Airship Nine [Paperback]

Thomas H. Block (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Putnam (1984)
• ASIN: B000R9A8HE
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,835,215 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Thomas Block has written seven aviation-oriented novels, many which have gone on to acquire best-seller status in numerous countries. His novel writing began with the publication of "Mayday" in 1979. That novel was rewritten with his boyhood friend, novelist Nelson DeMille in 1998 and remains on DeMille's extensive backlist. "Mayday" became a CBS Movie of the Week in October, 2005.

The other novels by Block include "Orbit", "Airship Nine", "Forced Landing", "Skyfall" and "Open Skies". Block is still actively writing, both fiction and non-fiction, and has edited and extensively updated all of his previous novels for ebook format. Block continues to work with Nelson DeMille and over the years has assisted with a number of DeMille novels in various ways. He has also worked with novelist Robert Gandt on several writing projects.

Block's magazine writing began in 1968 and over the past five decades he has appeared in numerous publications. He worked 20 years at FLYING Magazine as Contributing Editor, and as Contributing Editor to Plane & Pilot Magazine for 11 years. Block became Editor-at-Large for Piper Flyer Magazine and Cessna Flyer Magazine in 2001 and continues in that roll.

During his long career as an aviation writer he has written on a wide array of subjects that range from involvement with government officials to evaluation reports on most everything that flies. Block has piloted gliders, seaplanes, the Goodyear Blimp, warplanes and many large transport jets, to name just a few categories from his logbook. He has owned more than a dozen light airplanes.

An airline pilot for US Airways for over 36 years before his retirement in April, 2000, Captain Thomas Block has been a pilot since 1959. Born February 11, 1945, Block has accumulated 30,000+ hours of flight time since his first solo on his sixteenth birthday. He holds an Air Transport Pilot rating in numerous large aircraft. Block flew the Trans-Oceanic routes for US Airways in the Boeing 767 to a cross-section of European cities for the last decade of his airline career. Block is also rated for single and multi-engine land and sea aircraft, and gliders.

Since 2002, Thomas Block has lived on a ranch in Florida with his wife Sharon where they board and train horses.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A typical but enjoyable lightweight techno-thriller!, August 25, 2006

By 

Paul Weiss (Dundas, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Airship Nine (Paperback)

The premise of Thomas Block's "Airship Nine" is hardly new (in fact, one might even quip that it's been done to death). But, we all know the devil is in the details and Block has produced an eminently readable techno-thriller and a noteworthy, strong statement about the futility of war and the insanity of "mutually assured destruction" as a defense policy. Those readers familiar with his other novels, "Mayday", "Forced Landing" and "Orbit" will enjoy the continuing theme of aviation technology. This time the focus is on Airship Nine, a futuristic commercial dirigible carrying both cargo and passengers over the Antarctic during the nuclear accident that turns the rest of the world into a post-apocalyptic wasteland.

When the hammer falls and nuclear fires devastate the earth, the only other survivors are the crew of the Soviet ship Primorye and the residents of the scientific camps located on the ground in the Antarctic. The story quite obviously rests with how the surviving Americans and Russians choose to perceive themselves - enemies to the death in a continuing World War or allies in a struggle for survival after a war that should never have happened in the first place.

Well done, Thomas Block! A high speed enjoyable read in an extremely interesting setting that allowed you to include social studies, geography, science, technology, action and a moral statement as well!

Paul Weiss

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Classic Sci-Fi With a Twist, December 27, 2010

By 

Robert Gandt (Daytona Beach, FL USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Airship Nine (Kindle Edition)

In this updated version of his 1985 classic, Airship Nine, author Block reprises the Cold War specter of MAD--mutually assured destruction. As nuclear weapons transform the planet into a poisonous wasteland, American and Russian survivors confront each other in the last habitable place on earth--Antarctica.

This sprawling tale is a well-wrought mix of high-tech gee-whizzery, characters plunged into danger both physical and moral, and an old-fashioned adventure story with a surprise ending. Airship Nine is one of those books that holds up well over the years. Both versions--original and modern--are the work of a writer at the top of his game. Highly recommended.

4 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Airship Nine Stars, August 16, 2000

By 

Mike Wilson - See all my reviews

This review is from: Airship Nine (Hardcover)

I read this book years ago and remembered liking it enough to buy 'Forced Landing' and 'Mayday'.

I would like to see Block write another book.