Passarola Rising

Oh, do I have a fun read for you. I put it in the same category as Empires of Sand, for those who have been following my reviews for awhile now. It was a random buy when I was at Half Price Books a couple of weeks prior, and not all of my books were not available to me.

Passarola Rising is a historical adventure book about two brothers, born in Brazil with parents originally from Portugal, who wanted to see the world. Alexandre follows his older brother Bartolomeu to Portugal where the latter is a professor of sciences which in the 1700s is still a hard concept to accept when you have the Church to contend with. Building a flying ship in secret, the brothers take off for France on the Passarola, winning favor with the king there. What follows are some whirlwind adventures, such as rescuing the king Stanislaus and exploring the world beyond what has never been seen before at heights so high that their lives are continually at risk.

Passarola Rising, similar to Empires of Sand, is also a coming-of-age story for boys, girls, or whoever are looking for their place in the world. Alexandre, always willing to follow his brother wherever he goes knowing that a crazy adventure awaits them, still feels that there is something missing. He goes through life thinking that eventually he will settle down, get married, and have a family, but with Bartolomeu there is always something. Alexandre wants an identity of his own. In this case with Passarola Rising, [Spoiler] Alexandre returns to Brazil where he gets that marriage and a family. As life goes on though, he finds that although he returned home, being up in the skies with his brother was truly home; on the mature side of things, he recognizes that he has made his decisions and cannot go back on them. Meanwhile, Bartolomeu continued to explore in the Passarola, taking other scientists with him on previously done expeditions to secure believability.

I love the little humors in the danger of their lives, and even though the storyline is pretty original, there are familiar elements that play into it. An opposition to their advancements, “little” favors that are against their wishes for the ship that they lovingly created, the one expedition that tested the the concept of human endurance and willpower with the crushing negative reaction that follows, and the hard separation of the fantastic duo. All of that works because it is set in a different time and Azhar Abidi had the Passarola be an airship. I love early flying and airships. The one from The Mummy Returns was amazing. Such simple differences that make an entire world of difference.

I am keeping Passarola Rising and plan on reading it again. It was easy to start up and read through so I feel like it is a book that anyone could read and enjoy. If you want to check it out, you will find it here.

Have a great week everyone.

10/10