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Column: Letters from the Editor   Highly Recommended: Full Cast Audio By Louis Vitela Published: 2008-03-12

If you have young readers in your house you may well have heard of Bruce Coville, beloved author of Aliens Ate my Homework, Goblins in the Castle, and the recently-published Jennifer Murdley’s Toad (co-authored with Gary A. Lippincott). Bruce wrote me some months ago after spotting my column reviewing Graphic Audio’s production of Infinite Crisis. Bruce informed me that he has his own audio book production company called Full Cast Audio and invited me to peruse the catalog for material to review.

The Full Cast Audio catalog is all about books with family appeal: there’s not a grown-ups-only piece in the whole bunch. From the FAQ at fullcastaudio.com: “Can an intelligent adult and an intelligent ten year old listen to a book at the same time with equal enjoyment and a lack of embarrassment?” Unlike Graphic Audio’s aural rendering of Infinite Crisis, Full Cast Audio’s books don’t use any special effects, but they do &mdash as promised by their name — use an entire cast of actors, as many actors as there are characters in the book.

So it was that the Full Cast Audio production of Kenneth Oppel’s Airborn found its way to my car stereo.

Airborn follows the adventures of Matt Cruse, a teenaged cabin boy aboard Aurora, a luxury liner. (Incidentally, Aurora is not your standard, run-of-the-mill luxury liner. In this world, all the luxury liners fly.) In the course of his duties, Mr. Cruse meets young, pretty, and wealthy passenger Kate, who (in a very unladlylike manner) happens to be in scientific pursuit of a strange, never-before-seen flying creature. Kate, the more reckless of the two, unerringly leads Matt into non-stop trouble with monsters and murderous sky pirates, making for great adventure.

Despite the page-turner of a story, the most compelling aspect of Airborn is Oppel’s excellent characters. Some characters seemed only placeholders, not demonstrating much depth because the story didn’t demand it (Aurora’s Captain Walken comes to mind). Yet Matt (who is also the narrator), was written so honestly there were times I found myself a little unsettled, as if I’d somehow voyeured into a humble teenager’s thoughts and that I shouldn’t be there. As much as I enjoyed the adventure, it was this honesty that kept me turning the pages.

Airborn as an audio book is simply excellent. Of particular note is the casting, which was so well done that I can’t imagine different voices filling the roles. David Kelly’s voice work as Matt Cruse was perfect. He’s not only the right age for the part, but his choices in inflection and phrasing made him a perfect steward for this story and Oppel’s honest writing. Rachel Moulton as the outgoing and outspoken Kate was also excellent and acted the perfect foil to soft-spoken Matt. The quality of the recording itself was excellent and the intro/outro music was well done and served its purpose of separating chapters without jarring the listener. The actors were clearly engaged in their roles and I marveled at how the voices gave me such a clear mental image of each character.

How much did I enjoy Airborn? Once I was drawn into the story, I found I couldn’t spend enough time in the car and carried the set of CDs with me everywhere in hopes of finding time and space to hear the next chapter. In order to satiate myself I did what any sane person might do: I purchased the book version of Airborn so I could continue to pursue the story even while far away from CDs and player. I didn’t stop there: as soon as I had completed the journey through both book and Full Cast Audio production, I went Googling for more Matt and Kate adventures and found Skybreaker, an equally compelling adventure, that alas exists so far only in printed book form, not as a cool FCA audio book.

I can only assume that other Full Cast Audio books are as compelling and entertaining as this one. I’ll be buying from their catalog soon, not only for myself but as gifts for the young readers in my life.

Please visit fullcastaudio.com to learn more about Full Cast Audio and to peruse their catalog. There’s an official web site for Airborn and Skybreaker at www.airborn.ca, very nicely done in Flash.