Colfer is the Artemis Fowl author. This book could be classified Young Adult.

Airman is an historical adventure novel set in the 19th century.

Connor Broekhart was born to fly. In fact he was born in a hot air balloon.

Wrongly imprisoned, he invents a (highly unlikely) way to escape a prison island. By flying.

This is a lightweight but creative novel. It did keep me going.

The villain, Bonvilain, is the most entertaining character.