happens when you cross a World War II story with time travel and alternate timelines that are often prominent in science fiction? A result of such a mixing of elements is found in Fata Morgana by Steven R. Boyett and Ken Mitchroney.

As the crew of the Fata Morgana bomber flies over Europe on a mission to drop bombs in Germany in 1943, they encounter some strange electric energy and find themselves transported to a vastly different looking world than the one they left. In a desolated and war-ravaged world where two technologically advanced groups are fighting against each other, the stranded bomber crew works with the the group that found them, headed by the woman none of them had ever met who just so happens to be painted on the nose of the Fata Morgana, to fix their bomber and try to get back to their own time and their war.

An interesting take on an alternate history story with elements of time travel to provide a glimpse of what might have been. Some of the world-building of the future wasn't as strong or detailed as it could have been (or I would have liked) as it took a while to develop a moderate depiction of the situation. The many characters of the story were decently developed, which made it easy to envision them and root for their success. The wise-cracks the crew made were chuckle- and groan-worthy, but enjoyable nonetheless as it infused the more serious war-time narrative with some levity. The more abstract concept of the mortal and moral ramifications of actions taken during war and the possible technological advances were addressed in the culmination of the narrative, even if perhaps a little too conveniently.

Overall, I'd give it a 3.5 out of 5 stars.

It is obvious an awful lot of research has gone into this book, I can imagine readers who are into WWII facts will be riveted. It's a war tale of passion, duty to men and country, and fighting spirit. When a Fly Fortress goes missing over Germany. Captain Farley has a deadly mission on his hands not only to get his men back to England but also to stop the enemy getting their hands on a lethal weapon.

This novel was a good quick read. It was fast paced and exciting. For me, it combined an interest in WWII and the European theater with a "what-if" scenario that I had not previously thought of. What if the Allies had not won the war? What if it had dragged on? What would the world look like then? This was an interesting twist that I had not expected. It also makes you think of all the little small one instance things that could possibly lead to huge consequences. For a fiction novel, this book left me thinking more than some of my non-fiction reads. Overall I enjoyed the book, but for me, it's a book I would only read once. Still worth the read!

A fascinating melange of WWII "aviation lit" (to coin a term) and hard sci-fi, with a side of metaphysics and fantasy, "Fata Morgana" is a unique book. It's not exactly something I would normally read, but I found it extremely interesting nonetheless.

Somewhat to my surprise, since I was expecting sci-fi, the book starts off with a detailed and lengthy scene about an American bomber crew flying missions over Germany in 1943. The planes and fight scenes are described in loving, exquisite detail, hence the designation of"aviation lit," which is a genre I've encountered before, but I don't know that I've ever seen named explicitly. Fans of flying, especially lovers of antique aircraft, are likely to enjoy these passages, regardless of their opinion of sci-fi; as a nervous flyer and a claustrophobe (imagine being in the ball turret!! My heart races just thinking about it!) these scenes just made my palms sweat, but they are masterfully executed. One day the crew finds themselves flying into a vortex during a mission, and...I'll let the reader discover the rest, for fear of spoilers.

The crew are charmingly vintage, and the plot is full of unexpected high-speed maneuvers, so that I honestly had no idea how it would end right up to the conclusion. There is also a love story, although that for me was fairly incidental: the machines, both real and imaginary, are the true objects of affection here, and against their backdrop the human characters seem a little flat. That being said, there are no shortage of readers who love this kind of tech-heavy literature, and history buffs as well as hard sci-fi fans are likely to get a tremendous kick out of this book.

My thanks to NetGalley for providing a free review copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

Wonderful book. As a long time military aviation professional and sci-fi addict, this was the perfect book for me and would fit anyone with similar interests. The first part of the book grabbed ones interest as a detailed description of the story of a B-17 crew based in England during WWII. As my father flew fighters for the RAF and USAAF I have a personal connection to these events. Then, in the middle of a raid over Germany we are thrown into the future to a world where WWII created a dreadful future for mankind. The way this Segway developed was, in my mind, an excellent transition that maintained the level of detail of both worlds combining the subtle romance between the two main characters. The conclusion on the crews' return was particularly poignant and the ending brought the story to a fitting finale.

A very enjoyable read - thank you.

The title of this book piqued my interest as I knew that a Fata Morgana was a very unusual form of a mirage and could not see how this definition went with the description of the book. AS I read I realised that it was so aptly titled. Not being a war buff I was concerned that this would take away my interest but I can only say what a magnificent book this turned out to be. Describing the story as surprising hardly does it justice..
.The book is essentially a love story that flows so well over the years, beginning in WWII going to Sci-Fi and culminating with a major twist that the reader does not expect. It is a very accurate portrayal of the period and the Sci-Fi section is certainly believable. I would certainly recommend this book to other readers for its stylistic approach and wide interest base.

This book made me a little sad in spots because my grandfather was a gunner on a B-17. He didn’t serve in Europe, though, he served in the South Pacific. It wasn’t until my son, then 5, started expressing an interest in airplanes, that he started talking about the war. Of course, he didn’t tell my son everything, just the names of the planes he flew on and he had pictures of “the ladies” as he called the planes. My son was fascinated that planes had people painted on them and was fascinated that Papa shot guns out of the back at the bad guys. He didn’t understand why Papa got weepy eyed when talking about people he served with who were KIA.

When he passed in 2015, we found his medals as we were cleaning his apartment. Among them was a Purple Heart….that was buried in the bottom of a draw. My mother wasn’t surprised and said he was injured during the war. We also found the pictures he had hidden away of his squadron with the dates of death and names written on the back. Everything was saved, I believe my mother has the pictures and the Purple Heart in a bank deposit box.

What I liked about Fata Morgana is that it was on point with everything that my grandfather had told my son and myself. From what the crews wore, to how the gunners were strapped in to the shortwave radio operator to the people who handled the bombs, 100% accurate.

The science fiction aspect of the book was well written too. I liked that the Fata Morgana was taken 200 years into the future. A very bleak future, might I add, where the remnants of human society is forced to live in two domes in a crater. They are also fighting each other in a war that is as old as the domes themselves. Very surreal.

The B17 crew had to be my favorite characters to read. The personalities of each one comes across the pages and makes you smile. What I also liked is that the authors stayed true to how men from that era acted and their views on women and people of nationalities/color. I also like that they all smoked like chimneys.

I did like the romance between Captain Farley and Wennda. It was innocent, with only a kiss but it was real and I liked it.

There are a couple of twists that are thrown into the book that took me by surprise as I read it. One of the twists was big and it changed how I viewed the world that Wennda lived in. There was so much action and at one point, I was on the edge of my seat chanting “You are going to make. You are going to make it”. Want to know why I was chanting that? Read the book!!

The end was very bittersweet. I have a theory about what happened at the end of the book but I refuse to ruin the book for people. It is best that you read the book for yourself. Because I feel that people will have the same theory as I do.

How many stars will I give Fata Morgana: 4

Why: This is a book that will go on my keep shelf. It was action packed with memorable characters who quickly got under your skin. The storyline was pretty good too. It did lag in a couple of spots but the authors did a great job of getting the book back on track.

Will I reread: Yes

Will I recommend to family and friends: Yes

Age range: Older teen (16+)

Why: Violence and some language

**I chose to leave this review after reading an advance reader copy**

Loved this book! What starts out as a well written WWII story with compelling believable characters turns into an adventure sci-fi story. What keeps it going is the authors ability to make the characters so likable, and the plot interesting and believable without straying over into fantasy as so much sci-fi does. Read Fata Morgana, you won't be disappointed!

I don't know why.... but this drew me in. At first I couldn't get a handle on it, and it wasn't at all how I imagined this was going to be with the language of it and things, but once it settled into the characters it did draw me in. I was torn between 3 and 4 stars, because I was lost in some stages, but overall I ended up giving it 4 because it was so different, unique, and I enjoyed that element of it.

I received this book free from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Even though the first 20% or so reads like a WWII war story set in the air battle and bombing of Germany, this book is a science fiction novel. “Fata Morgana” is the name of a brand-new B-17 bomber that the crew of a bomber named “Voice of America” receives after that plane is shot down on a mission, and crash lands on a beach in northern England. The novel was written by Steven R. Boyett and Ken Mitchroney, and it was published by Blackstone Publishing in 2016. The first part of the story reads like a straight WWII war story, but then the sci-fi begins.

Fata Morgana is defined (at the beginning of the book, just before the Prologue) as “noun: an unusual form of mirage involving almost any kind of distant object, often distorted unrecognizably, and visible from land or sea, polar regions or deserts, at any altitude, including from airplanes.” Such mirages were believed to be “fairy castles in the air or false land created by witchcraft to lure sailors to their death.” The name is taken from the legends of King Arthur and the sorceress Morgan le Fay. And so, the name of the plane gives us a sort of premonition as to what is about to happen to the bomber and its crew.

The book starts out (almost literally) with a bang as the “Voice of America” is struck by anti-aircraft fire over Brunswick, Germany while on a bombing mission. One crew-member is killed, and the plane is subsequently destroyed, setting the stage for the story of the “Fata Morgana.” A new crew member arrives to replace the one who was lost, and the new nose art, with the plane’s new name, is painted on the plane. The new crew member is a Lakota Sioux Indian who has, incredibly, survived the shootdown of his previous bomber, the “Ill Wind.” Most of his Indian lore was learned by watching Western movies, but he carries a medicine bag that was made for him by his grandfather. He had given the medicine bag to the co-pilot of “Ill Wind” shortly before it crashed, and it was found in the dead pilot’s hand and returned to him. The medics tell him that the pilot had been dead for several hours before that could possibly have happened. The stage for the unexplained is now set.

After being struck by anti-aircraft shrapnel on its very first mission over Germany, “Fata Morgana” flies into a strange vortex and emerges in a different place. Far different, in fact. Despite severe damage to the plane, Captain Farley and his crew are able to make an emergency landing with only one engine running. They have no idea where they are, but it certainly isn’t Germany. They will, however, soon learn just where, and when, they really are. Even though it is 1943, the men soon learn about the advanced technologies we take for granted today: cell phones, infrared and night vision googles, computers, and much, much more. This is the “meat” of the story. Will Farley and his men ever get back home? Can they defeat the forces arrayed against them?
Farley meets Wennda, a woman who looks exactly like the one painted on the nose of his B-17. Romance sparks, but Wennda’s father is the military commander of a small group of people who have taken the crew in and provided a safe haven for them, and he has little use for the crew and the burden they have placed on his already-stretched resources. No surprise, then, that conflict ensues.

A few aviation inconsistencies were noted, such as the assertion that, the first time the “Fata Morgana” took off, the pilot applied “rear elevator” to lift the tail. Pilots would tell you that it would be “down” elevator that would be applied to lift the tail, and that the only two directions an elevator could possibly be moved to were “up” and “down.” Also, the aircraft supposedly suffered a complete electrical failure after entering the vortex. Yet, one of the engines, an engine that is totally reliant on electrically-fired spark plugs, continues to run. Then, at 26% into the book, and even though there is no electricity in the aircraft, “Farley switched off the interior lights.” How does that work? At 30%, we are told that the plane has “deadsticked down into some Moon Man version of the Grand Canyon . . .”, but a deadstick landing would imply that all four engines had died, even though one of them is apparently still running.

There is also a reference to Edmund Hillary at one point, even though it is unlikely that some American bomber crewmen in 1943 would know who Edmund Hillary was. Hillary was a young man from New Zealand in 1943, and had not, yet, become famous for climbing Mount Everest.

You are, of course, thinking that the Fata Morgana and her crew certainly got back, but did they? Did they really? If you think you will be able to predict what happens next, you are probably wrong. There are some plot twists coming that I certainly did not foresee, and you probably won’t, either. Prepare for some surprises.

All in all, this is an easy, entertaining read. The WWII scenes are vivid and gripping. The dialogue is realistic for the time-period. Loose ends are tied up at the conclusion. I enjoyed reading it, and would not hesitate to recommend it to sci-fi fans who appreciate a little twist in their fiction, now and then.

Although it's sn alternate history novel, don't let the dread about digging up old graves keep you away. Fata Morgana is filled with adventure, a great plot, and scenes you'd most probably want to reread just for the fun of it.

The first section of the book is a terrifically exciting account of a B17 bomber raid over Germany in World War 2 that has a real sense of authenticity. It’s here we are first introduced to the wise-cracking but close-knit crew of the Fata Morgana, led by Captain Joe Farley. Suddenly, however, from WW2 historical fiction, the book mutates into science fiction as the aircraft and its crew is transported through some kind of vortex into a seemingly alien world.

They find themselves and their stricken plane in a bleak, desolate landscape where two competing cities are all that remains after a global apocalypse. Given shelter by one of the cities, the crew are introduced to the inhabitants’ advanced technology but, in a nice twist, they are still able to use their 20th century skills to solve some problems. The world they encounter has an unfamiliar social structure where, from necessity, both sexes perform equal roles, including combat. This is just one of the nods to the changes brought about by WW2 in the real world.

Conveniently the inhabitants of the new world speak English but there are some amusing exchanges as they are introduced to the crew’s American idioms. For example, this conversation between Farley and Wennda, the woman he finds himself attracted to and senses some strange connection with.

Farley scratched beneath his crush cap. “Look, I’ll level with you, okay?”
“Okay”, she said. “Whatever levelling with me means.”
“It means I’ll be honest.”
“Have you not been?”
“No, I’ve been straight with you.”
“Is that the same as being level?”
“You’re making my head hurt.”

I won’t spoil it by explaining much more of what happens but the whole thing is a glorious mash-up of The Twilight Zone, The Flight of the Phoenix and The Time Machine (not so much the H G Wells book as the 1960 film starring Rod Taylor). It’s well-written, funny, with plenty of action and I really enjoyed it. I found the ending quite touching.

I received an advance reader copy courtesy of NetGalley and publishers, Blackstone Publishing, in return for an honest review.

"Fata Morgana" is an interesting read. For one thing, it, initially at least, defies easy classification. It puts this reader in mind of an episode of "The Twilight Zone." Now for those of you who recall that series, this is not such a bad thing. It is a mishmash of Historical Fiction, Fantasy and Science Fiction, with a large dose of 1940's era nostalgia and modern whimsey thrown in. The writers demonstrate a clear and often moving mastery of English prose; I have seldom encountered a more visceral description of the horrors of flying bombing missions over Europe in WWII. At the same time, the nostalgia I referenced, together with the whimsey. serves to take the hard edge off and offer other, more lyrical delights. It is, candidly, not a book I would purchase for myself (this review is a result of my having access to a prepublication copy), but my tastes are a bit too hard edged for most, and I suspect that there is quite a market out there for this sort of thin. The authors' attention to detail is admirable for the action/technology enthusiast without in any way detracting from the human interest angles of the tale (and there are many). Remember a film called "The Final Countdown"? In some respects, there are similarities. If you enjoy action/adventure/fantasy/history you might find this just the thing to pass a quiet afternoon.

“Fata Morgana” eBook was published in 2017 and was written by Steven R. Boyett (http://www.steveboy.com) and Ken Mitchroney. Mr. Boyett has published six novels and this is the first for Mr. Mitchroney.

I categorize this novel as ‘R’ because it contains scenes of Violence. The story is set during World War II. Captain Joe Farley and his B-17 crew are on a bombing mission over Germany. While trying to avoid pursuing German fighters, they fly through an odd storm and end up in another place and time. A desolated world with two groups of humans at war with each other.

Farley and his crew struggle to survive. They fall in with one group of humans, but must struggle on their own to regain their aircraft and try to find their way back home. Farley meets the beautiful Wennda, who is mysteriously the girl of his dreams that is depicted on his plane’s nose art.

Farley and his crew struggle to make it home, fighting the humans they encounter on the desolate world as well as autonomous weapons which attack anyone caught in the open. Will the crew survive? Will they be able to get back to their England? What will happen to the lovely Wennda?

I enjoyed the 8.5 hours I spent reading this 329 page Science Fiction novel. I did have a little trouble as to why the humans found on this desolate world spoke understandable English. An explanation was given but it was a weak one in my opinion. Ignoring that detail I thought that this was an interesting story. I wasn’t a fan of all the wisecrack responses that the crew gave to one another and their new allies. The cover art is OK. I give this novel a 4.4 (rounded down to a 4) out of 5.

Further book reviews I have written can be accessed at https://johnpurvis.wordpress.com/blog/.

My book reviews are also published on Goodreads (https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/31181778-john-purvis).

Wow this was a mashup of Sci Fi .alternate universe and the Twilight zone.How do you describe this book? I'm not sure I know,I guess you have to suspend your disbelief and just go along for the ride and just jump into the story.It was certainly different, I love authors who think outside the box, this one most definitely didn't have a box to start with. What they do have is great imagination and a sense of fun and the book reflects that,if you are looking for something completely different, pull up your chair, you've found it.Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for an ARC in return for an honest review.

If you like WWII stories, you'll like this. If you like them with lots of accurate detail about the planes and their crews, you'll REALLY like it, because the authors have really done their homework. This meticulously researched yarn had me glued to my kindle until the very last page and wishing it were just a few pages longer. It was that good.

When I started it I thought it was going to be some sort of historical fiction novel, but after finishing it I would say it's a blend of historical fiction and science fiction. The plot revolves around a young group of B-17 bomber crewmen and the author really nails the time period and American slang used among young soldiers in the war. The crew each have noticeable personalities which made it easy to feel like I was hanging out with "the guys" as their conversations danced across the pages. The author had me laughing in the opening paragraphs and then at periods throughout the rest of the book.

The story keeps you guessing as the mysteries of the "other world" unfold, and the author does an excellent job weaving a tale of mystery and adventure. I was pleasantly surprised at how good this book was as I'd never heard of this author, and I'm not generally a fan of historical fiction. It's hard to write much more about it without spoiling it for a future reader. I'll just say by the latter half of the book I was swiping pages (Kindle) with excitement to figure out what would happen next.

I thought I would be disappointed as this book started out as another 'how the americans won the war'....how wrong I was. It was stunning, thrilling, completely unexpected and I couldn't put it down. History, time travel, science fiction, emotion... amazing! Well worth a read and I highly recommend it.

What a fabulous book- I highly recommend it! My main reading genres are science and historical fiction. What a joy these two genres are melded in Fata Morgana, a very special B-17 Flying Fortress. I thoroughly enjoyed Steven Ambrose’s characters, who have a timeless feel. Fata Morgana was well-researched, fun and hard to put down. The pacing and action kept me up into the wee hours.

I received a free copy of Fata Morgana in exchange for an honest review-thanks NetGalley!

I'm not totally sure what I expected when I picked this one up, but I'm glad I did. Normally, I stick to one genre or the other, but this had a mix of Historical Fiction, Science Fiction, and Fantasy. You can tell just by reading that so much research went into this book. I'm serious. It's evident from page one.

I don't know that I would have intentionally sought this book out, but the flight scenes were gorgeously written and the humor was pretty spot on. Although out of my comfort zone, I don't regret it one bit.

Rating: 4/5 stars