'The Last Pilot' is the debut novel of Benjamin Johncock. It's historical fiction at it's finest. The writing is lean and the characters compelling.

Jim Harrison is a test pilot in the Mojave Desert along with Chuck Yeager. He spends his days flying and his nights at Pancho's Bar. He and his wife long for a child but are unable to conceive. When Jim's wife Grace finally does become pregnant, their lives are filled with their daughter Florence. Jim's status as an elite pilot puts him on track to be in the Gemini program, but he turns it down to be with his daughter. A tragic event comes between Jim and Grace. Jim finds himself joining the early days of the space program, but what has happened haunts him to the point where he might not be fit to fly.

This is all told against the backdrop of the years leading up to the space program. Real people are woven among the story, but not in a way that feels contrived or gimmicky. You might even think Jim Harrison was a real NASA astronaut, he's so convincingly realized. Grace is also not a stereotypical fictional wife. I loved many of the supporting characters, especially Pancho, the crusty owner of the bar, and a pilot herself.

The writing is concise in the best way. I found myself thinking initially that it would be like 'The Right Stuff' and for fans of the movie, it'll feel like familiar territory, but this is it's own story. I really enjoyed this novel and I look forward to what this writer does next.

I received a review copy of this ebook from MacMillan-Picador and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this ebook.

The Last Pilot is an intimate tale of the space race told from the perspective of one man. A man whose wife fears for his life every day, never knowing if this will be the day he fails to return from work. There is one particularly effective scene where Grace misremembers the time Harrison says he will return. The worry is palpable.

Harrison’s progression mirrors that of Neil Armstrong’s. He starts out as a US Air Force test pilot for rocket powered planes, attempting to break the sound barrier, and is a favourite to fly the X-15 when the temptation of space beckons. Whilst Harrison is an entirely fictional character, many of those around him are real people, either involved in aviation or the space programme. It’s definitely one of those books where it’s worth checking out the bibliography.

Three words were trying to get her attention, like a small child. Something has happened.

Dialogue makes up a large proportion of this novel, the brevity of character’s sentences reflecting real speech. Lack of speech marks, and often indicators to who is speaking, will not be to everyone’s tastes though, and there were a few times where I had to trace back because I lost track of who was speaking.

When Josh asked me about the book I was reading he joked “it’s not going to go all Aviator is it?” and I was all, no, it’s about the space race. Well, maybe I should trust his intuition more, as Harrison starts to show signs of OCD. Incidentally, Howard Hughes is mentioned briefly, as Pancho starred in one of his films. Whilst the onset of OCD was realistic, its course was a little rushed and it all seemed to be brushed off lightly by the end.

Against the backdrop of great, technological achievement, it’s a sad story of loss and guilt, and the destructive powers of those feelings.

Took a different turn than I expected!

This book hit me hard in the gut. The pilot/NASA story is inventive and interesting, but the book is really about personal relationships and healing. The characters are fleshed out with incredible detail, especially Pancho–a good friend of our two married main characters. This is one of the better books I’ve read this year. I guess I’m a sucker for a rich story with beautiful writing. I wish I could write more about this, but I just finished it yesterday and it’s still a little raw. Sitting too close to the surface. Anyway, you should read it.

It was OK. A story of a test pilot and his family and friends in the early NASA days. A personal tragedy strikes. I found the dialog a little confusing to follow and nothing particularly insightful about the pilot's internal journey. The little details of a test pilot's career and the media frenzy around the first astronauts were interesting.

I’m not very enthousiastic about this novel. It’s not very bad, but a rather boring story on the first generation of astronauts.

The premise of this novel intrigued me and I really wanted to like it, but the writing really lets it down. "He sat on his bed and ate. When he was done, he drank a little water and put the glass down on the bedside table and the empty plate on the floor. Then he lit a cigarette and looked out the window." Really?? I feel the author did some research on the astronaut program then tried to fill up the space around it. Watch "The Right Stuff" instead.