Synopsis: Conor Broekhart was born in the air in the midst of a life and death struggle between earth and air; it is a circumstance that is to become habit. Raised in the rough luxury of the smallest and most provincial royal court in Europe, an idyllic childhood looks set to give way to a gifted adulthood, before a bloody act of betrayal leads to the death of the King and Conor’s own encarceration in the prison mines of Little Saltee. In a claustrophobic and cruel world, the boy is burned away, but a man shall arise to take his revenge and bring the villain to justice: a strong man, a hard man; the Airman.

Review: Eoin Colfer abandons his beloved realms of contemporary fantasy for the more venerable swashbuckling genre with Airman, a tale of derring do and vile villainy inspired by the Count of Monte Cristo and a blend of industrial revolutionary invention and wild, Irish landscape. Although, as the author himself admits, Colfer has failed to entirely shed his trademark whimsical humour, Airman is an altogether darker piece than is his usual fare and regular readers should be aware of the difference.

With that caveat, there are still a great many thrills and spills to be enjoyed among the dismal tunnels and moments of despair, and the ultimate triumph of good over evil pays off in ripping style. There are surprisingly few straight fight scenes for a swashbuckler, but plenty of daredevil escapes and much is made of the hero’s use of sophisticated gadgetry, a trick which loses nothing from the fact that the technology involved is fairly commonplace to the modern reader. Perhaps Colfer’s greatest achievemen in Airman is not the plot – which while gripping is not exactly revolutionary – but in making the reader – well, this reader anyway – truly feel that a primitive microlight really is that big of a deal.

Conor Broekhart walks the line between dashing hero and scarred old lag, aided in maintaining the balance of virtue by the sheer awfulness of Marshal Bonvillain. (Plus, props for having the sheer front to call the wonderfully hissable villain – yes, he’s a villain who gloats, because he enjoys it – ‘good villain’.) Minor characters are also well-served, from Conor’s scientist mother and honourable, upright father to the damsel in distress who throws down on the villain at the end.

Airman is probably more suitable to a slightly older readership than Artemis Fowl, but largely because of its historical setting and romantic overtones; its darkness is not unpleasant. It is a gripping adventure with aspects of early superhero fiction (which of course in its turn was influenced by swashbucklers) which will appeal to teenage readers as well as ageing serial hacks like me.

S F Said in The Guardian

Amanda Craig in The Times

You Tube Trailer

2007-11-30