Airborn

by Kenneth Oppel

[jnikkir]

Giving this book a solid 3 stars. Honestly it probably ranks somewhere between "liked it" and "really liked it", and I should probably round up... It just doesn't measure up with other books that I've given 4 stars to, though, so 3 it is.

I was excited to read this because it was heralded by many reviewers to be a "steampunk Treasure Island". Well... it was definitely that. By which I mean, it had the feel of a much older, piratey classic, rather than a modern YA book. It was published in 2004, granted, but that's not that long ago. ;) I was hoping for some more in-depth plot and character-development. What Oppel delivered was pretty simple in both areas: a plot driven by airship shenanigans and island mystery; and characters that I felt weren't given enough depth to be taken completely seriously.

That being said, the reason I did "like/really like" Airborn were those airship shenanigans and island mystery. There are plenty of twists and turns in this adventure, and the setting couldn't have been better. I'm a sucker for a good airship, and the Aurora was great.

There just wasn't enough spark for me in the character department, so sadly I don't think I'm terribly interested in what happens to Matt and Kate in either of the sequels.