We have been reading Starclimber, by Kenneth Oppel. This is set in a time period when women have no rights to vote, and no one has ever been to outer space. Although this never happened in history, the only mode of air travel are ornithopters and airships. The main character is a 17 year old captain of an aerotug Atlas. When he and his girlfriend Kate de' Vries, who met in another airship called the Aurora, are offered a chance in space, both of them leap at the chance. However, there are about 150 men all trying out for the same spot. For a week, it's survival of the fittest. Kate is going as a high altitude zoologist, so she is going no questions asked. He makes a new friend, Tobias, and two adversaries, Shepherd and Bronfman, two test pilots and both are in the aeroforce. That's all I'm going to say right now to avoid any spoilers. In our book club we have been talking about the plot development. Oppel always has a twist at the end. To help us, we have been drawing what we think some of the machanical components would look like. We were also talking about the relationship between Kate and Matt. It is always there, you might not see it, but it's always there. So that's a quick run down of what we have been discussing.
We have been doing exactly what we have been doing and it works for us. Right now, we have finished the book, so we can't really say much without giving out spoilers. However it is a very good end to the trilogy. The other two books were Airborn and Skybreaker. In each book they get progressively higher. First book, it's the ground. Second book, 20,000 feet. Starclimber, 25,000 miles above the earth. In some of our designs of airships Matt might have, we incorperated the telescope devise from the second book. It took sunlight, air, and water, and makes more water, and hydrium, a very light gas that doesn't burn, and smells like mangoes. That's pretty much it. As I said, it's a great book, and you should read it.
