Leviathan

This post first published February 5, 2011.

Author: Scott Westerfeld
Published: September 2009
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Series: Leviathan #1
434 pages (hardcover)
 
So sorry I have not properly updated my book blog in such a long time. (Explanation found here). Anyhow, I’ve returned, and my first book (that is not a school textbook, haha) of 2011 is Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld. This is a book I’ve been interested in for a long, long time now (since last summer). I first saw it in a bookstore. The title intrigued me at first (though I was thinking more of Leviathan from Final Fantasy video games, haha) and when I flipped through the page and read the summary on the dust jacket — steampunk, World War I, Darwinism, walking machines, a prince in hiding, a girl disguised as a boy — I was really, really interested!

Unfortunately this was constantly being taken out at my local library and I had no interest in being put on a six month waiting list or whatever, so I just waited until by chance I saw the book available. Lo and behold, it finally was!

Leviathan takes place at the beginning of World War I, though it is not at all a factual retelling of any sort. The story takes place in an alternate reality, where the Austria-Hungary Empire and Germany are fascinated with technology and machines, and Britain, France and Russia are fascinated with fabricating new animal species with their DNA and, well, biological technology. I think of them as being fascinated with making chimeras. The story has two main characters who meet around the halfway point of the novel: first is Prince Aleksander, the young heir to the Austria-Hungary Empire, whose parents are killed by the Germans and now he is on the run; the second is a fifteen year old girl named Deryn Sharp, a common Brit disguised as a boy in order to join the army. They meet when the two are stranded in Switzerland for different reasons and must work together despite being enemies in the war, in order to escape their situation.

I was extremely fascinated with this book. I’m no stranger to steampunk (hello, Final Fantasy VI) but I’ve never encountered the idea of using fabricated animals as part-machine war equipment. Was that hard to understand? Haha, well,  besides your traditional chimera creatures like a part-tiger, part-wolf creatures, they also use animal DNA (or life strands, as they are called) to make things like the Leviathan. The Leviathan is the name of an airship. It is an entire eco-system of an airship. The main life strands used are those of a whale, followed by glow-worms in its membrane to keep it warm, fabricated birds and bees to gather food for the whale-creature which uses hydrogen to fly in the air … I know, it sounds all very confusing, but I promise the book does a way better job of explaining the concept than me. It also has pictures to help! (Lots of pretty pictures)!

So basically, Deryn and her British crew fly around in a giant floating whale as an airship! Haha, it sounds a bit silly, but it’s actually a really interesting idea.

This book was really fun to read from start to finish for me. Though it is a ‘young adult’ novel, I feel it’s more of a children’s book, personally. That’s not to say people of all ages can’t enjoy it though!
While I can’t really say I became attached to any of the characters (I did like them though, I just didn’t really like them enough to become attached), I did become attached to the world. It’s just so fascinating! Although the dust jacket lies a bit when it says Deryn and Alek go on an around-the-world adventure. No, they really didn’t … they were stuck in one country for the most part, haha. But I’m guessing they will do more traveling in the sequel(s)? I saw the sequel Behemoth at the library too, but I was being all cautious and didn’t want to take that out too in case I didn’t like Leviathan. In hindsight, I really wish I did because the book ends off on a bit of a cliff hanger, and I really want to find out what happens next!

My Rating: 4.5/5