Greetings and welcome to the inaugural post of Library Fairy’s Book Reviews! I’m Katie-Beth, the Library Fairy, and I’ll be your flight attendant today (tee-hee). I love to read, and I’m hoping that by creating this blog, I can help you find your next favorite book. So, without further adieu, I bring you…
Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld
Leviathan is a novel in the steampunk genre that follows an alternate timeline in the early days of World War I. In this world, the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Germans are known as “Clankers,” because their armies operate kerosene-powered walking machines equipped with guns and ammunition. Meanwhile, the British Empire is “Darwinist,” because all of their most useful creations are built from fabricated animals. The book’s title comes from the name of an immense living airship, the Leviathan, whose main body is comprised of a whale. (Just imagine the terrible mess that would make of your car!) To add to the period feel of the novel, illustrator Keith Thompson adds rich, Edwardian-style pictures to enhance the story and give the reader a visual of Westerfeld’s fantastic creations. Alternatively, Leviathan is also available as an audiobook read by Alan Cumming (which is, in my oh-so-humble opinion, dazzling).
Image source: http://images1.fanpop.com/images/image_uploads/Steampunk-Lincoln-steampunk-1038417_400_500.jpg
The story shifts back and forth between two different points of view. One of the protagonists is Aleksandar Ferdinand, the son of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand and Princess Sophie. Being the child of a morganatic marriage has made his upbringing incredibly plush, but lonely. Then one night, everything changes. He’s roused from bed to be informed that his parents have been assassinated in Sarajevo, and he must flee immediately. His elderly grandfather, the Emperor, has no heir, and when he passes on, the people might be willing to overlook Alek’s illegitimacy and make him ruler of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. With the Archduke’s death sparking the beginning conflicts, it would be very easy to make one teenage boy “disappear.” And so, with only his most trusted servants and one Stormwalker as his retinue, the young prince gets caught up in a cat-and-mouse game with his own people.
The other protagonist is Deryn Sharp, a feisty tomboy who dreams of joining the British Air Service. After the death of her father in a balloon accident, she loses the strongest person who encouraged her dreams. For fear of being forced into doing “girl stuff,” she hides from the rest of her family in London with her brother, Jaspert. Her best bet in joining the military is as a boy. Disguising herself as “Dylan Sharp,” she enlists in the Academy and on the first day, gets the ride of her life. In a routine flight test aboard a Huxley (a balloon/jellyfish construct), a violent storm blows Deryn off-course and into the path of the airship Leviathan. Her rescue turns into a great opportunity to join the Leviathan’s crew in their top-secret mission to Constantinople.
The two stories blend seamlessly together, and the reader breathes a little sigh of relief when the two characters are finally able to meet for the first time. The writing is very clever—Westerfeld clearly did extensive research in writing this story. He creates a world that is lush and full of detail, so much so that it feels real. Much of the story is based off of actual events and actual people. The Darwinist creatures are based off of the designs of Charles Darwin (although fantastic real creatures, like the Tasmanian tiger, make an appearance). The language the characters use also feels authentic—Alek speaks with a lofty sort of diction that becomes more apparent when he speaks English. Deryn’s speech is peppered with period-appropriate swears that made me giggle with pedantic glee. As a reader, I cheered for Alek and Deryn to the very end—at which point I cried with dismay, “Where’s the rest of it?!” Lucky for us, the second book in the trilogy, Behemoth is already out, and the last book, Goliath will be released September of this year.
· Reading level: Young Adult
· Hardcover: 448 pages
· Publisher: Simon Pulse (October 6, 2009)
· Language: English
· ISBN-10: 9781416971733
· ISBN-13: 978-1416971733
