Despite my total lack of interest in alternate history / steampunk fiction, I picked up this book because...well, hello, Scott Westerfeld!

I have absolutely no qualms about admitting I was wrong. This book was great! ( )

Westerfeld's clever take on WWI turns history on its head. The Archduke is still assassinated and countries are still at war, but now it's become a battle of the Darwinists and the Clankers. The Darwinists blend DNA to create animal hybrids, while the Clankers are fond of machinery and metal.

The Archduke has left an orphaned son (Alek) who, after escaping to a castle in a Clanker machine, decides to help a Darwinist ship called Leviathan after it crash lands. Dylan, AKA Derwyn, is a female pretending to be a boy so she can take part in the military and serve on the Leviathan.

The Archduke has left an orphaned son (Alek) who, after escaping to a castle in a Clanker machine, decides to help a Darwinist ship called Leviathan after it crash lands. Dylan, AKA Derwyn, is a female pretending to be a boy so she can take part in the military and serve on the Leviathan.

The steampunk story is an interesting blend of the past and future. As usual, Westerfeld has a way with words and creates unique and wonderful imagery. Although it took a while for the plot to get going, I think teens will really enjoy the book and clamor for the planned sequels! ( )

Merideth says: I liked this book a lot more than I thought I was going to. I'm not really into steampunk or alternate history, so starting this was a little bit of a slog. However, I was really interested in the engineered animals, and I thought Deryn was a great character. I was less interested in Alex's sections of the book, but the idea of a world divided between biology/technology is an interesting one. ( )

It's the eve of World War I. The Clankers and Darwinist are rallying to fight each other. What? Miss that part of history? Re-imagine history so that technology and science branch in radically different ways. England and allies develop the 'Darwinist' theories of combining animals for the use of the state; Austria-Hungary develops large metal machines for war. Otherwise, things proceed (more or less) as they did in actual history. On either side there's a teenager. Alek, who's parents were killed and who must keep his identity secret; and Deryn, who pretends to be a boy so that she can serve in the British Air Service. These two's fates will combine, despite being on opposite sides in the on-coming war...

The makings of World War I are an incredibly interesting portion of history. I could barely contain my delight when I learned that Scott Westerfeld's new young adult novel would combine these historical conditions with imaginative ideas of his own. How wonderful it was to imagine a world in which the divide is between Clankers and Darwinists. Clankers follow ideas Steampunk or battle robot while the Darwinists create and combine creatures with distinct uses.

The novel didn't disappoint me, but it didn't quite enthrall me like I thought it would, either. That isn't to say I that I didn't warm to the novel. I will be reading the second installment, I'm just not rabid to get my hands on the book.

The protagonists were a bit younger than I expected, almost making the novel aimed towards a younger audience than I was used to. After adjusting to the age of the protagonists, I found that although I immediately liked the British Deryn and disliked Alek, it switched about half way through the book. Worse, the even more interesting characters are the mentors of each protagonist! Still, the characters are interestingly drawn. Deryn, who's pretending to be a boy, has an exaggerated swagger that I found incredibly amusing; Alek's slow learning of his own country and people was heartwarming. Their mentors, Count Volger and Dr. Barlow, are just utterly fascinating and I cannot wait to see both figure more greatly into the story. Volger's rough, but shrewd. His British counterpart, Barlow, is equally shrewd. The two figures will be sure to either butt heads or respect the other. I can't wait to find out which it shall be.

The novel is incredibly imaginative and fun. It's a bit of an adventure story. A bit of a pilfered historical novel. A bit of a coming of age story for two adolescents.

Really, I enjoyed most of Leviathan. The problems I had were only that the prose and characters were a written a bit young. And, more seriously, Leviathan indeed the first of a series. Most questions remain unanswered as the novel closes. The ending, to me, seemed a little abrupt. When I was about 30 pages from the end, I said to myself, "Oh no, he can't possible wrap all this up before the final page." And that's true. The book needed more of a fulfilling arc to finish before dangling the questions back in front of my face to entice me to the second book.

As a note, this book is gorgeous. The cover! The gears are shiny, mechanical and beautiful with the red background. Absolutely perfect. The entire book is artistically rendered. Even the shape of the book has an elegant length and thin width that makes it fun to pick up. Additionally, the illustrations are gorgeous and very storybook-esque. Unfortunately, I can't help but think of Thomas Hobbes when reading the title... ( )

Meshing Gears and Messy Biology ( )