Airborn
The Story
In an alternate history, airships travel the skies regularly. Matt Cruse is the cabin boy on luxury liner the Aurura, the airship that he has been working on since his father died when he was twelve years old. Now 15, he is on the lookout the night a pirate ship is spotted in the skies and changes the course of their luxury liner dramatically. After a damaging typhoon that followed closely after the plundering from the pirates, the Aurora finds herself shipwrecked on a deserted island.
The Review
Hmm. This took me much longer to get through than expected – I started it, and put it aside of a long while and finally picked it up again yesterday and whisked through the last half of it. Although I found it thoroughly enjoyable, it just didn’t grip me until that half-way point. And I’m not sure why it didn’t grip me, because it had so much that I enjoy in a book – pirates? Steampunk? Kick-ass girl characters? Yes please on all accounts!
Even though there has been so much steampunk out on the market recently, this one felt very original. It has less ties to the fantastical that seems to be present in a lot of the more recent steampunk-type books. And that originality was refreshing.
I think my biggest problem with the book is that Matt Cruse never jumped out of the pages at me. He’s a good character – you can see his flaws, his motivation, and his fears… but there’s no real spark that drew me to him, that made me really CARE about him. Even when he was once again saving the ship, it just felt like that was going to be the obvious outcome just because he’s saved the ship from scrapes before, and just because he’s the main character. Not like there’s any really driving force to his needing to save it… if that makes sense.
But there were certainly redeeming qualities. As mentioned, there was a kick-ass female character – Kate. Yay for a lack of flakey females! Yay for girls who rebel against the constraints of society just because they want an education and the scientific community to take them seriously too gosh darn it. Definitely would be a good female for young girls to read about.
On a side note, I really liked that, although this book is the first in a series, it also works well as a standalone. I’ve mentioned before that books in series that leave things off as a major cliffhanger will be the death of me. Urgh, that utterly horrid wait until the next installment is NEVER fun. So the fact that there is closure in this was soooo refreshing.
The Bottom Line
There’s certainly something in here for everyone – steampunk, pirates, scientific discoveries, shipwrecks and romance. I can see why it is a dearly loved book to so many people, and would definitely recommend it. That said, I’m not sure if I will read the others in the series.
Other Reviews
Nose in a Book, Bart’s Bookshelf, One Librarian’s Book Reviews, Jen Robinson’s Book Page, Stella Matutina, A Book a Week. Have you reviewed this book on your blog? Let me know and I’ll add your link.
Lahni February 17th, 2010 at 10:46 pm
Thanks for the link. I loved this book. The rest of the trilogy isn’t as good but they are definitely worth reading.
rachel February 18th, 2010 at 6:39 am
Skybreaker is a lot better and a lot more fun
I really enjoyed Airborn though.
Ken Oppel is not my favourite canadian writer and this not my favourite series but I thought they were fun and I know a ton of kids who ADORE this series, so I guess that speaks for something.
But the third book—Starclimber— oh dear! It’s like he forgot how to write and who his market is
Avoid like the plague.
also, I think I read this before the term steampunk was bludgeoned into my brain by literary society, so back then I never made the connection.
This all being said, Kenneth Oppel is pretty friggin’ adorable ( which is what matters in the end ) — his reading and presentation for Airborn at IFOA ( he wore a white lab coat and pointed to a diagram of an airship as if were leading a lecture) was the best even there I have been two ( with the exception, of course, of my annual Ian Rankin-stalking)
wow. that was a long coment.
Nicola Jane Manning February 18th, 2010 at 6:54 am
Oh my, so many different opinions! Skybreaker is even better than Airborn! I agree with Rachel on that. But Starclimber is fabulous too! Granted it is different than the first two because it adds an element of science fiction. But I’d hate to see you stop without at least going onto Skybreaker.
I’ve read all of Oppel’s YA books and think he’s one of Canada’s two best YA authors writing today. (The other is Aruthr Slade)
As to steampunk, I’d never even heard of the term when I read any of these. It wasn’t until after I’d read them all that I started hearing the word bouncing around the YA litosphere and realized that these books would fit that genre.
kiirstin February 18th, 2010 at 10:21 am
I adored Airborn, thought it was one of my best reads of last year (review is here if you’re interested) but I’m in the not-liking-Skybreaker-as-much camp. I enjoyed it, but I didn’t think it was as good, and though I was excited to read Starclimber I got distracted and haven’t picked it back up yet.
It’s neat what draws us to certain books and characters, isn’t it? I loved Matt and his relationship with the airship!
Darren @ Bart's Bookshelf February 19th, 2010 at 5:57 pm
Such a brilliant series! I’m in the camp of loving all 3 books in the series. ;) (Thanks for the link)
heidenkind February 20th, 2010 at 2:22 am
It sounds like this book is trying to be too many things to too many people.