Passarola Rising

Azhar Abadi (author)

Viking/Penguin, Australia: 2006; 244pp

ISBN: 067004296X 

Note: extension vocabulary & concepts

Genres: adventure, historical fiction, science

Issues: corruption, determination, ethics, relationships

Alexandre Lourenco accompanies his older brother, Bartolomeu, on some astonishing trips in his incredible flying ship, the Passarola. While Bartolomeu is a dedicated, dispassionate scientist whose love of flying is mostly to do with making discoveries and investigating the unknown, Alexandre has a more romantic nature. His joy lies in the adventures, the experiences - remarkable sights, sounds, smells, visions and hallucinations experienced at the greatest heights.

Such adventurous journeys are not popular with the Church and Bartolomeu, himself an ordained priest, finds that they must flee the Inquisition who seem to regard scientific enquiry into the physical nature of the heavens as sacrilege. The brothers seek refuge in Paris where they are befriended by some of the greatest figures of the Age of Enlightenment - Louis the XIV, Voltaire, King Stanislaus of Poland and others. They explore the North Pole and test the affect of altitude on gravity.

As their journeys progress, however, Alexandre realises that, much as he loves his brother, their natures are in many ways too different to allow this partnership to continue. Knowing he cannot have both worlds, Alexandre must make a choice - but can he give up the sky as readily as his brother has abandoned the Earth and its pleasures?

Richly detailed descriptions immerse the reader in the society and culture of the time. Abadi shows the power of the church and kings over even relatively independent men and the influence of social constructs and accepted ideas of the time on their expectations and thinking. The whimsical involvement of ‘famous faces' of the period demonstrates both solid research and a rich imagination.

An interesting, very readable novel, out of the mainstream of this genre.