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.

CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.5 based on 70 reviews)

Airborn

The book had a few surprises. I had never read anything like this before. The whole family enjoyed it.
December 04, 2008

Great Book

I downloaded this as an audiobook from my local library. I saw the title and thought it was some kind of medical mystery book. Boy was I surprised when I started into it and found myself listening to a story about a world full of airships. I almost shut it off, but thought I'd give it a chance. I'm glad I did. This was a very enjoyable book. I would recommend it to people of all ages.
September 30, 2008

Just OK

This is a fun book for a 7th - 8th grader, but it takes a long time to get moving. The story of adventure and intrigue and fantasy is fun. The mix of fantasy and science-fiction is creative. The back story takes forever to come to light and the number and manner of coincidences is just overwhelming. The hero was always going to be a hero and everything was always going to be OK in the end. A little more tension would have been OK with me, and the various relationships could have been fleshed out more in order to create more compelling drama. To quote a certain television talent judge, "It was just OK for me."
August 04, 2008

One of the best books I've ever read!

Airborn is probably one of my favorite books by Kenneth Oppel. I especially love the style in which he writes. It's very unique because the story is fantasy but yet, you get the feeling that it really could happen! The book is action packed and has a cast of fantastic characters, both good and bad. They make the story unforgettable to the reader. If you love great adventure books you should read Airborn. As soon as I started it I couldn't put it down!
March 28, 2008

High Flying Fun

This book had me hooked from page one. Young Matt Cruise, cabin boy aboard the luxury airship "Aurora," adores flying. With three generations of air force pilots in my family, and my own fascination with everything that flies, I understood him at once. More at home in the sky than on the ground, he dreams of working his way up to ship's captain one day. Then, a routine voyage turns into high flying adventure with sky pirates, crash landings, uncharted islands, typhoons, and a girl with a camera determined to find evidence for a creature that no one else believes exists.

Think of this book as a cross between Jules Verne and Robert Louis Stevenson, with a delightful dose of humor thrown in. Sure, the constant hair breadth escapes strain the willing suspension of disbelief, but that's why they call it escapist fiction right? Everyone keeps having narrow escapes. That's what makes it fun.

As much as I liked Matt, I found the girl character a bit tedious. She was bold, stubborn, plucky, and that was about it. Clueless for such a well educated lass, her poor decisions necessitated a few extra narrow escapes. Not my kind of heroine.

Even if they weren't the most subtle and sophisticated characters, the cast certainly had a lot of personality. My favorite character may have been the airship "Aurora" itself, so well described in the book I almost felt like I'd been aboard myself.

A very entertaining book. I thoroughly enjoyed the trip. Somewhat violent, but otherwise unoffensive, I'd recommend this book for middle grade readers and up.
November 25, 2007

SIMILAR PRODUCTS

Skybreaker
by Kenneth Oppel

The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Book 1)
by Rick Riordan

Black Duck
by Janet Taylor Lisle

The Battle of the Labyrinth (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Book 4)
by Rick Riordan

The Titan's Curse (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Book 3)
by Rick Riordan