Double Eagle

Dan Abnett is the writer who turned the Warhammer 40,000 Black Library line from disposable tie-in fiction into a respectable corner of military SF, and Double Eagle is one of the books that earned that reputation. The pitch is air combat. A doomed world is being defended by Imperial fighter pilots against a heretic invasion, and a small squadron is at the center of the story.

You do not need to know anything about the Warhammer setting to read this. Abnett writes the dogfights with the kind of physical specificity that aviation thriller readers will recognize, and the squadron dynamics are out of the best WW2 air-war novels (you can see his Tregenza-of-the-Battle-of-Britain admiration in every chapter). The world is bleak in the way 40K worlds are. The characters earn it.

Four stars. Recommended to anyone who likes air combat fiction, regardless of franchise. The 40K dressing is light.