About the book and audiobook
The Story
Kazen doesn’t want a fight. He doesn’t want exile from his family. He doesn’t want to be hunted. And he certainly doesn’t want to climb a rope ladder hundreds of feet above the ocean.
But he does wonder if the age of airships has really ended forever.
Sometimes, curiosity leads him to the next page of a hidden manuscript. Sometimes, curiosity leads him into a boat or plane, with gunfire close at hand. For Kazen, curiosity is not a choice. It’s the key to unlocking his country’s violent history, and his family’s controversial role in it. But curiosity is something more.
It’s his only way to survive.
How to Read It or Hear It
Amazon currently allows you to sample the first 70+ pages for free.
Behind the Scenes
Hello, my name is Logan Hayward. I wrote and produced Kazen Dayl and the Admiral of the Air over the course of 13+ years. I began the first draft in October 2011, during freshman year of college. After finishing the first draft in June 2019, I revised the story multiple times, often after the kids had gone to bed.
I started working with an illustrator, Charles Wenaas, in 2022. Charlie and I go way back. He did an excellent job, and you can view his amazing work in the gallery on the home page, and in the book itself.
I recorded the first draft of the audiobook at Lotown Studios in St. Louis, Missouri, in August 2023. After more revisions, the final product reached completion in early 2025.
Above, you can watch a brief sample of me recording Chapter 23 in the studio. Can you guess which accent I was attempting?