AIRBORN

By: Kenneth Oppel

There were many things that I truly loved about this book. For example I loved the type of life that the main character chose to live. A life of constant travel, where the sky is the limit. A life where you can venture to any continent anywhere on earth that you would like, and you would be getting paid for it. This factor of raw adventure is something that appealed to me the most from all the other factors from within the story. The only thing that I didn't like about the story was the fact that multiple people had died through out the story. Some of those that had died were passengers an board the ship, and pirates. I would most definitely recommend this book to any one of my peers. I would recommend this book to my peers so willingly because of the fact that it is full of adventure, and with all that adventure comes the opportunity for you to use your imagination to a great degree that you may not have taken it to before. The book is so good for the imagination because it gives the reader great detail into the stories environments, and characters. With all this great detail given it makes it easy for even the least imaginative person to draw a lively picture in their own minds' eye. Something that made the setting of “AIRBORN” quite unique is the fact that the majority of the story takes place within an airship called the “AURORA” far above the ground. This “airship” from which the story takes place is a massive zeppelin constructed of alumiron which is as strong as iron, but as light as aluminum. Its' weight is held up by sacs filled with a gas called Hydrium which is lighter than helium, and hydrogen. The dimensions of this vessel are 540 ft in length, and a 100 ft diameter. The rest of the story takes place on an island in the middle of the pacific ocean. This island has a tropical climate, and is inhabited by a unique variety of wildlife such as parrots, and macaws, as well as leaping snakes. The island also has flying creatures on it that are half cat, and half bird. For those reasons the setting in this book are unique. The events in the book reveals evidence of the author's world view in the ways that he describes the earth. He makes it seem as though the world is nothing more than a bunch of cities and continents that can easily be traveled. He makes the world seem as such a small place. The author also seems to make the earth below as some place that is impossible to live in. He makes it seem as though his whole world revolves around the skies, and the air ship “AURORA”. The author also makes the world seem as though it still holds many discoveries that have yet to been found by people.

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