Skybreaker: Difference between revisions

Skybreaker
	Skybreaker first edition cover.
Author	Kenneth Oppel
Cover artist	Kirk Caldwell
Sprache	Englisch
Series	Matt Cruse series
Genre	Fantasy, adventure novel, steampunk, science fiction
Publisher	HarperCollins
Publication date	July 20, 2005
Publication place	Kanada
Media type	Print (hardcover & paperback); Audiobook
Pages	340 pp (first edition)
ISBN	978-0-00-200699-6
OCLC	59136517
Preceded by	Airborn
Followed by	Starclimber

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Skybreaker, sequel to Airborn, is a young adult fantasy novel written by Canadian author Kenneth Oppel. It continues the adventures of young airship student Matt Cruse, and Kate de Vries, a budding scientist.

Publication history

Skybreaker was first released in Canada in September 2005. It was shortly followed releases in the United Kingdom and the United States in September and December 2005, respectively. Below are the release details for the first edition hardback and paperback copies in these three publication regions.

2005, CAN, HarperCollins ISBN 978-0-00-200699-6, Pub. date July 20, 2005, Hardback
2005, UK, Hodder Children's Books ISBN 978-0-340-87857-6, Pub. date September 15, 2005, Hardback
2005, US, Eos ISBN 978-0-06-053227-7, Pub. date November 29, 2005, Hardback
2006, CAN, HarperCollins ISBN 978-0-00-639402-0, Pub. date August 17, 2006, Paperback
2006, UK, Hodder Children's Books ISBN 978-0-340-87858-3, Pub. date September 7, 2006, Paperback
2007, US, Eos ISBN 978-0-06-053229-1, Pub. date January 2, 2007, Paperback

External links

Official series website at the Wayback Machine (archived 2008-04-23)

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
+{{short description|2005 novel by Kenneth Oppel}}
-{{Confusing|date=February 2009}}
 {{Infobox book| <!-- See Wikipedia:WikiProject_Novels or Wikipedia:WikiProject_Books -->
 | name          = Skybreaker
@@ Line 12: / Line 11: @@
 | language      = [[English language|English]]
 | series        = ''Matt Cruse'' series
-| genre         = [[Fantasy novel|Fantasy]], [[Adventure novel]], [[Steampunk]], science fiction
+| genre         = [[Fantasy novel|Fantasy]], [[adventure novel]], [[steampunk]], [[science fiction]]
 | publisher     = [[HarperCollins]]
 | release_date  = July 20, 2005
-| media_type    = Print (hardback & paperback)<br>[[Audiobook]]
+| media_type    = Print (hardcover & paperback)<br>[[Audiobook]]
 | pages         = 340 pp ''(first edition)''
 | isbn          = 978-0-00-200699-6
@@ Line 23: / Line 22: @@
 }}
-'''''Skybreaker''''', sequel to ''[[Airborn (Kenneth Oppel novel)|Airborn]]'', is a fantasy novel for [[Young adult literature|young adults]] and [[Adolescence|adolescents]] written by [[Canadian]] author [[Kenneth Oppel]]. It continues the adventures of young [[airship]] student Matt Cruse, and Kate de Vries, a would-be scientist.
+'''''Skybreaker''''', sequel to ''[[Airborn (Kenneth Oppel novel)|Airborn]]'', is a [[Young adult literature|young adult]] fantasy novel written by [[Canadians|Canadian]] author [[Kenneth Oppel]]. It continues the adventures of young [[airship]] student Matt Cruse, and Kate de Vries, a budding scientist.
-==Plot summary==
-Using reward money from the [[Airborn (Oppel novel)|discovery of Vikram Szpirglas' pirate base]], Matt Cruse is attending the Airship Academy in [[Paris, France|Paris]]. While travelling through a storm in the [[Indian Ocean]], his training vessel is caught in a [[vertical draft]] revealing a large airship drifting at 20,000 feet. Deducing that it is the ''Hyperion'', a long-lost ship said to be carrying great riches, the captain steers towards it to attempt a boarding. However, Matt is forced to descend when the rest of the crew members are stricken with [[altitude sickness]]. Upon returning to Paris, Matt meets with Kate de Vries, his friend and object of affection, to discuss the ''Hyperion'''s billionaire owner Theodore Grunel. Kate announces that she plans to find "Grunel's treasure" using co-ordinates that Matt remembers in a special ship called a Skybreaker that will allow them to reach high altitudes safely.
-Matt receives a request from a claimed descendant of Grunel. When they meet, the man reveals himself to be a criminal named John Rath and tries to force Matt to give up the co-ordinates. Matt escapes with a [[Romani people|gypsy]] girl named Nadira who claims to have a key that works on the ''Hyperion'' and proposes her own plan to find it. Matt initially declines but changes his mind when he overhears a warm conversation between Kate and a wealthy acquaintance named Hal Slater. Matt and Nadira search for a Skybreaker named the ''Sagarmatha'' moored in Paris, but when they find it, they learn that Hal is the captain. Matt, Kate, Nadira and Kate's chaperone, Ms. Simpkins, hire Hal and his [[Sherpa people|Sherpa]] crew to fly them to the ''Hyperion'' and promise Hal 80% of the gold they discover. Although Kate temporarily allays Matt's fears, he sees her develop an increasing rapport with Hal and becomes jealous. Matt begins to accept romantic advances from Nadira which culminates in a kiss between them in the crow's nest.
-Matt brings his co-ordinates to Dorje, the First Mate, who [[fluid dynamics|factors in the wind speed]] to calculate the ''Hyperion'''s trajectory. This brings the ''Sagarmatha'' into "Skyberia", a cold and desolate area around the [[Antarctic]]. Dalkey, one of the pilots, traverses the outside of the ship to remove a rudder blockage and sees that it is a large squid-like creature. The creature electrocutes Dalkey with one of its tentacles and flies away under the propulsion of hydrium. Kate coins the term "aerozoan" for this species and observes more of them travelling the Antarctic skies. As the crew members mourn the loss of Dalkey, they enlist Matt to help fill his spot. Matt begins a night shift in the crow's nest when the crew suspects the ''Hyperion'' of being closeby. However, he is unable to see it soon enough and the much larger ship grazes the ''Sagarmatha''. Destroying one of the engines, this forces Hal to give up on towing the ''Hyperion'' and attempt a mid-air boarding instead. Kate chastises Matt for damaging the ship as their relationship continues to falter.
-Hal, Kate, Matt and Nadira board the ''Hyperion'' and enter the vaults using Nadira's key. They find small pieces of [[taxidermy]], which Kate carries back to the ''Sagarmatha'', as well as some larger ones including the intact body of a [[yeti]]. In a room called the engineerium, they find a large key-activated machine that produces heat and a glass chamber housing the limp bodies of four aerozoans. Hal raids the master bedroom, blowing its safe open with [[dynamite]] and prying a pocket watch from the hands of the frozen Theodore Grunel. When Matt tries to read a set of blueprints he finds in a canister, Hal angrily dismisses them and sends the canister into one of the ship's [[pneumatic tube]]s. With Hal consumed by his lust for gold, the others read Grunel's diary and see frequent mention of a powerful enemy named "B". They dismiss this as a product of Grunel's diseased mind. The four climb out of the hatch but its connection to the ''Sagarmatha'' breaks under the wind and they are forced to spend the night on the ''Hyperion'' while low on food and oxygen reserves. Matt tries to comfort Kate but she lashes out and reveals that she knows about Matt kissing Nadira. Matt apologizes and Kate refers to Hal as "a bully", leading to a reconciliation between the two.
-That night, the travellers learn that machine they are using for heat is "Grunel's treasure"; a [[fuel cell]] capable of producing vast amounts of hydrium and not a vault full of gold. They realize that its design is inspired by the aerozoans in the adjacent chamber. While they search for the blueprints, one of the aerozoans [[cryptobiosis|comes back to life]] and breaks through the glass, forcing them to flee the engineerium. Before they can regroup, John Rath's airship, having pursued them all along, arrives and shoots down the ''Sagarmatha''. From their hiding place, Hal, Kate, Matt and Nadira hear the ship being boarded by Rath's pirates and their employer Barton who goes by "B". Barton reveals that, as the head of the hydrium consortium, he plans to maintain his monopoly by destroying Grunel's invention along with its blueprints. With Hal's hubris deflated by their peril, he confides in his friends that the bank will [[foreclose]] on the ''Sagarmatha'' if he comes back emptyhanded.
-The four of them split up and Matt is able to retrieve the blueprints. After he places them in Hal's backpack, the pirates announce that they have taken Kate as a hostage. Leaving Hal to tend to Nadira, who is suffering from altitude sickness, Matt sneaks into the engineerium and sees that the floorboards are concealing a fortune in gold [[bullion]]. Matt shoots the glass to free the remaining three aerozoans and escapes with Kate during the distraction. The aerozoans kill Barton and all of the pirates except for Rath. Rath returns to the ship and attempts to destroy the blueprints by scuttling the ''Hyperion'' before anyone can escape. As the ship explodes, Hal, Kate and Matt carry Nadira to the hangar where there is a pedal-powered [[ornithopter]] to facilitate their escape. Matt takes Hal's backpack in order to use the dynamite to blow open the hangar doors. Another explosion ejects the ornithopter from the ''Hyperion'' before Matt can climb aboard and he narrowly escapes with the help of a [[wingsuit]].
-The four make it back to the ''Sagarmatha'' having been repaired by Dorje and Ms. Simpkins. When they are unable to find Grunel's blueprints, Matt confesses that they were in the backpack Hal tossed to him. Hal berates Matt for not holding onto the backpack and not salvaging gold from the engineerium when he had the chance. He dismisses Kate's protests and says that her focus on pleasures other than money has ruined him. Matt and Kate leave him and head back to the hangar of the ''Sagarmatha''. There, they find that their newly acquired ornithopter has a compartment on it holding 40 gold bricks. They decide to savour the moment before telling Hal.
-==Characters in ''Skybreaker''==
-* '''Matt Cruse''' A young adventurous boy who finds the ghost ship ''Hyperion''.
-* '''Kate de Vries''' A passenger on the ''Aurora'', Kate discovered the cloud cat, and is now looking for more specimens. She provides the money for the trip.
-* '''Miss Marjorie Simpkins''' Kate's chaperone.
-* '''Nadira Szpirglas''' A mysterious young woman, Nadira finds Matt so they can set up an expedition together. She provides the key.
-* '''Dorje Tenzing''' A Sherpa member of Hal's crew on board the ''Sagarmatha''.
-* '''John Rath''' A man looking for money and hoping to take it from the ''Hyperion''.
-* '''George Barton''' An old rival of Theodore Grunel.
-* '''Theodore Grunel''' A slightly eccentric inventor who sailed away on the ''Hyperion'' in order to escape Barton, Grunel is frozen on the ''Hyperion''.
-* '''Hal Slater''' Owner of the ''Sagarmatha'', a skybreaker.
 == Publication history ==
@@ Line 57: / Line 29: @@
 {{refbegin}}
-*2005, CAN, HarperCollins ISBN 978-0-00-200699-6, Pub. date July 20, 2005, Hardback
+*2005, CAN, HarperCollins {{ISBN|978-0-00-200699-6}}, Pub. date July 20, 2005, Hardback
-*2005, UK, Hodder Children's Books ISBN 978-0-340-87857-6, Pub. date September 15, 2005, Hardback
+*2005, UK, Hodder Children's Books {{ISBN|978-0-340-87857-6}}, Pub. date September 15, 2005, Hardback
-*2005, US, Eos ISBN 978-0-06-053227-7, Pub. date November 29, 2005, Hardback
+*2005, US, Eos {{ISBN|978-0-06-053227-7}}, Pub. date November 29, 2005, Hardback
-*2006, CAN, HarperCollins ISBN 978-0-00-639402-0, Pub. date August 17, 2006, Paperback
+*2006, CAN, HarperCollins {{ISBN|978-0-00-639402-0}}, Pub. date August 17, 2006, Paperback
-*2006, UK, Hodder Children's Books ISBN 978-0-340-87858-3, Pub. date September 7, 2006, Paperback
+*2006, UK, Hodder Children's Books {{ISBN|978-0-340-87858-3}}, Pub. date September 7, 2006, Paperback
-*2007, US, Eos ISBN 978-0-06-053229-1, Pub. date January 2, 2007, Paperback
+*2007, US, Eos {{ISBN|978-0-06-053229-1}}, Pub. date January 2, 2007, Paperback
 {{refend}}
+==See also==
+* ''[[Airborn (Kenneth Oppel novel)|Airborn]]''
+* ''[[Starclimber]]''
+* [[Kenneth Oppel]]
 ==External links==
-*[http://www.airborn.ca/ Official website for Airborn and Skybreaker]
+*{{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080423053832/http://www.airborn.ca/|title=Official series website|date=2008-04-23}}
-[[Category:2005 novels]]
+[[Category:2005 Canadian novels]]
 [[Category:Canadian fantasy novels]]
 [[Category:Alternate history novels]]
@@ Line 77: / Line 54: @@
 [[Category:Aviation novels]]
 [[Category:HarperCollins books]]
+[[Category:2005 children's books]]
+[[Category:Children's books about aviation]]
+[[Category:Children's books set in Paris]]
+[[Category:Children's books set in Antarctica]]
+[[Category:Novels set in Paris]]
+[[Category:Novels set in Antarctica]]
+[[Category:Forest of Reading Award-winning works]]