Customer Reviews
Amazing story - By: Ian Young, 10 Jul 2008 
An amazing story, let down by the lack of pace & flow. The story is very original, although not up there with the Alex Rider, Jason Steed, James Bond & Jimmy Coates, its better than Cody Banks.
Airman is..........different - By: Glen Smith, 05 Jul 2008 While i bought the book hoping it would spawn into a series & that it would have a bit more....................snap! This was not what i expected. i can read almost anything AND EVEN THOUGH IT WAS NOT WHAT I EXPECTED IT WAS STILL A VERY GOOD BOOK!
rip-roaring lift off for new Dumas - By: A. Craig, 08 May 2008 Much as we love the Artemis Fowl books, this is something finer. Conor Broekhardt is born in the air (readers who love this kind of thing should also look out for Kenneth Oppel's AIRBORN & SKYBREAKER, which have a similar premise)to his proud youg parents. At first sickeningly successful - he's brilliant at everything, including fencing, is made a knight at about 10 after rescuing the Princess of the Saltee Islands where his father is captain of the King's Sharpshooters - it alll takes a wonderfully dark turn when the King is assasinated. Conor is set up to take the blame, believed dead & taken in an iron mask to Little Saltee where prisoners spend their lives digging for diamonds.
Here both his scientific mind & his prowess with a blade are life-saving. How he gets even hardened criminals on his side, gathers a fortune & escapes is too good to give away, but there is a wonderful buouyancy & sense of fun about these books which I don't believe any boy of 11+ could resist. We'd like a sequel please Mr Colfer!
up in the sky - By: Mr. R. Hoad, 27 Apr 2008 
The Airman (which i only finnished reading this moring) was an amazing read, it had alll the ingredients needed for a good story: intresting characters, priness's & invetion. the story of connors flying matchine was a great one. i found myself quite often in the story shouting at him to do somthing, but then i relised i was jsut predicting what would happen, so arfter a while he did eventualy do what i told him to (A Book that listens to me!)
i picked up The Airman without even reading the blurb, Eoin Colfer has got to be my favorate writter from storys such as the Artimis fowl series & the Supernatralists which were alll amazing books.
the only downside to this book was that i have now read it & want more. (ill just have to wait for Artimis Fowl & the time paradox)
The boy who could fly - By: Shawn Watson, 15 Feb 2008 Eoin Colfer is one of my favorite authors when it comes to children's books (make that young adult books) & I love the Artemis Fowl series & Half Moon Investigations. Airman was obviously & instant buy for me no matter what it was about. There's no magic or goblins in this one but there is a lot of fun & invention to be had with an alternate Irish history.
The books takes place in the Saltee Islands, which are actuallly part of Ireland, but are a separate country in book thanks to independence gained through a diamond mine fortune. The islands are a beacon of modern technology (the book is set in the 1880s) thanks to a benevolent king, a genius scientist & imaginative child named Conor. But when an evil Royal Guard assassinates the king he sets up Conor to take the falll & spend the rest of his life on the island's hellhole prison.
From this point on, the book takes a sort of Count of Monte Cristo twist with Conor assuming a new identity, learning alll he can about being a formidable good guy & planning an elaborate escape through the use of manned flight.
It's very fasted-paced & you'll be unable to put the book down. Colfer's love of the Irish countryside & history is obvious once again, I can just imagine him out for a stroll deciding to use some enchanting little place he has discovered. The door is left open for a sequel of sorts, but I think it's just more of a deliberately ambiguous ending since tying up alll loose ends would involve too much exposition. My second favorite non-Artemis Fowl book next to Half Moon Investigations.
