Airborn: The 200-Page Check-In (or, Why I Should Learn to Stick to the 100-Page Rule)

So I broke my 100-page rule on Airborn and kept reading even though I didn't think it was all that captivating. After all, there were pirates and an island shipwreck coming, so I hoped it would get better. Besides, I didn't have anything else to read.

Well, I've bought Matt Ruff's Bad Monkeys since then and made it through the pirates and the wreck. There are still 300 unread pages to Airborn, but I'm done with it. The pirates were exciting, but the shipwreck was not. In fact, calling it a shipwreck is an exaggeration.

It's more of a forced landing on an uncharted island where no one's really all that concerned about being there for very long. It's pretty much taken for granted that they'll be underway again as soon as they make repairs, so everything feels very controlled and safe. There's no danger or excitement to any of it. In fact, the whole episode feels like nothing more than an excuse for Matt and Kate to explore the island and discover a skeleton that matches the description of Grandpa's mysterious creature.

I like Oppel's description of the island with its lush greeness and abundant bird life, but Kate's reaction to the skeleton is hard to swallow. Rather than going back to the airship for help and securing a dozen witnesses to the find, Kate swears Matt to secrecy, saying that she's afraid the captain will "send some of the crew to come and collect the bones, and then it'll be taken from me."

Kate's major concern now isn't that her grandfather is vindicated, but that she get the credit for the find. That rubs me the wrong way for a couple of reasons. First is because the ship's captain has been consistently portrayed as a fair man. Kate may not get that, but Matt certainly does. He adores the captain, but he immediately caves to Kate's suspicions and doesn't defend the captain in any more than a cursory way.

The bigger reason that Kate's reaction irks me is that up until now her entire character has been built around her love for her grandfather and her desire to see that he has a positive legacy. Even that's been barely enough reason to like her since we've never seen her and her grandfather together. All that we know about their relationship is what she's told Matt, so we have no emotional investment in seeing her succeed in her quest.

And now, even if we've decided to accept her quest anyway and just try to go with it, her motivation changes so suddenly - it's all about her recognition and glory now - that I couldn't care less who learns about the skeleton or what happens to it. And since I'm now at the 200-page mark, it's as good a time as any to put the book down and move on to a secret organization that assassinates evil-doers.

Bad Monkeys and Cownt Fans

No real post tonight. Just want to say that Airborn ought to be looking over its shoulder. I just bought Matt Ruff's Bad Monkeys tonight and the first chapter is fantastic. Not sure I'm going to have the patience now to sit through much more of Airborn.

In other news, the Cownt now has a Facebook fan page thanks to Jess. If you're on the Facebook, I hope you'll add him.

Airborn: The 100-Page Check-In

For those who don't know, I have a rule for reading novels that I totally stole from Bookgasm: "If it’s not good by page 100, quit reading." I've used it four different times that I can remember and as I approached the hundredth page of Kenneth Oppel's Airborn, I honestly wasn't sure if this would be the fifth. SPOILERS BELOW (and not all from just the first 100 pages)

The book is set in an alternate reality in which airplanes were never invented and giant airships are the way people travel around the world. Matt Cruse is a cabin boy on such an airship, the Aurora. His father also sailed on Aurora before he died and Matt's dream is to work hard and eventually to rise even further in the ranks than his dad did.

Unfortunately for Matt, the owner of the shipline is displeased with the business sense of his son and has decided to punish him by putting him to work as an apprentice sailmaker on the Aurora. The very job Matt was hoping to get. One boy's punishment is Matt's missed opportunity for promotion, even though the Aurora's captain admits that he'd prefer Matt in the role.

It's hard to know what to make of Matt. He's overly perfect and that bores me. He's likable enough and not cocky, so I don't hate him, but everyone on board the airship loves him and he has precious few flaws. He also has no fear of heights, which - while a personal thing - is something that I can't relate to. He talks about being confident that if he were to fall out of an airship that the air itself would somehow lift him up. I'm not making fun of him - I see that Oppel's just trying to describe Matt's fearlessness in a way that keeps his endearing humility intact - but it's still completely foreign to me and I'm having a hard time buying Matt as a real person. I'm doing it, but with difficulty.

Matt's career is only a sub-plot though. The real story is a mystery concerning some as-yet-undiscovered air creatures. As the novel opens, Matt's on watch in the crow's nest and spots a small hot air balloon in distress. The Aurora moves in for a rescue attempt (that Matt achieves), but is too late to save the life of the balloon's elderly pilot. He dies, but not before whispering cryptically to Matt about the mysterious creatures.

A year later, the pilot's extremely wealthy, young granddaughter travels aboard the Aurora with a chaperon. Her secret reason for the trip, revealed to Matt once she learns his connection with her grandfather, is to retrace the old pilot's course and hopefully discover the creatures that obsessed him.

Though rich, granddaughter Kate is down-to-earth and kind. She's also pretty and adventure-loving. In short, she's just as perfect as Matt. Even her chaperon is perfect. Perfectly snooty anyway, as all older chaperons to pretty, young, rich girls must be in books.

And that's as far as I've got. A couple of likable, but not particularly captivating characters and a mystery that I don't especially care about either. Mysterious sky creatures? So what? The only reason I'd care about them is if I knew more about Grandpa. Why did he care about them? Why are they important? Matt's about to read the old man's journal, so maybe that'll solve the problem, but that comes after page 100. If I don't care by now, should I keep going?

Based solely on what I've read so far, the only thing that really interests me is the shipline owner's son. Rather than an arrogant, entitled jerk, he's self-deprecating and embarrassed by his father. Which makes Matt the jerk if he's going to continue to resent the other boy. I don't know that Matt will - he's already started to ease up in his animosity - but the question is the most interesting thing about Matt in a hundred pages. I suspect that Matt will forgive the boy and focus his energies elsewhere, but that's partly because I've cheated a little.

If I was going to obey the 100-Page Rule by the letter, I'd have to put Airborn down. It's not "good" by page 100. But the next book on my reading list hasn't arrived at the bookstore yet and Airborn isn't bad either. The potential for improvement is there; it may just be slower than it needs to be in getting there.

So, I did some research; read some reviews. There are pirates coming. And a shipwreck on a deserted island. That sounds good. Maybe I'll read that far and see if I care about Matt and Kate by then.

Unfortunately, I've also learned that Matt will apparently decide to go to school to improve his chances of promotion. That's why I suspect his relationship with the shipline owner's son will become a moot point.

School costs money that he doesn't have though. If only he knew someone rich...

For every potential enticement to keep going it seems that there's something making me nervous. This is a Young Adult novel and it looks like that doesn't include All-Ages. I should put it down.

But again, I don't yet own the next couple of books on my reading list. I think I'll check on them and keep reading in the meantime. Get through the shipwreck at least. See if the journal increases my interest. See if the pirates are cool.

I'll check back in once I've done that. It's breaking the rule, but I'm not really a stickler for rules.