Head of Youth Services Darren Miguez reviews Leviathan By Scott Westerfeld (Due for publication October 6th, 2009)

By dint of good fortune and standing in a long line at the very end of the 2009 Book Expo in New york City, I was able to acquire a copy of Leviathan, the upcoming novel by Scott Westerfeld.

To be truthful, the artwork I had seen at his publisher’s booth is what inclined me to try and get ahold of this book at the last minute, depicting elegant and detailed pencil drawings or mechanical walking machines in a style vaguely reminiscent of Katsuhiro Otomo’s mechanical creations for a variety of Japanese animated and illustrated project.

I let the book languish on my shelf, but found myself needing a book to read while at the beach, and so grabbed it. I am glad I did! The book was far more engrossing than I had imagined, and after three days of reading it after work, I had completed it, and was ready for the next volume in the as-yet unpublished series.

Leviathan takes place in an “alternate history” 1914, with Westerfeld’s fictional Europe teetering on the brink of war much like out own was. The world is divided in these days before World War I into two camps. On the one side are the Darwinists who have by way of ‘natural philosophy’ and biological science unlocked the secrets of what seems to be a form of genetic engineering; by way of this science they create ‘fabricated creatures’ tailored to specific functions – speaking messenger lizards akin the talk much like parrots and deliver vocal information, and the ‘hydrogen breathing’ living airships that make up the bulk of their lighter-than-air aerial forces in this age of zeppelins. On the opposite side are the mechanical marvels of Austria and Germany – the ‘Clankers’, who have created a variety of common mechanical marvels, not the least of which is the ‘stormwalker’ – a type of walking tank.

The story follows two characters: Aleksandar, the prince and would-be-heir of the Austro-Hungarian Throne who is put in danger by the assassination of his father, the Archduke Franz Ferdinand – and Deryn Sharp, a young girl masquerading as a boy in order that she might enter the Aerial Service of Great Britain.

Though each of them represents on of the philosophical and technological poles of the fictional setting, and begin the narrative hundreds if not thousands of miles apart, their stories eventually become entwined as Europe descends into war.

Leviathan is a grand adventure that takes a brief look at some of the issues we see in the headlines of today. As Westerfeld notes in his afterword, the book is as much about possible futures as alternate histories. Discussions of bioethics are touched upon by way of the various Darwinist and Clanker characters, but not delved into in any meaty fashion in this first volume.

I found myself more interested in the narrative of Prince Aleksandar, and his attempts to escape his political enemies after his parent’s death, yet more enamoured of Deryn’s setting with its introduction of fabricated creatures and their place in daily life in Westefeld’s fictional Darwinist England.

Though the story was quite a page-turner, and I enjoyed the various trials and tribulations the two main characters faced, I must applaud the decision to add in full page and half-page illustrations. The illustrator, Keith Thompson, pays great attention to the written details of the scenes he is portraying, and they make it quite easy to be drawn into this fanciful setting.

I am quite eager to read the next volume, as some of the bigger mysteries of the story are unresolved in this first volume. I also remain somewhat unconvinced of a romantic subplot that rears its head in the last few pages of the book, but the journey getting to those last few pages was a worthwhile experience.

I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys alternative history, and perhaps fans of Hayao Miyazaki’s works like Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind. I’m unsure how fans of Westefeld’s other works will view this new trilogy, as it seems his prior work has focused on more standard science fiction and modern day work. Still, give this book a chance and it may drag you in. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Though I had trouble connecting at the time of this writing, you might want to take a look at www.scottwesterfeld.com for the first chapter of the book, and a look at some of the illustrations appearing in the book, as well as other bits and pieces. Westerfeld’s prior novel, Uglies, is also available there as a free PDF.

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