Airborn

By: Kenneth Oppel

Narrated by: David Kelly

Length: 10 hrs and 45 mins

Publisher's summary

Matt Cruse is a cabin boy on the Aurora, a huge airship that sails hundreds of feet above the ocean, ferrying wealthy passengers from city to city. It is the life Matt's always wanted; convinced he's lighter than air, he imagines himself as buoyant as the hydrium gas that powers his ship. One night he meets a dying balloonist who speaks of beautiful creatures drifting through the skies. It is only after Matt meets the balloonist's granddaughter that he realizes that the man's ravings may, in fact, have been true, and that the creatures are completely real and utterly mysterious.

In a swashbuckling adventure reminiscent of Jules Verne and Robert Louis Stevenson, Kenneth Oppel, author of the best-selling Silverwing trilogy, creates an imagined world in which the air is populated by transcontinental voyagers, pirates, and beings never before dreamed of by the humans who sail the skies.

Listen to the next book: Skybreaker.

©2003 Kenneth Oppelale (P)2007 Full Cast Audio

Critic reviews

"Captivating." ( Booklist)
"Pure fun....Kelly's voice is irresistibly likable and engaging. The original music is excellent." ( AudioFile)

Fabulous story

Wonderful story and I love anything from the Full Cast Audio group. My wife listened to this story with me and wants to get the next story. I will get the next story.

amazing!

great story, amazing voice actors, awesome theme, over all amazing audio book to listen too.

Entertainingly theatrical, but not true to story.

This is one of my favorite stories and I’ve read and reread it for 10+ years. This audiobook has great production value and adds whimsy to the storytelling with special effects, music, and multiple voice actors. However, some voice acting doesn’t match up to the character descriptions at all, and the frequent omissions of “he said, I said, she said, etc.” forces you to memorize the voices to know which character is speaking. I would recommend this for children or first time readers to listen to in the car, but not so much for those who want to follow along with the book.

Old School Steampunk

What made the experience of listening to Airborn the most enjoyable?

Seems like a steampunk version of an anime movie. This is a very good start to a series and well worth spending time listening to the production.

What did you like best about this story?

This is well done as I love audio dramas and how it is more like an audio movie.

very exciting!

i am sorry that the book and performance are ended. however i have book 2

Immersive and Engaging

Great story that sucks you in quickly and keeps you engaged with just the right amount of detail while still moving the narrative along. Relatable characters, complex yet not over-developed villain, and scenarios that wrap the listener up emotionally. Superb narration and audio book production quality. I'm excited to move on to the next volume in the series.

The best Young Adult books I've read

Kenneth Oppel's "Airborn Series" are probably the best Young Adult books I've read. They feature great characters in exciting adventures in a really clever steampunk setting and as soon as I read them they became "instant classics" and I've put them on the shelf I've reserved for my very favorite books right alongside Hornblower, Harry Potter, His Dark Materials, and the Lord of the Rings.

I'll try to explain what makes these books so wonderful without giving away any spoilers.

The Characters
In his two lead characters -- Matt Cruse and Kate de Vries -- Oppel has created exactly the kind of characters I love: they are charming, brave, kind, but most of all, smart. I love smart characters who *think* their way out of problems. They work hard when hard work is required, they study carefully when knowledge is required, and they spring into action when bold deeds are required. They have the same fears and doubts that every kid, every person, has, yet they have the courage to overcome those fears and take action. The two really come alive as you read the book until you feel like they're real people.

The Relationship
It wouldn't be a YA series without a romance, and this series has one -- the best I've seen, in fact.

Not too long ago, back when YA lit was still being called "Juvenile Fiction," most of the books featured a main male character and a secondary (usually very secondary) female character. Which wasn't very balanced or very fair -- or probably of much interest to female readers. In recent YA fiction that dynamic has been reversed, with main female characters and very secondary male characters.

But how is that any better? It's not balancing any scales since the audience that read those older books has grown up and moved on. Is it some form of revenge or payback? If so, they're taking revenge on readers who weren't even born when the offending literature was written. And what does that really teach kids? That all relationships, both personal and professional, have to be one-sided, that there's always going to be a dominate member and a submissive member? I don't accept that. I wouldn't accept a relationship like that and I don't want my kids to accept relationships like that.

That's what makes the relationship at the heart of this series so great. It starts out as a genuine friendship between two people who respect each other and it blossoms into a beautiful romance that is also very realistic in its highs and lows, it's triumphs and obstacles.

Matt Cruse starts out as a working class cabin boy on the luxury airship Aurora. He loves his job, he loves traveling the world, and he hopes to move up in the ranks and make a career out of the air service. Kate de Vries starts out as a daughter of high society who yearns for a career as a naturalist, like her beloved grandfather, and who is already extremely knowledgable in her field. Science may be a man's world but Kate refuses to be held back on account of her gender. She's setting out to prove her grandfather's theories correct and in so doing, to make a name for herself and prove that women can have an impact in the sciences.

Kate is smart, bold, and courageous -- but she can be overzealous in pursuit of her goals. Matt is no less smart, though not formally educated like Kate, and no less courageous -- but he also has a keen sense of responsibility and a look-before-you-leap level head that is an excellent balance to Kate's impulsiveness.

That's where they start -- where they go from there is yours to discover.

The Stories
The stories are fantastic -- pirates, exploration, desert islands, strange discoveries… the books have it all! But despite the pirates and the very real danger presented to themselves and others they care about, our heroes never resort to violent solutions. They prefer to think their way out of their problems.

The Setting
The books are set in a great steampunk-style world which is just different enough from ours to instill a sense of wonder but not so different or outlandish that it loses all applicability to our own world. Readers will recognize, and empathize, with all the problems and obstacles that Matt and Kate face.

The Downside
It's really hard to find anything negative to say about these books… but if I had to chose *something* it would probably be that in the world of the book's setting, France and Canada dominate the world in science and industry (France and Canada?!) and no mention is made of Great Britain or the United States. Some will say this is a refreshing change of pace, and it is, in a way. But it also ignores all the things that made GB and the US the actual dominate forces in our real history, which is rather strange for a book which is otherwise so willing to grapple with issues of classism, sexism, corporate greed, and the power of science over fanaticism. I've come to believe that it's never a good idea to ignore history, especially the history we don't necessarily like. But that's a minor, minor quibble.

second listen

I've liked this recording enough to listen to it twice now, it is part of a great series that follows the intrepid Mat Cruise

I think this recording does a good job of showing the personality of Mat and the honest/run tone of the book

Wonderful adventure in the sky

I’ve read this book a few times and hearing the cast recording was lots of fun. Solid performances with a few brilliant ones. This is my first full audio book experience and it was quite a good time. I listened to it while on my commutes to and from work.
Absolutely a lovely experience.
If you’re looking for a classic adventure set in an alternate era, give her a listen, won’t you?

Fantastic!

Loved reading this book when I was a kid and the audio book is great. If you like stories akin to the chronicles of Narnia or Lord of the Rings then you'll like this series.