Book Review: Airman by Eoin Colfer

Hi all! Hope your days are going well. I just wanted to inform you all of a little change I am going to developing on my blog and what better day to introduce a change to your blog than on the first day of the shortest month of the year, right? 😉

Nonetheless, I have decided to start doing book reviews on my blog. And today I am going to be publishing my first book review: Airman by Eoin Colfer.

I will be publishing at least one book review per month or two per month, but we will see how it all pans out.

Nevertheless, let’s go on to the book review and I hope you all enjoy it! 🙂

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Airman: Invention of the Century

            Often many people will have read Eoin (pronounced Owen) Colfer’s Artemis Fowl series and enjoyed it thoroughly. Well, most of them would have enjoyed it anyway. And if they are searching for another one of Colfer’s masterpieces, then it is better to let their first pick be Airman. Why? Well, read on to find out.

            Set in the 19th century at Saltee Islands, Airman by Eoin Colfer describes our main character, Conor Broekhart, peacefully passing his days in his youth when he is caught up in a plot to overthrow the king. To make it worse, when he tries to foil the rebellion, he fails and is wrongly accused and convicted of taking part in the rebellion. He is then sent to prison to work in a diamond mine and die there. However, as most youths are, Conor is a rebellious fellow and refuses to let other people decide his fate, a conviction he reached after gaining courage and help from a close friend. From thereon, he turns into a mastermind, plotting strategies and secretly working on an escape route from the diamond mine all while gaining allies along the way.

            Although this may seem like a typical fiction novel, its content and setting set it apart from countless other books. The content not only included physical action, which is to be expected of an action genre book but also detailed the mental aspect of the book. It went into quite a bit of detail of the strategies Conor devised for escape, which was a nice change to see than a purely physical action book. Another aspect of the book that immensely appealed to me was the importance of minor characters in the book. Characters who only got a little screen time (or reading time in this case) were really important to the development of the plot, cases being “Uncle”’s and the prisoner made warden in the book. Although you may not know some of these characters now, you will definitely appreciate these characters having significant parts in the plot despite having less screen time than other characters.

            To add to Colfer’s achievements, Airman was also shortlisted for the 2009 Carnegie Medal, a British literary award that recognizes an outstanding new book for children or young adults (Google). Although Airman couldn’t grab the medal, even being nominated is a big achievement. I am also sure that most of you have either heard of and/or read Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson. Reading Airman kind of reminded me of Treasure Island with similarities occurringg in rebellions, smart main characters, and an intricate plot. And being compared to Treasure Island is a feat in itself!

            I would definitely recommend this book to Artemis Fowl’s fans and action, adventure, and fiction fans alike. This book gets a 5/5 star rating from me!

            And to top it all off, Publishers Weekly says about Airman, “Starred review. Artemis Fowl fans will flock to this novel, and the polished, sophisticated storytelling here deserves an even wider audience than that bestseller. Conor Broekhart’s superpower is his brain, and he uses his smarts to fight tyranny. A tour de force. Ages 10-up.” A tour de force, indeed!