Author – Kenneth Oppel – Airborn and Skybreaker
Posted by Laura on December 19, 2007
Are you ready to read adventure stories set mainly in the air? Sky pirates, strange new animals, danger, excitement, and …? Try these two books but read Airborn first. There is a hilarious scene with a snake, but I can’t remember which book it was in. I laughed loud and long. He writes the scene so well that I can still see it in my mind.
Airborn Matt, a young cabin boy aboard an airship, and Kate, a wealthy young girl traveling with her chaperone, team up to search for the existence of mysterious winged creatures reportedly living hundreds of feet above the Earth’s surface.
Skybreaker Matt Cruse, a student at the Airship Academy, and Kate de Vries, a young heiress, team up with a gypsy and a daring captain, to find a long-lost airship, rumored to carry a treasure beyond imagination.
Teens @ Duluth 
dplmanga said
The third book, Airman, was supposed to come out this year, but it didn’t. Hopefully soon, though.
nicholas said
The third book is actual call starclimber it’s comin out sometime in 2008
Laura said
Good catch! Airman is actually by Eion Colfer. According to Kenneth Oppel’s website http://www.kennethoppel.ca , he is working on the third book in the series and the working title is Starclimber.
Nickolas said
holy cow, i read both books in a day. i am psyched for the third one!
Laura said
Nickolas – I have a coworker who says that Larklight and its sequel Starcross by Philip Reeve are two books that you will probably enjoy.
I haven’t read them yet.
Laura said
I just checked Kenneth Oppel’s website and Starclimber is currently scheduled to be released in the United States in December. We have not ordered it yet because it is not yet available in our warehouse. I’ll try to let you know here when you can start placing reserves…
Laura said
Update – he has finished the book – but it won’t be published in the US until January 2009. Looks like it got pushed back a bit. Hang in there.
kristina said
Matt cruse dies in starclimber and Kate de vries is a lot more witty
Lisa said
Matt cruse doesn’t dies so get your facts straight
kristina said
The third one is supposed to be a terrible book and only airborn was ggod. Skybreaker was one of the worst books i have ever read
Lisa said
Your mast up you know that !!!
I’ve read all the books and I love them. so if you think Skybreaker and Starclimer are terrible then your just sad !!!
Michael said
Even though Starclimber won’t be published in the United States of America until after the Canadian publication in September, is there any way to order the book from a Canadian bookstore and have them ship it across the border, or is that illegal or something?
Laura said
Yes, you can order books from online bookstores in other countries and have them shipped to the US, Canada included. It is not at all illegal. I know someone who purchased all of the Harry Potter books from England to have that version of the story and illustrations.
I was just on the Amazon.ca website and saw that the anticipated release date is 8/22/08. If you want to try other bookstores, use this Yahoo link.
cristopher said
In canada goes it come out in 8/22/08?
Laura said
According to Amazon.ca, yes, Starclimber comes out on 8/22/08 in Canada. (I just checked again.) Unfortunately, the Amazon.com for the good old U. S. of A. says that the book won’t be published here until 2/24/09 – It keeps getting pushed back!!
Our warehouse is giving a publication date in March of 2009.
Sorry. Publishing is a tricky situation. Dates keep changing. But, it could be because they think that they have to publish so many more than they first thought. And that would be great news for Kenneth Oppel! Or, it could be for an altogether different reason that I can’t fathom. (Perhaps it takes longer to get all of the extra vowels out of the text. For example – “favourite” instead of our “favorite.”)
If you are in the United Kingdom, the book will be released in March – according to Amazon.co.uk, but on Kenneth Oppel’s website, the publication date for the UK is in May. (But that information was from last April.) Really, who knows.
Hang in there.
Laura said
Hey – I did not intend to put a winky face in the last post. That was supposed to be a closed parenthesis.
Sigh.
christopher said
It is good for me that it is coming out in August 22. im in Canada for vacation at that time, I think that I will pick up a copy well im there.
Laura said
Christopher is a big lucky!
christopher said
Yeah, I am.
christopher said
is the date changed for canada
Laura said
Well, they haven’t changed the date on http://www.Amazon.ca – but the “promised” date has passed and they still say that the book has not yet been released. I checked another bookstore and their site said that they have 38 copies on order but none in stock.
I have seen two different places that say the publication for Canada is in September. But they don’t give the day of the month.
So… bummer. It doesn’t look like you will be able to pick up a copy during your vacation.
Laura said
http://www.Amazon.ca says that they have the book in stock now!
Jayson said
I just finished starclimber. Do you tink there will be a fourth one.
christopher said
Yeah do you think there will be fourth one in the series?
Laura said
Well – I haven’t heard anything about a fourth one, yet. Here’s hoping!
christopher said
wow its been along time
Laura said
It now time to start placing reserves for the book Starclimber. But the rule is – I get it first. So there.
Laura said
They moved up the date and released the book on February 24, 2009 in the US and it is available in the UK.
So… go find a copy and start reading!
Laura said
Discussion of Starclimber has moved to another place on this blog. Feel free to comment here, or here.
Laura said
I e-mailed the esteemed author and asked him if he would write another Airborn book. Here is his reply :
“Will I write another Airborn book? Starclimber ends at a pretty satisfying moment for me, but I do love the characters Matt and Kate, and the world they inhabit, so if I had a great idea for a fourth book, I’d probably write it. Right now, however, I’m working on some other books that are completely
different.
Kenneth Oppel”
Ben said
He better write a fourth one…
Lisa said
yay a fourth book I can’t wait !!!
Laura said
You may have to wait a long time. The author didn’t say that he was working on anything with Matt and Kate. There is a real possibility that we won’t get to read any more books about them. However, he is still writing, and we know that he is a clever author, so we should be happy with what he next publishes. Right?