Airman
Hyperion Book CH, 2008
Fantasy
ISBN: 1423107519
416 pages
Synopsis
Conor Broekhart was born in flight, on the maiden voyage of a hot air balloon, advanced technology for his time period, and thus was destined to be great in so many ways. The son of a genius scientist mother, and sharp-shooting military captain who live on the Saltee Islands, Conor quickly becomes indoctrinated into the upper echelon and royalty of the palace. The new monarch, good King Nick, as he’s commonly called, is an American aeronaut who suddenly becomes king as he’s the only undisputed relative in the line of the Saltee royalty. King Nicholas’s daughter, Isabella, is around Conor’s age, and the two grow up together.
Still in the young years of their lives, Conor saves Isabella from a fire by creating a parachute out of the nation’s flag and ushers her to safety, earning him a knighthood and a very dangerous enemy in the form of the head general of the island and leader of the army, Marshall Bonvilain. Later, the evil Marshall assassinates the king and his friend Victor Vigny, Conor’s teacher and mentor, and throws Conor into the Saltee prison to mine diamonds and eventually die. Now Conor must find a way to escape a prison that has never been breached, and save those that he loves.
Critique
There are parts from time to time that are a little slow, unnecessary or poorly timed descriptions of the landscape and setting throughout the novel, but all in all it was a fantastic read. There are elements of what seem to be realistic danger, and Conor, even though the hero, definitely seems as though he may not make it out of many of the scrapes he gets himself into, including all of the flying inventions he creates. The ending is almost a little too happy/sappy, but it’s ultimately what one is hoping for deep down inside, so that the hero can win and everyone lives happily ever after.
Some of the elements that make the story original are Colfer’s recreation of the history of the Saltees, how they were populated, and what makes them wealthy. In reality, the Saltee Islands do exist, and are owned by a family, but no one really lives there, and there are no diamond mines. There is, however, a wonderful culture of birds and seals that live throughout the islands. Also, the integration of the realistic struggle for power and Conor’s desire to escape are accompanied well with the fantasy/science fiction aspects that revolve Conor’s dreams of flight, and his capabilities as a scientific genius to make them possible. Not only does he create a personal flying machine that can take him back and forth from the islands, but he creates the first plane with angled propellers as well.
I don’t know of any books to be released to follow this in a series, but I wouldn’t be surprised if there were, knowing Colfer. I recommend this text to readers 9+, skewing more toward boys.
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For the Classroom
Since there are so many references to aviation and the underlying elements that make flight possible, this book would be a great classroom companion for science and physics as it pertains to aviation.
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