Saturday, June 12, 2010

Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld


I finished reading Leviathan last night and I can't wait for the second book, Behemoth, which comes out in October! If you've never heard of Scott Westerfeld you must check him out - especially if you're into scifi/fantasy - because his blog is amazing and he stays so up to date with what's going on in the world.

Leviathan is scifi/fantasy that is classified as a genre called Steampunk (Scott can better explain more about this genre here). I had never heard of Steampunk before reading this book, but aparently it's been around as long as Disney and it's becoming quite the thing, especially in the gaming world. The artist for the book, Keith Thompson, is so absolutely phenomenal that it makes the story all the more incredible because it allows you to really see the world you're reading about (the depth to which Scott has imagined this world of his is amazing!). It's fantastic! The art in and of itself is absolutely gorgeous and detailed and I could study it for hours.

The story of Leviathan itself is set in an alternate 1914 Europe during WWI and Scott switches back and forth between the voices of two main characters: Deryn, a Scottish 15-year old pretending to be a boy (Dylan as a boy) so she can be in the royal Navy, and Aleksander, a 15-year old Austrian prince on the run from the Germans who are trying to kill him. There's plenty of adventure and suspense as well as love, friendship and comedy. Deryn is my favorite. She's hilarious. Scott Westerfeld has written quite a few female main characters, but Deryn, in my opinion, is his best one yet.

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