Tom Derringer and the Aluminum Airship

by Lawrence Watt-Evans

When he was eight years old, Tom Derringer discovered his father's journal and learned that the late Jack Derringer was a professional adventurer. For the next eight years Tom studied and trained to follow in his father's footsteps.Then in 1882, when a mysterious flying object appeared in the Arizona sky, Tom set out after it -- and he and his plucky companion Betsy Vanderhart found themselves pursuing a would-be conqueror through the skies and jungles of Mexico...

266 pages, Paperback

First published November 17, 2014

About the author

Also publishes as Nathan Archer

Reviews

[Dale Russell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Engendering flashbacks to the days of the Hardy Boys, Tom Swift, Jr., and their contemporaries, Lawrence Watt-Evans has brought to life a fun and exciting new character in Tom Derringer...NOT to be confused with Deringer, the creator of the well known pistol!!!

At the age of 8, Tom wants to be an adventurer like his late father. With the help of his very supportive mother...and some training reminiscent of Clark Savage, Jr. and Bruce Wayne he spends the next several years acquiring the skills that he will need to enter the world he desires.

The story has it all...early airships...jungle action...foreign countries...and even moments with lost civilizations.

If you're looking for that escape from the daily grind in a truly enjoyable world then snap this up. Plus...with Lawrence working on, and promising new stories in the future, this could be, as the saying goes, "The Start of Something Good".

[Aaron · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an enjoyable YA novel, and while steampunk in nature, it is mild and pleasant. The tech is pragmatic and believable, but, as with all of Mr. Watt-Evans' work, there is magic or at least the surprising and unreal as well with hints of potential adventures in the future for young Mr. Darringer with two r's.

[Howard Brazee · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a new novel in the style of old adventure serials. Tom Derringer is a young adventurer following in his father's footsteps. The bad guys got some aluminum from a city that disappears and reappears different places, and created an aluminum airship with plans of creating an empire from the Mayan rebellion against Diaz's Mexico. This was right before Alcoa was formed, and aluminum was more expensive than gold.

Quite fun.

I got the e-book, which had some formatting issues with the first words in some paragraphs, especially the last chapter (and including the first word in the book). The printed copy has a font the author bought specifically for the book, but I haven't seen it.

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

A light steampunk YA that reminds me of an updated Tom Swift. He's done light-hearted better in With a Single Spell, Ithanalin's Restoration and others.

[Stephen Graham · Rating 4 out of 5]

Works well as a YA steampunk novel. Good feel for the era and how someone from that era would write. I think it would work slightly better for me if the protagonist was slightly older, eighteen rather than sixteen.

[Dan]

Normally I like this author, but the style on this one didn't work for me.
Here's an excerpt of the protagonist's mother talking to her eight-year-old son:

"You have read my dear Jackie's journals; you know what became of Ebenezer Dawes, and the Fancher brothers, and the crew of the Iapetus. Rest assured, my son, that there were many others in the adventurer's trade besides those who died inglorious deaths through some tiny slip, some minuscule gap in their education, some tiny shortcoming in their skills. You are my beloved son, and it would please me to see you live a long and quiet life, untroubled by any extraordinary risk, but you are your father's son, and blood will tell. If I were to attempt to keep you at home one moment longer than you choose..."

It goes on like this for quite a bit more.

So the lesser problem here is that people don't actually talk like this, and in particular they don't talk like this to eight-year-old boys. The greater problem is that this is boring, and I am bored reading it, and I don't want to read a whole book full of people declaiming like this.

I read a few more pages after the mother stopped talking, but the narrator talks in basically the same voice, so I gave up on it.