Fantasy series: auburn-haired boy whose mother/grandmother goes missing, flying airships

Question

I'm looking for what I believe was a trilogy I read back in high school.

I read this book/series approximately 8 years ago. It was a fantasy series with an auburn haired boy as the protagonist.

I feel like someone important to him goes missing. An older female. Perhaps his mother or grandmother? She's magical as I remember.

There's also flying airships throughout the series, and the cover of one of the books is I believe a red-ish colour with said airship. One of the enemy airships possessed a powerful cannon of some sort as I recall.

In the final book, I remember vaguely some voyage/trip to a strange land. I believe the boy finds the missing family member in the end, but she makes a great sacrifice.

Answer 1

This has elements of The Voyage of the Jerle Shannara trilogy, by Terry Brooks.

The protagonists sister, Grianne, is missing and believed dead. A voyage to many strange lands by airship takes up the core plot. Grianne is later discovered to have been raised by their enemy, and is known as the Ilse Witch.

Ilse Witch
A half-drowned elf carries a map covered with cryptic symbols–and Walker Boh, the last of the Druids, has the skill to decipher them. But someone else understands the map’s significance: the ruthless Ilse Witch, who will stop at nothing to possess it–and the powerful magic it leads to.

Antrax
While in search of the elusive magic, Walker Boh is lured into a trap–caught in a dark maze beneath a ruined city, stalked by a hungry, unseen enemy. It is Antrax: a spirit that feeds off enchantment and traps the souls of men. Now the fate of the Four Lands hangs in the balance.

Morgawr
The intrepid heroes aboard the Jerle Shannara have reached their breaking point. A centuries-old sorcerer, the Morgawr, vows to find and control the fabled ancient books of magic–and he is an adversary of awesome might with a fleet of airships and a crew of walking dead men at his command.