Well-Crafted Alternate Reality of WWI filled with Fanciful Walking Machines and Imaginative Beasts

Leviathan features an alternate universe where WWI is fought between the Darwinists - Great Britian, France, and Russia who create living machines of war that are hybrids of various animals mixed with technology - and the Clankers - Germany, Austro-Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire that rely on giant walking land battlecruisers and small mobile tanks with legs.

But, this is not a story about warfare, but about two teenagers caught up in it all - one by choice and one by birth.

Dyren Sharp is a English tomboy who grew up flying in hot air balloons with her father and she wants to join the royal flying navy and soar; but, she is a girl, and that presents a problem. So she becomes Dylan Sharp and presents herself as a boy to pass the midshipman's exam. In her first test, which challenge's a midshipman's fortitude in the air and with one of the "engineered" beasts of war, a storm sends her down a path of adventure as she is rescued by the behemoth of an air ship, the Leviathan - a strange combination of Whale and other beasts - and then foisted on her first day into the war effort just begun after the assassination of the Atro-Hungarian Archduke Franz Ferdinand.

Alek is the son of the Archduke, but not a direct heir to the throne because the Emperor refuses the lineage of his Commoner mother. On the day that his father and mother are killed while visiting Serbia, his fencing instructor, the mechanic of his walking war machine, and a handful of loyal officers steal away the young prince before he too can fall to an assassin. Chased across Austria by his own military and that of the Germans, Alek must reach Switzerland for safety.

And it is in Switzerland where Dryen and Alek by chance meet and change the course of history.

Quite an enjoyable read. Though "Juvenile" Fiction, Leviathan is as exciting and fun Science Fiction as Westerfeld's adult books. ( )

Westerfeld has created a world of potential futuristic pasts in Leviathan, the first novel in a new series. Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife are murdered in Europe in 1914-- true. Their 15 year old son, Alek, escapes with the help of senior military guards in a heavily mechanized walker, similar to the machines in The Empire Strikes Back-- all of that is completely made up. Rather than fascists in real history, in Westerfeld's imagined past Darwinists are battling Clankers-- it's a struggle between giant genetically engineered beasts and enormous steel machinery. Westerfeld tells the story by bouncing between Alec and the clankers and a young woman posing as a boy in order to work aboard the Leviathan, a Zeppelin-like airship that is part whale, part helium-producing ecosystem. I listened to an audio book download and the story was a bit difficult to track at times given the number of characters and the fact I was trying to wrap my head around the more creative aspects of the story. Clearly, the print version would've been easier to follow given the illustrations. As someone who is interested in history but not well read in this era, I was very interested in Westerfeld's end notes as to what was real and what was imagined in the novel. Winston Churchill makes an appearance (Real) as does Charles Darwin's granddaughter-- also real, but in the novel Westerfeld has given her duties she never sought or possessed in real life.
I think teens will enjoy, but not flock to, this book. Despite the teen protagonists, this novel ventures too far into areas often shunned by the larger population of readers: history and fantasy. A lot of students will enjoy it, and I will certainly book talk it in my high school library-- but the audience for this title will be a bit narrower than the vast audiences Westerfeld found with the Uglies series. ( )

Set in an alternate Europe at the outbreak of World War I, Leviathan is a mix of past and future technologies with Europe divided into two main groups: The Clankers, who favor machines and mechanics and the Darwinists, who have perfected the art of fabricating new animals for flight, travel and all kinds of work.In the middle of the night, fifteen year old Prince Alek of Austria is awakened to find himself bustled off into one of his families' stormwalkers, basically a tank that walks on two legs, after learning that both his parents have been killed. Remember those history lessons about what started WWI? Archduke Ferdinand getting killed, right? Yep, that's Alek's father. Surrounded by a small group of men his father selected long ago, including his sneaky-smart fencing instructor Count Volger, Alek and his compatriots are running for their lives across the continent.All her life Deryn has wanted to fly. Only problem is, in 1914, girls aren't allowed anywhere near the Royal Air Force of England but that isn't stopping Deryn. With the help of her brother, she becomes Dylan, a somewhat skinny, but tall youth, who impresses many with his daring and knowledge of aeronautics. As a boy, Deryn has some rocking good adventures, narrowly escaping a life of skirts and curtsies for a life in the sky, riding on the massive airship, the Leviathan.I can't stress how cool this book is. So many little details all rolled into one fantastically perfect book: the world building, the characters, the illustrations (oh gosh, the illustrations!), the rearranging of history - so perfectly clever. Told alternately by Alek and Deryn (2 chapters a piece), Leviathan firmly thrusts the reader into two opposite worlds, establishing a foundation of the politics and science of Europe as both race across the continent until their paths collide in the snowy alps of Switzerland. The adventure is non-stop as each new page brings Alek and Deryn closer together. Besides Deryn with her ability to simply DO ANYTHING, I'm totally in love with the clever-boots female scientist, Dr. Nora Barlow. With her bowler hat and mysterious caro, she's got more than a few secrets up her sleeve and the backbone to get things done.I've only read one other steampunk novel, 'Clockwork Heart,' and was not super impressed, but Scott Westerfeld gets it with 'Leviathan.' In his illuminating author's note, he said: "So 'Leviathan' is as much about possible futures as alternate pasts. It looks ahead to when machines will look like living creatures, and living creatures can be fabricated like machines...That's the nature of steampunk, blending future and past."Done and done. Mr. Westerfeld, I'm converted. Every since discovering Scott Westerfeld's Midnighter's Trilogy, I know I can always count on him to come up with an intriguing new premise and completely deliver on the execution. The only problem is, Leviathan is the first in a planned trilogy and I don't think I can wait possibly years to recover from that cliff-hanger ending.I can't finish talking about this amazing novel without mentioning Keith Thompson's fabulous illustrations. 50 black and white uber-detailed illustrations complement this amazing book - effortlessly bringing each machines, beasties, and of course, each and every fabulous character to life. ( )

It is 1914, and the Archduke Franz Ferdinand is murdered, but this is not Axis and Allies, this is Darwinist, the faction who genetically engineers their war machines, and the Clankers, who build their machines out of metal, oil, sweat, and tears. In the middle of this is Aleksander the heir to the throne, the son of the Archduke and a commoner. Orphaned he must travel to Switzerland in a large metal biped "Walker" for safety. And Deryn Sharp as a British Darwinist who disguises as a boy "Dylan" and joins the army. What will happen to these two on their journeys?


This is wonderful book that I recommend, Westerfeld delivers again and gives us another stupendous series. ( )

Summary: Leviathan tells the story of two young people on the eve of World War One. Deryn is a girl, and thus barred from military service, but she's pretending to be a boy in order to join the British Air Force. However, the Air Force is not just Sopwiths, not by a long shot. In Westerfeld's version of history, Darwin discovered not only the theory of evolution by natural selection, but also DNA, and since his time his followers have been building new life forms from the building blocks of others. The largest is the Leviathan, a giant zeppellin-like airship modeled on a whale (as well as a host of other creatures), and a more prestigious service assignment than a young midshipman could dare to hope for.

The other storyline follows Prince Alek of Austria-Hungary. When his parents are assassinated, he is hustled out of the castle by Count Volger, his father's longtime advisor. In an instant, Alek has become an important pawn in a game of political maneuvering that he did not realize he even belonged to, and to escape to safety, they must flee unnoticed in a Walker - a mechanized battle robot.

Alek and Deryn's stories intersect when the Leviathan is shot down near Alek's hideout in Switzerland. Although the Darwinists and the Clankers are typically enemies, the two must become unlikely allies if either of them are to survive.

Review: Steampunk is not normally my cup of tea. Conceptually, I think it's neat, and visually, steampunk-inspired stuff is typically gorgeous, but as a genre, it's never done much to crank my gears. (Terrible pun fully intended.) So I was a little bit wary of Leviathan at the outset, but since Westerfeld's generally pretty reliable, I decided to give it a go.

And I'm really glad I did. I quite enjoyed Leviathan; maybe because of Westerfeld's skill at telling interesting stories with likable characters; maybe because it's not in-your-face about its steampunkiness, and thus it reads more like historical fiction; maybe because I am a huge sucker for any time an author can sneak some biology into their fiction (see also: Barbara Kingsolver's Prodigal Summer, and Westerfeld's own Peeps.) I had a great time listening for all of the little history of science references that Westerfeld snuck in throughout the book, and got to feel briefly smug every time I caught one.

Actually, Westerfeld managed to hit two of my buttons: not only am I a sucker for biology in fiction, I also really like the "girl disguises herself as a boy to enter military service" plot device (see also: Tamora Pierce's Song of the Lioness quartet, and L. A. Meyer's Bloody Jack series.) Both Deryn and Alek were interesting and well-developed characters, and although I spent early chapters wanting to kick Alek in the shins and tell him to stop being such a moron, he's at least got a believable excuse for his naivete.

I also enjoyed the setting; I haven't read nearly as much fiction set in World War I as in World War II. Westerfeld helpfully includes an author's note that lays out what parts of his story are true, what parts are based on truth but modified to fit his alternate world, and what parts were made up for the sake of the story.

Throughout the book, the action moves along at a good clip, managing to work the details and descriptive world-building into the story without slowing down the flow of the narrative. I was never totally emotionally involved in the story, but I was always interested, with the result that I tore through the audiobook much faster than normal. The ending was kind of abrupt - nothing is resolved, but the characters get to a temporary bit of safety and then the book just ends. I can see why the break was made where it was, but it's still a little annoying - I would have definitely picked up the next book anyways, so the cliffhanger feels like a bit of overkill. 4 out of 5 stars.

Recommendation: It's hard to recommend a book to others when I'm still surprised that I enjoyed it as much as I did. Fans of steampunk or alternate history, or entertaining young adult novels with fast-moving adventure storylines will for sure want to pick this up. Otherwise, it sits at this strange boundary between sci-fi and historical fiction, and folks who are fans of one but not the other may find the crossover either really intriguing, or they may find it thoroughly annoying. I'm one of the former, happily, but I suspect reactions will vary. ( )