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(1967- ) Canadian author most of whose early work, beginning with an adolescent fantasy, Colin's Fantastic Video Adventure (1985), comprises Young Adult fantasy series, including the Silverwing Universe sequence [not listed below] and the Matt Curse sequence beginning with Airborn (2004), a Steampunk sequence set in an Alternate History version of Victorian England dominated by Airships, at least one of them being a Ship of Fools. The Apprenticeship of Victor Frankenstein sequence beginning with This Dark Endeavor (2011) recasts the early years of the Baron into Young Adult terms, romance elements being conspicuous. Of Oppel's nonseries titles, The Boundless (2014) features a Steampunk-inflected nineteenth-century Canadian landscape dominated by a nine-mile-long train (see Transportation). The Overthrow sequence beginning with Bloom (2020) follows the trials and tribulations of a group of Mutant teenagers who may become a Superhero team; but first they must cope with an Alien attempt to turn Earth into a plantation – Thomas M Disch's The Genocides (1966) may have provided a model here – as well as a Mad Scientist who runs the Keep in which they have been enclosed; fortunately, some of the aliens are opposed to genocide, and hope dawns. [JC]
born Port Alberni, British Columbia: 31 August 1967
works (selected)
series
Matt Cruse
The Apprenticeship of Victor Frankenstein
The Overthrow
individual titles
links
Entry from The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (2011-current) edited by John Clute and David Langford.
Accessed 19:10 pm on 24 April 2024.
<https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/oppel_kenneth>