Airborn
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| Airborn | |
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 Airborn first edition cover. |
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| Author | Kenneth Oppel |
| Country | Canada |
| Language | English |
| Series | Matt Cruse series |
| Genre(s) | Fantasy, Alternate history novel, Steampunk |
| Publisher | HarperCollins |
| Publication date | February 5, 2004 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) Audio |
| Pages | 321 pp (first edition) |
| ISBN | ISBN 9780002005371 |
| OCLC Number | 53162914 |
| Followed by | Skybreaker |
Airborn is a 2004 young adult novel by Kenneth Oppel. The book has been honored by several awards including winning Canada's Governor General's Award. Airborn is set in a time where the primary form of air transportation are airships. Voice radio exists, but the airplane has not been invented, which suggests that the book takes place in an imaginary time period or a possible alternate reality. The book takes place aboard a transoceanic airship, the Aurora, and is told through the perspective of its cabin boy, Matt Cruse.
Contents |
[edit] Plot summary
This is the story of 15-year-old Matt Cruse, a cabin boy on the luxury passenger airship called the Aurora. Matt talks about his father (who died years previously) as an idol, and a good person, airship sailmaker and father. His father gave him a compass for his tenth birthday, which he still has. Matt wants to be just like his father. Matt gets to go see his mother and younger sisters once in while, and brings them exotic gifts from the foreign lands the Aurora takes him to. But in his family's small apartment in Lionsgate City, he feels trapped, and cannot rest until he is in the air once more. Matt was promised the position of the sailmaker, but the place is given to Bruce Lunardi, a boy who just graduated from the Airship Academy and whose father Otto Lunardi is the rich owner of not only the Aurora but an entire fleet of airships, in the company "Lunardi Lines". One year previously, Matt rescued an old man from a damaged air balloon who rambled on about beautiful creatures in the air. The man died soon afterward.
One day, just after the Aurora sets sail, a small aircraft lands on the ship, bringing aboard 2 passengers: Kate de Vries and her chaperone, Miss Marjorie Simpkins. Matt learns that the old man he rescued was Kate's grandfather and Kate will stop at nothing to prove that the creatures that her grandfather saw were real. Kate shares her grandfather's journal containing detailed drawings and information of the creatures with Matt. The creatures are born in the air and can stay in the air forever, never touching the ground, though they are as large as a panther.
Then one night, pirates led by the notorious Vikram Szpirglas, a father of two( second child revealed in Skybreaker), attacks the Aurora, threatening to down it with cannon-fire if the crew does not cease and desist. Szpirglas' pirates plunder the passengers and crew of all valuables. Szpirglas kills Mr. Featherstone, the chief wireless officer of the Aurora, who'd been caught trying to radio for help. The pirates then proceed to leave, but both ships are caught in a storm and Szpirglas' smaller ship crashes into the Aurora, tearing through the ship's skin and causing hydrium , the substance that keeps the Aurora afloat, to leak out of the airship, causing it to nearly sink to the waves. Sailmakers begin gluing and repairing the skin but the crew of the Aurora has lost too much hydrium gas and the passengers and crew prepare to abandon ship. Just then, Matt sights an island on which they can land the Aurora, and they do so.
While the crew unload unnecessary baggage so the ship may remain airborne, Kate discovers that this is the very island which her grandfather spotted the creatures flying above. She is firmly bent upon exploring the island, forcing Matt to accompany her. After hours of looking, they find the skeleton of one of these large winged creatures in a tree. A few minutes later, they find a living one which has a crippled wing and fell to earth at birth. They decide to name these creatures "Cloud Cats".
The Aurora is almost ready to fly again when another storm heavily damages the ship's skin yet again. Matt is rebuked for being late for his shift but redeems himself when he remembers that he smelt hydrium on the island. Kate has one last chance to go back and take pictures of these creatures but Miss Simpkins has locked her in her room for associating with Matt. She escapes by drugging Miss Simpkins and runs off with her camera. Matt and Bruce are sent to find her and together discover that cloud cats are dangerous carnivores. Bruce gets bitten on the leg and as they run back to the ship, Matt and Kate lose Bruce and stumble on the pirates.
Szpirglas and his crew don't recognize them; Kate and Matt are forced to act as if they were shipwrecked. They decide to spend the night at the pirate camp, then try and escape at night but are caught and locked in a hydrium pit. They use Kate's harem pants as a balloon and escape. They then have to rescue the Aurora from the pirates, who are bound to find her. In the forest Matt kisses Kate twice.
They find Bruce with an injured leg in the forest and sneak back onto the Aurora. All passengers and crew are being held hostage by 8 pirates. There is no wind, so the pirates don't notice as they undo all the landing lines. Matt is only a cabin boy, but because of his passion for flying, he knows everything about the Aurora and how to fly her. They switch the controls from the main control car to the auxiliary control car and fly her but Szpirglas soon retakes control. Matt, Kate and Bruce have to defeat 8 pirates and shut down the engines that are carrying them back to the island. Matt sneaks into the infirmary to get bandages, peroxide and antiseptic ointment for Bruce's wound. He also takes some sleeping elixir with him. Matt gives sleeping elixir to the ship's passionate cook, Chef Vlad Herzog, to put in the pirates' food. Bruce is killed by a pirate after being shot in the head. Crumlin, the first mate pirate, is eaten by the cloud cat. Matt and Szpirglas fight on top of the Aurora in the open air and Matt is forced to fall off the hull. He freefalls, then lands with a crash on a fin. He comes to the bitter realization that he is not as light as a feather as he thought, and cannot fly. But he defeats Szpirglas, who is torn apart by cloud cats as he falls. The Aurora is about to crash into the island's mountain peak but Matt steers her out of harm's way.
The story ends six months later, as Kate is exhibiting her cloud cat skeleton and her pictures of the cloud cats and is going to study zoology at a university in Paris. Matt, with the help of the reward money for finding Szpirglas' base of operation, goes to the Airship Academy in Paris, which is located directly across the river from the university.
[edit] Hydrium
A fictional gas, lighter than hydrogen, used as a cause of buoyancy. It is described as leaking naturally out of pits in the earth, similarly to methane. It gives off a mango scent, so they know when it is leaking. In Oppel's book it is used in airships instead of helium or hydrogen. The word is apparently a combination of helium and hydrogen, the "hydr" from hydrogen and the "ium" from helium.
[edit] Writing
Oppel liked the idea of writing in an older time period because of the feel it would give to the dialogue scenery.[1] In order to reinforce the idea of an alternative past, Oppel subtly changed some of the geographical names, such as adding Latin endings (Atlanticus and Pacificus instead of Atlantic and Pacific).[1]
Oppel has stated that he didn't think the novel would win any awards because it lacked what he deemed the more complicated themes of his previous Silverwing books.[2] In his acceptance speech for Airborn becoming a Prinz Honor Book, he states he ultimately realized that the book is about happiness, and that "my hero’s love of airships and his longing for a home in the sky, were all expressions of curiosity and optimism and wonder, and that ongoing, restless search for happiness."[3]
[edit] Awards and nominations
- The book won the Governor General's Award for children's literature.
- The book was a Michael L. Printz Award honor book.
- Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books Blue Ribbon award winner.
- The book was a 2007 Nutmeg Children's Book Award nominee. It came in fifth place.[4]
- The book was a 2006-2007 Rebecca Caudill Young Reader's Book Award nominee.
[edit] Film adaptation
- The book originally was being adapted into a film, to be directed by Stephen Sommers. Thomas Dean Donnelly adapted the screenplay, and Christian Vandal was to star as Matt Cruse. However, in 2008, Oppel indicated that the project has been dropped.
There is a movie based on "Airborn" in pre-production, set to come out in 2011.[5]
[edit] Publication history
Airborn was first released in Canada in February 2004. It was shortly followed with its release in the United Kingdom and the United States in April and May 2004 respectively. Below is the release details for the first edition hardback and paperback copies in these three publication regions.
- 2004, CAN, HarperCollins ISBN 9780002005371, Pub date February 5 2004, Hardback
- 2004, UK, Hodder Children's Books ISBN 9780340878552, Pub date April 15 2004, Hardback
- 2004, US, Eos ISBN 9780060531805, Pub date May 11 2004, Hardback
- 2004, CAN, HarperCollins ISBN 9780006392590, Pub date October 21 2004, Paperback
- 2005, UK, Hodder Children's Books ISBN 9780340878569, Pub date January 13 2005, Paperback
- 2005, US, Eos ISBN 978-0060531829, Pub date May 24 2005, Paperback
[edit] References
- ^ a b "Author Interview: Kenneth Oppel on Skybreaker". Harper Collins. http://www.harpercollins.com/author/authorExtra.aspx?authorID=25482&isbn13=9780060532284&displayType=bookinterview. Retrieved 2008-11-11.
- ^ "Kenneth Oppel Interview Excerpts". Locus Online. May 2006. http://www.locusmag.com/2006/Issues/05Oppel.html. Retrieved 2008-11-11.
- ^ "Author Essay: Kenneth Oppel on Airborn". Harper Collins. http://www.harpercollins.com/author/authorExtra.aspx?authorID=25482&isbn13=9780060531805&displayType=bookessay. Retrieved 2008-11-11.
- ^ Nutmeg Children's Book Award - 2007 Nominees
- ^ Walker, Morley (2008-09-28). "Interview with an Author: Oppel's simple advice: write about your passion". Whats On Winnipeg. Winnipeg Free Press. http://www.whatsonwinnipeg.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=65912. Retrieved 2008-11-11.
