Leviathan (Leviathan, #1)

by Scott Westerfeld

[Angie]

Leviathan is one of those books that I was intrigued by, but hesitant to read. I normally can't get into books that deal with war in the real world, but I was hoping that the Steampunk twist would keep my interest. And like I predicted, I enjoyed it, but because of the awesome contraptions that were introduced, and less so about the plot. Alek's the son of an Austrian duke, who was just murdered by the Germans to start a war. Now he's on the run, since he's a very important politic piece. Meanwhile, Deryn is disguising herself as a boy so she can work on airships, and the one she winds up on is shot down by the Germans, allowing her to cross paths with the hidden prince.

What I really loved about Leviathan was the "beasties." Charles Darwin did a lot more in this alternate history than form theories on evolution. He discovered the very life threads of animals and how to manipulate them. There's all kinds of interesting creatures running around. My favorite being the messenger lizards! They're pretty much mash-ups of parrots and the Geiko gecko! So awesome! And there's the Leviathan itself, which is an airship, but also an entire ecosystem. It's a whale filled with bees, bats, birds, and whatever and runs off of their...fuel. It's all very awesome. There's also the mechanical beats, but I was less impressed with those. I just kept thinking of Transformers whenever they were mentioned.

There are illustrations in Leviathan which I thought were a nice touch. Some of the machines and animals are hard to picture, but you don't have to imagine them, since they're right there! Although I did start thinking that maybe the descriptions were a bit lacking because the pictures were included. Or maybe I just have a crappy imagination. Some of the drawings didn't really add much to me, mainly the ones that just show the characters doing stuff. I much preferred the ones that showed the various animals and machines.

In the end, I did enjoy Leviathan quite a bit. I was much more interested in the world building than anything, since it made the science geek in me squee with the delight. As for the plot, I didn't care too much for the politics and war aspects, which made it hard for me to get into Alek's chapters. But I was totally into Deryns, because gender bending! The one thing that will make me continue this series is those eggs Dr. Barlow is hauling around. What in the world is in them!? Dragons!? Please be dragons!

Read more of my reviews at Pinkindle Reads & Reviews.