Airborn

Overview

Sailing toward dawn, and I was perched atop the crow's nest, being the ship's eyes. We were two nights out of Sydney, and there'd been no weather to speak of so far. I was keeping watch on a dark stack of nimbus clouds off to the northwest, but we were leaving it far behind, and it looked to be smooth going all the way back to Lionsgate City. Like riding a cloud. . . .

Matt Cruse is a cabin boy on the Aurora, a huge airship that sails hundreds of feet above the ocean, ferrying wealthy passengers from city to city. It is the life Matt's always wanted; convinced he's lighter than air, he imagines himself as buoyant as the hydrium gas that powers his ship. One night he meets a dying balloonist who speaks of beautiful creatures drifting through the skies. It is only after Matt meets the balloonist's granddaughter that he realizes that the man's ravings may, in fact, have been true, and that the creatures are completely real and utterly mysterious.

In a swashbuckling adventure reminiscent of Jules Verne and Robert Louis Stevenson, Kenneth Oppel, author of the best-selling Silverwing trilogy, creates an imagined world in which the air is populated by transcontinental voyagers, pirates, and beings never before dreamed of by the humans who sail the skies.

Editorial Reviews

"In crisp, precise prose, Oppel 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," wrote PW. "The author's inviting new world will stoke readers' imaginations." Ages 12-up. (May) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Author Information

Bio of Kenneth Oppel

Kenneth Oppel is the bestselling author of Skybreaker, winner of the Red Maple Award and the Ruth & Sylvia Schwartz Award, and Airborn, which won the Governor General's, Red Maple and Ruth & Sylvia Schwartz Awards. Also a finalist for the prestigious TD Children's Literature Award, Airborn was a Michael L. Printz Honor Book in the U.S. and an IBBY Honour Book. His million-copy-selling Silverwing Saga won the Mr. Christie's Book Award. Oppel lives in Toronto with his family. http://www.kennethoppel.ca.

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Additional Info

Imprint

HarperCollins e-books

Filesize

954.96 KB

Number of Pages

544

eBook ISBN

9780061968327