Airborn (2004)

Airborn by Kenneth Oppel is the first of the Matt Cruse series. Matt Cruse is a cabin boy on the luxury airship Aurora. He was born on an airship (a rare occurance) and his father died working on the Aurora. Matt, now, desperately wants to have the career taken from his father but a newly appointed Academy graduate has taken the job of assistant sail maker.

Now into the mix of this coming of age story of a cabin boy learning a hard lesson, add a heaping scoop of Robert Louis Stevenson pirates with a heathy dollop of the lost world exploration of a Jules Verne story. To top it off, frost it with a plucky young woman with a thirst for adventure.

All of this adventure is set in an alternate world. Oppel does a wonderful job of fleshing out this world, starting with the recognizable (the destination — Australia). Then he adds in the details, new names for oceans, a mango scented element needed for lighter than air travel. And finally he tosses in the unexplored — creatures even the people of the Pacificus don't know about.

As it happens, I listened to the audio — twice. It was produced by Fullcast Audio. While I appreciate their desire to turn a ripping yarn into a theatric production, I think they often go too far. Matt Cruse who serves both as narrator and protagonist, suffers from the usual problem of these Fullcast Audio performances: too much earnestness.

The written word has moments of rest, of the quietly mundane — passages that should be read quietly, and perhaps with some flatness of voice. NEVER can one of these performers do that. I suspect they are directed to act each and every word with complete heart and soul. It comes off as insincere, melodramatic and sometimes slap worthy. ( )

Young Adult fiction – I don’t even like the term. In the last decade, bookstores have swelled with novels that were written for and marketed to – and even sometimes written by – a narrow age range of people, let’s say pre-adolescent to early-high school aged. Championed by glittery, angst-ridden vampires and bow-and-arrow toting teen gladiators, I firmly believe that the phenomenon was largely created by publishing house marketing departments who saw more dollar signs than they did good writing. Just twenty or thirty years ago, anyone in that age range would have been reading Harper Lee, John Steinbeck, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Robert Louis Stevenson, etc. And they would have done so without any thought about whether the book was meant for a person of a particular age or not. I’ve heard teachers and parents excoriate the electronic age because they think they can’t get their children to read anything more than 140 characters at a time. So, they push fantastic, and largely dumbed down, tales that they know will soon be featured on a towering screen down at the multi-plex, where the biggest moral issue will be whether the hunky werewolf or the foppish vampire gets the girl.

Into this world of watered down writing comes Kenneth Oppel’s new novel – the first in a trilogy probably because three movies based on three books is a franchise – [Airborn]. Oppel himself was a fledging writer in his Young Adult life, having his story Coolin’s Fantastic Video Adventure published after it made its way to Roald Dahl. So, it’s no surprise that [Airborn] is a work firmly entrenched in the Young Adult world with a teen hero and ingénue trying to world and save the world when all of the adults seem to be acting stuidly.

[Airborn] follows the adventures of Matt Cruse, a cabin boy on an airship – think Hindenburg. In this semi-dystopian alternate history, most travel is conducted on airships that are kept aloft by hydrium, a gaseous element lighter than hydrogen. Matt’s father was a sailmaker – the person an airship who monitors the containers of hydrium and patches the skin of the airship – when he fell into the ocean. The captain makes Matt a cabin boy to help him feed his family back home and to give him his father’s trade. On a routine cruise to Australia, Matt befriends Kate DeVries, who is on board hoping to find an island where her adventuring grandfather once spotted a flying cat creature. Soon, into the trip they are attacked by pirates who damage the airship, forcing it to make an emergency landing on an uncharted island. Matt and Kate make an amazing scientific discovery on the island and defeat the pirates without any adult help whatsoever.

Don’t get me wrong, I like a little swash-buckling, otherworldly adventure, whether on the open sea or in the air. But Robert Louis Stevenson and H.P. Lovecraft and Patrick O’Brian have written these stories already, and they did so without any need to dumb down the prose or simplify the story. To be fair, Oppel has the beginnings of an intriguing story, but in targeting a particular reading age, the writing isn’t challenging in any way and the story is predictable, things that can never be said of Stevenson, Lovecraft, O’Brian, and a host of other great writers. [Airborn] wasn’t a bad book – it kept my interest. But it wasn’t that good either. That seems to be what Young Adult fiction often shoots for.

What’s even more troubling is that the back of the book has a list of awards the book has won. Is this really the best we have to offer our kids? Are we dumbing them down by offering them dumbed down reading options? The answer to the first question is a resounding, “No.” Sadly, I don’t know how to answer the second question. I’m happy to see an explosion of reading interest, even if it is misogynistic love triangles between humans, werewolves, and vampires or teenagers killing each other in an arena spectator sport. But I hope that there is as much enthusiasm for youngsters fighting looters in caves and traveling down-river aboard a raft, because these stories were much smarter and challenged readers of all ages to face bigger issues than who gets the girl.

Bottom Line: Young adult fiction aboard a Hindenburg-like airship – the young adult part tells you pretty much all you need to know.

3 bones!!!!! ( )

Really liked this adventure story. The fantasy elements are handled well and I think the interpersonal struggles of the main characters are not overly done. It was really fun to read. ( )

The book was quite good. It was an interesting story about a boy who lives and works aboard an airship, in some kind of alternate reality that seemed modern day-ish, but where there are airships (like blimps, almost). Here's what the back of the audiobook says:
Imagine a world where great airships ply the skies, strange creatures wait to be discovered, and adventure lurks around every corner.

Got it? Good. Then you're ready for this captivating full cast recording, where you'll follow the adventures of cabin boy Matt Cruse, who manages a dairing midair rescue of a stranded traveler in a derelict balloon--and sets in motion a string of events that will either raise him to the heights, or send him crashing to his doom.

Stir in a beautiful-but-feisty society girl, a charming-but-deadly pirate, sky battles, hairs-breadth escapes, giant winged cats, and a lively helping of humor, and you've got an irresistible yard that stands squarely in the tradition of Jules Verne and Robert Louis Stevenson, yet is utterly fresh and new.

So climb on board. It's "Up Ship!" as our talented cast sweeps you away on one of the most rollicking adventures ever!

It was quite good and fun. There were twists and surprises all around! ( )

It sounds like a cliche, but I really had a hard time putting this book down. The characters (both the good guys and the bad guys) read as real. The hints of steampunk were just enough to make it interesting, but they didn't get in the way of the real story. And the story was engaging in the extreme. (I rated it 4 stars instead of 5 because I'm not sure how rereadable this book is. Some of the enchantment I'm feeling is because of the surprises.) ( )