Neither thumbs up nor thumbs down for Airborn by Kenneth Oppel. Young adult science fiction.
Another in the steampunk line. Not bad, though for a book aimed at fourteen-year-old boys, I would have expected a little more swashbuckling. There’s nothing out of place that I can point to, I just wish it had been “gripping” rather than “mildly enjoyable.”
“Well, no, [grandfather] wasn’t [willing to take me on an expedition]. But even if he was, my parents wouldn’t have allowed it. They certainly don’t want me to study at university. All they want me to do is dress and behave appropriately and not embarrass them. My interests seem to embarrass them. And my talking. I’m always being told I’m saying the wrong thing, or at the wrong time, or too boldly. ‘Kate, you are too bold,’ my mother always says. She hates being embarrassed. She’d rather have the Black Death than be embarrassed. Though I suppose having the Black Death would be rather embarrassing in high society. The coughing and drooling and so on.”
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