Title: Leviathan (Click title for Synopsis)Illustrations by: Keith Thompson
Source/Format: Purchased, Paperback
Age Range: YA
Publisher/Publication Date: Simon Pulse, October 6, 2009
My Thoughts:
Oh, I just feel the need to get this out first: I just love the Leviathan Trilogy by Scott Westerfeld! It’s a wonderful mix of history and some very imaginative technology that combined living creatures with machines. For someone like me who likes history, this is absolutely one of my favorite series. Leviathan has it all action, an intriguing storyline, and a superbly built world. Scott did an outstanding job crafting the Clanker the Darwinist societies, making the differences present from the beginning, and highlighting the tension between them. Oh, and not to forget the beautiful illustration’s done by Keith Thompson, which captures the Clanker machines and Darwinist Beasties perfectly.
In Leviathan we are introduced to Deryn Sharp who happens to be posing as a boy—Dylan Sharp—to gain entry into the Service/Military. Due to a series of nail-biting events, Deryn as Dylan ends up aboard “the great hydrogen breather” Leviathan, as one of the middies. And then there’s Alec, a prince on the run after the untimely death of his parents. Poor Alec had a hard time with things, and I felt bad for him for how he found out about the whole thing. There were a slew of highly interesting secondary characters as well, with Dr. Barlow being one of them. As a boffin, which is a Darwinist fabricator, was one character that really held my interest throughout the book. She was very secretive with what she was up to.
There was never a point in the plot that was slow—there was a lot going on. Once the war got rolling, everything just kind of unfolded from there. Once Alec and Deryn finally met, well, their combined interactions just made the plot all that much better. The science behind Leviathan was just marvelous! The whole concept of the Beasties, and that having a living ecosystem to sustain the hydrogen breathers, just had me from page one. Having started the trilogy right in the middle of it with Behemoth, I found that I really did miss all of the details and important events that happened in Leviathan. Now, I just want to reread the entire trilogy from start to finish again.
Now, check out Leviathan's book trailer below:
