A month or so ago, Your Humble Blogger added to the old aggregator a terrific blog by Farah Mendlesohn about YA/SF. Well, children’s SF. Anyway, she wrote a very positive note about Kenneth Oppel’s book Airborn, so I checked it out of my local library, and read it. And it’s wonderful.
Now, I know most of my Gentle Readers have no use for books about zeppelins. So I won’t urge y’all to read this one. But it really is quite good. And, you know, I won’t mention the pirates, so they’ll be a surprise.
Seriously, one of the things I specifically noticed Mr. Oppel doing most skillfully was the creation and manipulation of suspense. In particular, there’s a wonderful bit where Our Young Hero is in the crow’s nest keeping an eye on things. He’s just had a conversation about whether a previously unknown race of airborne mammals is a real possibility or the ravings of a madman, and his eyes may be playing tricks on him. He goes through various stages of uncertainty, suspicion, terror, relief, and surprise, and it all works. The timing of it was brilliant.
I’m on a bit of a roll, these days, aren’t I? The last book I read that really did nothing for me was Over the Wine-Dark Sea, and that was more than two months ago. And the last young-adult book I disliked was ... Beast, I suppose, and I didn’t dislike that one much. No, I’m doing quite well for books these days, which more than makes up for the movies.
Thank you,
-Vardibidian.