Chatterbox: Blab About Books

Scott Westerfeld, as you probably know, is the author of the Uglies trilogy (Well, trilogy-plus-one. Extras, the fourth book, is set several years after the events of book three and is told from a different point of view.), as well as other YA novels such as Peeps; So Yesterday; and the Midnighters books.

Having read and loved the Uglies series and So Yesterday, I was excited to see Westerfeld's latest book, Leviathan, on the library shelf. I checked it out to read on our family vacation. (Because what's a family vacation if you don't have ways to occasionally completely ignore your family?) A few days ago I finished it, and yesterday we got back from the vacation. And now I finally have time to give you my reactions.

My reaction: Wow. Just ... wow. This book is completely unlike anything I have ever read. (And I kind of like to think I've read rather a lot.) It is certainly different from (and, in my opinion, better than), the other Westerfeld I've read.

At first glance, this book may appear to be a historical novel about the beginning of World War I. And, well, yes, it is that, but not in the way you might expect. This is an alternate history. The war in this book is between the Clanker countries, whose weapons are giant war machines, and the Darwinist, whose tools and weapons are fabricated animals. These "fabs" are everything from talking lizards that carry messages, to a giant whale airship – the titular "Leviathan."

Westerfeld follows the stories of two characters. One is Deryn Sharp, a girl posing as a boy, Dylan, to serve in the air navy. She ends up on the Leviathan. The other is Alek, prince of Austria Hungary, who is running with his fencing instructor, Count Volger, and Otto Klopp, Master of Mechaniks (not a misspelling – this is the way it is spelled in the book) from the people who assassinated his parents. Deryn is a Darwinist, Alek a Clanker.Their stories are incredibly different, and both are very interesting. I have to say I preferred the chapters about Deryn, but that's just me.

Yes, this book is historical fiction, and has enough actual history to satisfy most hi-fi fans, but its alternate history makes it delightfully sci-fi, even a bit futuristic. For someone like me, who loves both, this book was perfect. Westerfeld himself sums it up very well in the afterword: "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. And yet the setting also recalls an earlier time in which the world was divided into aristocrats and commoners, and women in most countries couldn't join the armed forces – or even vote."

This book also has gorgeous illustrations by Keith Thompson. I don't often read illustrated books, but in this case the black-and-white drawings added a lot to the book.

And, perhaps best of all, this book has a sequel. Behemoth will come out in October. Leviathan was just the first in a planned trilogy (and we all know what that means ... at least I hope we do!). I can't wait to find out what happens next.