The third and final book in the trilogy; Matt Cruse is again the main character in this mix of Jules Verne and Victorian steampunk. No longer a cabin boy, Matt is now studying at the academy to become an airship officer but ends up recruited to test for the Canadian space program - Canada has constructed a cable to outer space by tethering it to a rocket in geosynchronous orbit, and constructing the Starclimber ship, which will travel up and down the cable. Kate de Vries is offered a spot due to her high altitude zoological studies, but her parents will only allow her to go if she agrees to get engaged to rich and handsome James Sanderson. Meanwhile Matt has to beat out 100 other candidates (or at least 97 of them) in a series of rigorous testing and training exercises to get one of the three Astralnaut seats on board. They're back together once again with Captain Walken and, oddly, chef Vlad and facing a new series of problems and challenges as they ascend beyond the atmosphere and beyond gravity to plant the Canadian flag in space.

While still a fun book, I didn't enjoy this quite as much as the others. Kate is annoying and the pair of them behave very stupidly about their developing feelings for each other. The plot moves a bit more slowly due to half of it being spent in training, and some of the other characters are also a bit annoying. And the monkey just seems juvenile and unnecessary. Still, it was another fun read and a good conclusion to the trilogy.