"A tightly plotted, fast-paced adventure with engaging and humourous characters....When the action kicks off -- kidnappings, shoot-outs with pirates, cloud cat attacks -- Oppel's skill is to maintain tension by piling on twist after twist as events unfold. Airborn's action is underscored by Matt's memories of his dead father, which add thoughtfulness and depth to the book."
– Times Educational Supplement (UK)
Read MoreAirships represent to many the most romantic and elegant means of travel. For a while, in the early 20th century, they seemed to be the way of the future for intercontinental travel. Massive, ungainly on the ground, they were agile, swift and captivating when skyward. But they could be dangerous and vulnerable. In his latest novel, Airborne (HarperCollins, $22.99), Kenneth Oppel, the multi-award winning Canadian author of Sunwing, Silverwing and Firewing, wonderfully imagines a time when airships plied the skies, Earth-bound society was late Victorian, and the world still had undiscovered secrets. This is a story that blends high-skies piracy, risky escapes, unknown tropical islands, strange, graceful but ultimately sinister "sky cats" and the inner workings of life aloft with a subtle swipe at class barriers and primness. Oppel is an accomplished author of thrilling stories, but his real skill is in creating characters, bad and good, who are convincing, involving, sometimes funny and always easy to cheer on. Oppel really is the successor of Jules Verne and Robert Louis Stevenson, and he is just as good.
– Victoria Times Colonist
Read MoreAirborn is a satisfying rip-roaring adventure ... Oppel writes with clarity and passion, particularly in his descriptions of the natural world and the world in the sky, and the plot fairly zips along, but there is also a reflective quality to his writing, and he is not afraid to tackle the issue of death. Kate and Matt, both dreamers and kindred spirits, are well-rounded characters, frustrated by the class differences between them, and argumentative as a result. If you liked Mortal Engines and Harry Potter, this is for you!"
– Booktrusted News(UK)
Read MoreAirborn is good, old-fashioned YA adventure with an alternate reality twist. In this early 20th-century world, "airships" are a major mode of transportation.... Matt [faces] pirates, storms, shipwreck on a desert island, and other dangers in this rousing adventure."
– Locus Magazine
Read MoreGet ready for Airborn, another action-packed book from Kenneth Oppel (who wrote the Silverwing trilogy).... Wow! I've read many Kenneth Oppel books, and I think Airborn is one of the best he has written. By the end of the first paragraph, I was already fully submerged in the story. The plot is filled with one exciting moment after another. There are just so many unexpected events that happen.... There are also many clever survival tricks Matt and Kate use to free themselves from danger. Many of them made me jump out of my chair! Kenneth Oppel puts detail into the characters' emotions so you can really get a feel for all the events. This book kept me entertained chapter after chapter. I can't wait for the sequel to come out!
- Taylor Lew, 13, Grade 7, Brand New PLanet / Toronto Star
Read MoreKenneth Oppel's AIRBORN is a high adventure in every sense. 15-year-old Matt Cruse, cabin boy on the Aurora, a luxury hydrium-powered airship, tells a tale that never flags for 400 pages. Oppel's description of Captain Walken and his crew, the ship itself, the strange and vicious "cloud cat" creature, a tropical island, its forests and pirate village (pirates are named Crumlin, Rathgar: Oppel, a Canadian, spent a year in Dublin) the wilful Kate de Vries whom Matt falls for, the sharp dialogue - all are brilliantly done. At the outset, the old-fashioned entertaining storytelling, with its spectacularly clear picturing of events, reminded me of Robert Louis Stevenson; but its momentum-gathering plot, shootings, dangers, savagery and suspense add a James Bond dimension. Though Kate and Matt "have as much future as a fish and a kangaroo", love triumphs. Set in an imaginary past, Airborn's contained world is totally absorbing, cleverly plotted, a terrific read. My 12-year-old daughter and I raced through it. No Harry Potter this summer -- Oppel's Airborn more than makes up for it.
– The Irish Times
Read MoreIf you thought the hot-air balloon scenes in Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy were exciting, hitch a ride on the Aurora airship in Kenneth Oppel's spectacular young-adult fantasy novel Airborn. Oppel, known for his best-selling Silverwing trilogy about the hidden lives of bats, has more in common with the famous British fantasy author than an interest in flight and a predilection for publishing books in threes. Like the popular Pullman series, Airborn is set in an alternative world where the similarities to our own are every bit as fascinating as the differences. In this case, what if some of the early 20th century's more bizarre experiments in aviation had actually worked? In Oppel's imaginary, not-so-distant past, giant luxury airships ply the air like ocean liners (thanks to a miraculous mango-scented gas called hydrium), while flying contraptions with feathered mechanical wings taxi people about--and everything else is slightly altered as a result.
– AMAZON.CA
Read More"Details of life and work aboard the ship as well as the dramatic escapade itself make this a captivating read."
- Booklist
Read More"Kate and Matt are given equal roles in this adventure laced with a touch of fantasy reminiscent of Treasure Island and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Committing several murders, the pirates are typically unsavoury but are not stock cartoon characters. This title, packed with suspense, fantasy, and thrills, is a solid selection geared to middle school boys."
– VOYA (Voice of Youth Advocates)
Read MoreThe airship Aurora, centrepiece of the novel, is more than a setting; it's a universe unto itself, with luxurious passenger cabins and cramped crew quarters, sweeping stairways and hidden catwalks, vast dining halls and noisy kitchens. In short, it's the sort of place a reader wants to settle into and explore. Oppel, through his immensely likable narrator, Matt Cruse, invites us to do just that.... A funny, engaging adventure story -- the kind of book you read in a day or two (or stay up late to finish).... Airborn is all that. Lighter than air, but with unexpected lifting power.
- Robert Charles Wilson, The Globe & Mail (Toronto)
Read More"Entrancing, exciting adventure with airships, pirates, and mysterious flying mammals takes place on an earth with the same geography as ours, but different technology.... Full of a sense of air, flying details, and action."
– Kirkus Reviews
Read MoreAward-winning author Kenneth Oppel soars to new heights with this latest novel, solidifying his fascination with flight and flying mammals. But this time the creator of the Silverwing trilogy isn't dealing with bats. Instead, he gives us a wholly fantastic creature - a mysterious "cloud cat" that looks like a silver panther, about four feet long, and a wingspan eight feet
across. Oppel's tale is well-paced and his characters are engaging. This book is a must-read. Ages 9 to 14.
– Montreal Gazette
Read MoreMatt is a wonderfully enthusiastic narrator whose passion for flight is evident on every page, and he's well matched by the strong-willed, intellectually curious Kate. Their adventures in this fast-paced, buoyant novel have a sweeping cinematic feel as pirates attack the Aurora, the vessel is shipwrecked, and Matt and Kate escape imprisonment just in time to dispatch the bad guys, save the Aurora and its passengers, and, of course, fall in love.
– Horn Book Magazine
Read MoreOppel's popular Silverwing trilogy was about bats, so an airborne life is clearly something that fascinates this award-winning Canadian writer. In his new novel, Oppel climbs aboard the Aurora, a vast airship in which the hero, Matt, lives and works.
– The Guardian (UK)
Read MoreIn an adventure novel set in an alternate early twentieth-century world reminiscent of those created by Jules Verne and Edgar Rice Burroughs, cabin-boy Matt Cruse earns a living on the zeppelin Aurora, a world-class luxury liner.... Through pirate attacks, shipwreck on an uncharted island, and imprisonment, Matt and Kate collaborate in an often uneasy partnership to find proof of the cloud cats' existence. From start to finish, the pacing is brisk, the physical details are specific and persuasive, the characterization is consistent yet dynamic, and the interweaving of the plot threads is meticulous but discreet, The tension created by danger at diverse levels gradually increases reader interest already piqued by the possible discovery of an awe-inspiring new species. The deaths of certain zeppelin crew members heighten that interest, as does the romantic tension between working-class Matt and upper-class Kate. On a deeper plane, Matt's narrative explores the uncertainties and obstacles inherent in the struggle to know one's place in the world. A thoroughly satisfying tale, this novel takes a standard premise from the early days of novelistic adventuring and reinvents it as a new literary achievement.
- BCCB (The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books)
Read MoreA classic tale. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a number of novels dealt with undiscovered worlds in either the past or the future. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Professor Challenger series is a fine example, while A Strange Manuscript Found in a Copper Cylinder, by James de Mille, is a classic example of early Canadian science fiction. It's interesting that Oppel has so carefully and consciously modelled his novel on these intellectual forebears. This lends Airborn a literary resonance too often lacking in fantasy writing for young readers. Airborn also has great filmic potential, and the characters will appeal to young male and female readers alike.
– Vancouver Sun
Read MoreAn original and imaginative Victorian-era fantasy.... This rousing adventure has something for everyone: appealling and enterprising characters, nasty villains, and a little romance. Oppel provides glimpses of the social conventions of the era, humourous byplay between the main characters, and comic relief in the form of Matt's cabin mate and Kate's straitlaced chaperone.
– School Library Journal
Read MoreIn crisp, precise prose that gracefully conveys a wealth of detail, Oppel (the Silverwing Saga) imagines an alternate past where zeppelins crowd the skies over the Atlanticus and the Pacificus, and luxury liners travel the air rather than the sea (references to films by the Lumière “triplets” and various fashions suggest a very early 20th-century setting). Young Matt Cruse works aboard the elegant passenger airship Aurora, where his late father also worked. In an exciting opening sequence, Matt rescues an injured old man flying solo in a stranded hot air balloon; the man later dies, but not before telling Matt of “beautiful creatures” that he saw sailing through the air. Matt’s curiosity about the man’s dying words is piqued a year later when the fellow’s granddaughter Kate arrives on board, bearing his journal. As other plot lines develop, pirates attack the Aurora, which crash-lands on an island that closely resembles a drawing in the old man’s journal. There are minor, pleasing shades of the film Titanic throughout—the rich but overprotected girl, the poor but daring and lovable cabin boy, and the vessel itself, which is a sprawling and multifaceted character in its own right—but Oppel places the emphasis squarely on adventure rather than romance, keeping the pace brisk and the characters dynamic. The author’s inviting new world will stoke readers’ imaginations—and may leave them hoping for a sequel (those curious for a preview can log onto www.airborn.ca). Ages 12-up.
– Publishers Weekly
Read MoreFrom the soaring success of his Silverwing trilogy, Ken Oppel takes his readers even higher in the skies. His new novel, Airborn, is an accomplished shift from animal fantasy to an imaginary historical past, one that bears a distinct resemblance to the late 19th century. It is the era of the great airships - from a bat's point of view, surely the golden age of human evolution - when technology first allowed clay-footed humankind (or at least those members of it rich and privileged enough to buy passage) to slip the surly bonds of earth.
– Quill & Quire
Read More"Masterfully crafted and set in a highly creative world, this outstanding novel is a feat of powerful imagination. From cover to cover, the reader is in the hands of a superb writer."
- Jury citation
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