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The Airborn Trilogy

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9780060531829_p0_v1_s260x42051ENURc2yOL._SL500_

Title: Airborn, Skybreaker, Starclimber
Author: Kenneth Oppel
Publisher: Eos (for Airborn) and HarperTrophyCanada (for Skybreaker and Starclimber)
ISBNs: 9780060531829, 9781554682829, 9781554685219

Alethea’s Review (at age 14)

“Lighter than air” is what they call him. Matt Cruse was born in the sky on an airship. He’s worked on the Aurora, a first class airship for three years now, ever since his father died. Air is his element. And yet, a dying balloonist’s last words force him to reconsider everything he’s known about the sky. Could there, as the balloonist says, really be life in the sky? And can Matt and his newfound friend Kate find it?

In Skybreaker, while Matt is on a training voyage with a power-hungry captain, he and the crew spot a ship of legend—the Hyperion—floating above the clouds. It is said that she carries 50 million dollars worth of gold. After a failed attempt at salvaging her, the weakened crew returns to land. The coordinates are in high demand back on earth, but of all the oxygen-starved crew, Matt is the only one who remembers them. And he’s not about to let anyone else get their hands on the Hyperion. So along with an unlikely crew—including a captain with a sky-sized ego, a mysterious gypsy girl, and Matt’s scientist friend Kate—he sets off to claim the treasure for his own. Which is not the smartest thing he could do, but oh well.

In Starclimber, Matt’s sights are set higher than the sky. He aims to be part of an “astralnaut” program which will go up into outer space for the first time ever. In other words, Matt is reaching for the stars. But the competition is fierce. More than a hundred trainees are undergoing the rigorous training, and only three will be chosen. Will Matt be able to overcome the competition and be one of the first in outer space? And even if he does, will he come back alive?

Tim has been bugging me to read these for the longest time, so I finally gave in. I have to say that it was a satisfying read, because I managed to read 3 books in 4 days, which made me feel good about my accomplishments this Winter Break. But I’m getting off topic.

First off, marvellous plot. I liked how it was set in an alternate universe, as that gave bigger scope for imagination. The idea of airships still existing was very interesting, and I love the idea of flying free like Matt does. The way Oppel writes suspense is amazing. I was on the edge of my seat half the time (at least, I would have been had I not been lying down most of the time). The only problem I found was the fact that Matt and Kate find new animal species literally everywhere they go! It kinda irked me, seeing as most people find no new species in their entire lifetime, and here these two are finding species as if species are coming out of their ears.

Characters—um. Let me see… I loved the villains in the first two books, Vikram Szpirglas and John Rath. They were just the right combination of villain and human, and were probably the strong point of the series for me.

Matt Cruse, the main character, was okay, I guess. I can tolerate him. I know he’s brave, and smart and everything, and I admire him for all that stuff, but he can also be pretty weak. He lets himself be influenced by literally everybody. Kate drags him along on her harebrained schemes, which is not always very smart. He doesn’t think before making decisions, which is all fine and dandy when you have someone to calm you down, but Matt doesn’t. Kate is, if anything, even more impetuous than him, so that doesn’t work.

And now we come to one of my pet peeves about this book, the name of which is Kate de Vries. Kate is pretty much the token female, and I despise token females. Token females are people who are in the book/movie/show/whatever for the sole purpose of—you guessed it—being female. Honestly, people, if you can’t find a purpose for a female character, please do one of the following: a) give her a secondary role or b) just toss the character out the window. I can’t stand female characters who just muddle around for the whole book with no purpose.

And after that mini-rant… Kate is, as I have said earlier, impetuous. She doesn’t think before she acts. I’m tempted to say she doesn’t think at all, or only thinks of herself. She’s ruthless when it comes to furthering her cause. She will do anything to help herself.

[Spoiler]

For instance, in the first book, the Aurora is marooned on an island. After several setbacks, she is ready to leave with all her passengers. But Kate, having discovered a new species of flying mammal, is not content with having the bones of one of them. Oh no, she wants a picture! So she disobeys direct orders from her chaperone, steals Matt’s compass, and sneaks out into the forest. When her absence is discovered, the whole ship is thrown into an uproar. The captain sends Matt and another boy, Bruce Lunardi, out to find her, but when they do, she refuses to come with them. She wants a picture. She wants to be famous (because she’s a girl! Girls don’t get choices! Never mind that she’s rich, being a girl is just like being poor). And then, this whole scheme of hers spirals into pirates finding them and several people getting killed.

Another thing that irks me about Kate is how ridiculously feminist she is. Don’t get me wrong, I do like women’s rights and all that. It’s just that Kate is so adamant about how girls are as good as boys that it starts to border on female chauvinism. Throughout the series, she keeps going on about how “We have no way of knowing whether it’s a he or a she. But of course we just call it him. Just another big important male of the species” (page 261, Airborn).

Or, when Matt is upset that Kate has been invited on the expedition while he has to prove himself: “‘I didn’t mean to insult you,’ I [Matt] said finally. ‘It just seems easy for you, that’s all.’ ‘Well, it’s not. Men always think they’re more deserving than women'” (page 161, Starclimber).

Maybe you can see why she annoys me. And all she ever seems to do is think about herself! When they have a specimen on the ship that may endanger the lives of all the passengers and the crew, in Starclimber, all Kate can think about is what a waste it will be if the specimen is lost.

So yes, she gets on my nerves and in my opinion, the series would have been better without her. But maybe that’s just me.

I recommend this series to anyone from the ages of 8 to 16-ish, assuming that they’re proficient enough in reading. I recommend it especially to those interested in science and/or airplanes.

Warning: Romance. And more romance. And pirates and people dying and being shot. And romance. 



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