Sailing toward dawn, and I was perched atop the crow's nest, being the ship's eyes. We were two nights out of Sydney, and there'd been no weather to speak of so far. I was keeping watch on a dark stack of nimbus clouds off to the northwest, but we were leaving it far behind, and it looked to be smooth going all the way back to Lionsgate City. Like riding a cloud. . . .

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.

Item Information Item Information

Format: TradePaperback
Author: Oppel, Kenneth
ISBN: 9780060531829
Condition: Used
Dimensions: 6.76 x 1.26
Number Of Pages: 544
Publication Year: 2005

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A light-hearted tale of adventure

Joel K. - 1 year 11 months ago

Enter a world where airships rule the skies. There you'll meet Matt Cruse, a lowly cabin boy, whose biggest hope is to one day be the captain of his own airship. Though, fate has different plans for Matt when it pairs him up with Kate de Vries, a passenger on Matt's ship looking to prove her late father's discovery. Together, they must make their way through storms, pirates, and deadly creatures to try and make it back to the ship, and hopefully, along the way, spot the mysterious animal Kate's father claimed to have seen. This is a wonderful story and an easy read. It moves quickly and is filled with action, though the plot is very straightforward and predictable. However, the characters have such depth that you'll feel like you know them when you finish the book. I'd recommend this book to anyone who wants to lose themselves in a grand adventure for a little while.
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A light-hearted tale of adventure