What We’re Reading

Skybreaker | Kenneth Oppel

Rating:

In this sequel to Airborn, we pick up about where we left off. Matt’s taken his money and used it to enroll in the Airship Academy, sending some home for his mother and sister’s. Kate has enrolled in the Sorbonne and taken up flying lessons. The adventure begins with Matt’s internship about the Flotsam.

Assistant to the Navigator, he’s learning things he never really took the time to notice board the Aurora. He was always more concerned with the flying than the routes. And while he appreciates his realization of the importance of the Navigator to a ship, he can’t wait to be done with the Flotsam, whose captain is questionable at best. When he flies them straight into a storm, Matt is sure he’s mad. When they get through, he begins to rethink his opinion…until they get caught in an updraft, and having jettisoned their ballast, are all but powerless to stop their ascent.

While floating at dangerous heights, they stumble upon an incredible discovery–an airship that has become myth, declared lost years ago. At 20,000 feet she floats, a ghost ship. The captain means to salvage her, but as the crew one by one all succumb to air sickness, Matt goes against orders, vents the ship’s hydrium, and saves their lives.

Despite the manner of the discovery, the news is still magical. While he feels a deep sadness when he hears of the loss of the navigator, Matt also realizes this makes him the only person to now know the coordinates of the mythical Hyperion. He can’t wait to tell Kate. Only Kate’s already found out. The story, it seems, has been leaked. This makes the idea less appealing.

When a meeting with a supposed member of the family of the deceased owner of the Hyperion turns bad, Matt starts to second-guess everything. Whether finding the ship was a good thing after all, whether Kate’s scheme to go after it is insanity or a worthwhile dream. An attempt on his life and the discovery of another man in Kate’s house make his mind up for him.

And still things don’t go his way. The very ship he and his newfound partner Nadira mean to hire is the same ship Kate has already hired, its owner the very man Matt spied in her house. And yet, the ragtag crew strikes a deal. Hal has the ship, Kate has the funds, Nadira the key, Matt the coordinates.

This adventure is even more fantastic than the last. An excellent read, highly recommended.

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The Skybreaker | Kenneth Oppel by Jaemi, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 6th, 2006 at 12:43 pm by Jaemi and is filed under Book Review, Series. Find similar posts by selecting and of the following tags: airships, fantasy, imaginary creatures, inventions, pirates, scifi, ya fiction. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.