AIRMAN by EOIN COLFER
Puffin hardback, 432pp, RRP £10.99

Reviewed by Iain Emsley

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Eoin Colfer’s Airman is a wonderful novel which is greater than the sum of its parts, half quasi-historical novel and half steampunk fantasy. Set on the Saltee Islands off the Atlantic coast of Ireland, Colfer creates an alternate history of derring-do and great invention.

On the island of Great Saltee, Conor Broekhart saves Princess Isabella form blowing herself up but gets caught up in the coup lead by Bonvilain the chancellor. Exiled to Little Saltee, Conor is targeted for being beaten to death by hired thugs but, under the sea in a diving bell, he persuades his attacker to pretend as they plot his escape whilst diving for diamonds.

During the evening he befriends his next-door cellmate, Linus Wynter, who helps him both inside the prison and after his release. Meanwhile, Bonvilain plans to complete his coup by using Conor’s father to kill his son and depose Isabella, now the queen of the islands. Completing his escape by constructing a glider, Conor begins to construct a rudimentary airplane to get rid of Bonvilain and restore his family.

There are hints of Alexander Dumas’s The Man in the Iron Mask in the prison of Little Saltee and in Conor’s need for revenge. There’s also a hint of Jules Verne in the making of the aircraft and its use as a vehicle for progress. Despite the optimism, Colfer is sanguine about its potential misuse by the people, commenting on the largely ignored thuggish class and trying to show how they can be helped out of crime by education and patience.

Part of the book’s charm is the steampunk attitude that Colfer has towards his flying creations. They move beyond being exercises in wonder and transform him into a proto-Batman or Rocketeer. Conor creates an alter ego to correct injustice, although he does reveal his identity towards the end of the book. It gives the book a sense of exhilaration as well as colliding the sealed Medieval world and with Victorian era technological progress.

A quick Google search reveals the real Saltee Islands, but Colfer creates an alternate history for them which mirrors their current status. Using this history he avoids the various archetypal stories into which he could fall into whilst making the reader curious about the world he has created. Colfer brings the world into some sort of synchronicity with his move towards an industrialised Glasgow.

The quiet medieval world of the Saltees is shattered with the coming of the outside world, and Colfer creates a sense of mischief by setting the children trying to correct the world against the tricked and deluded adults. There’s a sense that Airman may develop into another series and - if so - I can’t wait.

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Iain Emsley is a former Reviews Editor for Interzone. He has a blog called Yatterings, where he posts interviews and genre fiction news. He is currently researching a history of fantasy in children’s literature.

Tags: Airman • book • Eoin Colfer • Fantasy • historical • review • steampunk • YA • young adult