Since almost all the stories in Airships (as well as all his other works) are told in the first person, Hannah creates a wide variety of narrative voices. The authenticity of these narrative voices is one of Hannah's most distinctive features and one of his great strengths as a writer. Rarely do Hannah's characters fail to convince. Their language is colloquial, urgent, and direct.

Hannah's stories are not unlike tales.

If they are improbable, their narrator usually acknowledges that fact. Driven by the narrator's need to explain, the pace of the stories is often very fast, almost breathless. But the bizarre events in Airships are set in the context of an individual's experience and, consequently, the horrors described are often understated.

There is frequently a twist or especially a bizarre turn at the end of many of the stories in Airships. Unexpected deaths, for instance, conclude at least...