Voted Book of the Year by a number of reviewers and having now read it I know why. This is something very different from most action and adventure stories. The characters are brilliantly drawn and the plot lines is innovative and full of intrigue and danger.
If your child is into Anthony Horowitz or Eoin Colfer then get them to take a running jump into this – they’ll not be disappointed.
Matt Cruse has been accepted at the Airship Academy, his days as cabin boy over for the moment. He has difficulty settling down to life on land, but is helped by the fact that Kate is in Paris too. During a training flight aboard the freighter Flotsam, Matt helps save the ship when it is caught in a deadly storm over the Indian Ocean, and thrust to dangerously high altitudes. There, Matt spies a frozen airship, drifting aimlessly at 20,000 feet - it's the legendary ghost ship Hyperion. Rumoured to be carrying great wealth, the Hyperion left harbour fifty years ago, but never reached her destination. No wreckage was ever found...until now. And, it is not just gold the Hyperion is reputed to carry, but a collection of strange zoological specimens. Kate is desperate to recover them, and she and Matt embark on the most dangerous of treasure hunts...
Kenneth Oppel’sAirborn won a Printz Honor Award, and the Canadian Governor General’s Prize. Itssequel,Skybreaker, wasa New York Times bestseller. His Silverwing trilogy hassold over 1 million copies worldwide, andhas been adapted as an animatedTV series and stage play. Movie rights in This Dark Endeavour have been bought by theproducers of Twilight. Read the author's biography here.
