Starclimber – Kenneth Oppel
Posted by Laura on March 7, 2009
Join Matt Cruse and Kate de Vries in another high flying adventure – this time the goal is space!
Matt has a summer job piloting an aerotug in Paris where France is building the Celestial Tower – a tower designed to reach all the way to outer space. And Kate is preparing to present her talk on the aerozoans, the electrifying squid/jellyfish they encountered in Skybreaker.
All is right with the world – except when Matt becomes involved in a terrorist attack on the tower. And then Kate receives a note from her parents recalling her to Canada for the summer.
Matt would jump at the chance to go to space, but it is likely that only French citizens will be given an opportunity at first. The adventure really takes off when Matt and Kate are given the opportunity to join Canada’s space program by John McKinnon, the Canadian Minister of Air, and Otto Lunardi, the airship magnate who owned the Aurora (p.39).
Matt enters training to be an astralnaut, but Kate is guaranteed a spot on board the Starclimber as an expert in high-altitude life-forms. This is the third book featuring Matt and Kate (the first being Airborn), and like the others, is an exciting read full of peril and strange new creatures. There is a bit of politics and romance, as well.
