Kenneth Oppel, best known for writing about bats, seems to be channelling the spirit of Jules Verne in "Airborn," a wildly imaginative new fantasy book. Between mysterious flying beasts and pirate attacks, Oppel gives readers a glimpse of life aboard an airship... if airships, not planes, were the major way to travel.
Matt Cruse is on the crow's nest, as the "ship's eyes," when he catches a glimpse of a sinking airship. The dying balloonist dies shortly afterward -- but not before telling Matt about glorious winged creatures. Matt dismisses these as hallucinations -- but one year later, a routine cruise on the airship Aurora becomes something more when the dead man's granddaughter Kate arrives. Wealthy but treated like a nuisance, Kate is determined to find whatever her grandfather saw.
She shows Matt her grandfather's writings about these winged creatures, and Matt is slowly convinced that the old man wasn't just hallucinating. But their investigations are interrupted by a sudden pirate attack -- which leaves the Aurora sinking from a rip in its envelope. Soon the airship and her crew and passengers are stranded on a deserted island, which may hold the secret to Kate's winged beasts... but it also holds the pirates.
Oppel really hits his stride in this book, mixing science with science fiction and wrapping it in a fantasy tortilla. While his bat books were quite good, "Airborn" has the rare quality of slipping readers into his imagined universe. It's one of those stories that can be easily imagined as a reality, even if we do have planes and not airships. He even describes how creatures like the cloud cats could fly, were they real.
After the initial rescue, which gets readers hooked into the story, Oppel takes his time to unfold the plot, described in careful detail and with plenty of rich skyborne atmosphere. His setting seems to be, like Hayao Miyazaki's "Castle in the Sky," a mix of old and new -- while it's full of airships and similar technology, the attitudes seem to be that of the Victorian or Edwardian era.
The pre-pirate plot is a bit slow, but very necessary -- Oppel introduces readers to the Aurora, her chummy crew, and the rich passengers they ferry over the ocean. It also gives Kate and Matt time to get to know each other -- for real, not merely "we're two teens in the same place, we're friends! And maybe more someday!"
Speaking of Matt and Kate, they are definitely good lead characters. Matt is "airborn," a kid born in an airship and now at home nowhere except in the sky, even though his father died there. Kate is a good counterpoint, since she is everything Matt is not -- wealthy, adventurous, and all too willing to let people know when she is frustrated. The supporting characters, from the prissy chaperone to the genial captain, are also well-drawn; the only exception is rich boy Bruce, who doesn't get much time.
Reportedly he is working on a sequel, which is not surprising. Kenneth Oppel created a rich new fantasy world in "Airborn," with plenty of sky left to explore.
