The result is a vividly imagined, lushly evoked simulacrum of the past. Barrie’s Peter Pan and The Admirable Crichton for good measure. Oppel romps through the territories of Jules Verne and W.H.
For this reason alone the book is a wonderful resource for teachers, as the basis of a treasure hunt to sort real from imaginary, or an introduction to the wonderful literature of lost worlds. Like the Silverwing books, Airborn provides an opportunity for Oppel to work together a rich lode of research. Christie’s Book Award, the Ruth Schwartz Award, and the CLA Book of the Year for Children – is the basis of an animated series currently airing on the Teletoon network. The enormously successful Silverwing trilogy – which garnered him a sheaf of prizes including the Mr. Since then, Oppel has written 19 books for young and middle readers, as well as an adult mystery, The Devil’s Cure. Oppel’s move to older readers (12 to 15 years old) is a first for the Toronto-based writer, whose career began at the tender age of 17 with Colin’s Fantastic Video Adventure, published in 1985. Matt’s passion for flying drives the book. Are these animals real, or merely products of a fevered imagination? By now Oppel has set the scene for a tautly paced adventure, solidly built around character. The dying passenger’s notebook is filled with extraordinary drawings of bizarre winged creatures, half bat, half panther. Despite the sadness of this association, it is where Matt feels least burdened by the loss, living the life his father wanted.Īs the ship crosses the great Pacificus bound for Lionsgate City, the watchful Matt sights an eerie object in their path: a battered hot air balloon, adrift, its sole passenger unconscious.
Matt knows and loves every inch of the Aurora, the same ship from which his father dropped to his death.
The position of cabin boy on an airship seems much like that of cabin boy on a sea-going ship. Yet we soon feel thoroughly anchored in this oddly familiar world. His surefooted aerial manoeuvres are enough to give most readers chronically sweaty palms. Fifteen-year-old Matt Cruse, cabin boy on the luxury airship Aurora, is more comfortable 800 feet above the earth than on solid ground. It is the era of the great airships – from a bat’s point of view, surely the golden age of human evolution – when technology first allowed clay-footed humankind (or at least those members of it rich and privileged enough to buy passage) to slip the surly bonds of earth.Īirborn is not for the acrophobic. His new novel, Airborn, is an accomplished shift from animal fantasy to an imaginary historical past, one that bears a distinct resemblance to the late 19th century. From the soaring success of his Silverwing trilogy, Ken Oppel takes his readers even higher in the skies.
0 kommentar(er)
