It’s neat what draws us to certain books and characters, isn’t it? I loved Matt and his relationship with the airship!

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.

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.