Leviathan (Scott Westerfield)

Leviathan
(The Leviathan trilogy, Book 1)
Scott Westerfield
Simon Pulse
Fiction, YA Fantasy
***+ (Okay/Good)

DESCRIPTION: In 1914, the world's nations stand on the brink of war. Many in Europe are "Clankers", espousing the superiority of gear and metal, with walking machinery and bat-winged aeroplanes. Other nations, such as Britain, Russia, and France, embrace Darwinist ideals, ever since the great naturalist discovered the keys to the "life threads" within all living cells; by rearranging these threads, scientists create fabricated, purpose-built life forms that have replaced virtually all steam engine technology in their lands. Clankers believe that the Darwinist beasties are soulless abominations against God, while Darwinists see Clanker technology as loud, stinking, polluting blights upon the Earth. With such deep ideological schisms piled on top of centuries of political and ethnic rivalries, all-out war is merely waiting for a single spark.
When the Archduke of Austria and his wife are assassinated, that spark flies. Stealing away in the middle of the night with his two most trusted servants aboard an armored Clanker walker, the archduke's fifteen-year-old son Aleksander cannot begin to comprehend how quickly his life has changed. All his life he has felt like a pretender, his mother's commoner blood preventing him from ever inheriting his father's wealth or title; now, as a potential rallying point for his late parents' supporters, he is targeted both by invading Germans and by those Austrians who, like his emperor grandfather, never approved of the archduke's marriage beneath his class.
In Darwinist London, Deryn Sharp has slipped away from her widowed mother, following her brother to the city to complete the midshipman exams for the Air Service. All she has to do is pass a written test - easy enough for a girl practically raised in the air aboard her late Da's balloons - and convince the military brass that she's a Dylan, as women are forbidden from service... a somewhat taller order, but one she's willing to tackle rather than live a dull life of dresses and tea parties. Her first test flight aboard a hydrogen-breather goes awry when a storm blows her far off course. The ship sent to rescue her is none other than the Leviathan, one of the greatest airborne beasties devised, with an entire living ecosystem aboard its vast whale-based body. Before she can be returned to the recruitment station in London, war breaks out, and the Leviathan is diverted for a special mission. With a clever-boots lady scientist on board with a top-secret cargo that must be defended at all costs, "Dylan" quickly discovers that passing as a boy is going to be the least of her troubles.
The paths of Clanker-born Alek and Darwinist-loyal Deryn cross under highly inauspicious circumstances. With the known world plunging into a bloody war and paranoia running high, their struggle to see past their differences and learn to trust one another may mean the difference between life or death for both of them - not to mention their friends, their companions, and the great living airship Leviathan itself.

REVIEW: I picked this up for a couple of reasons. First of all, I'm on a bit of a steampunk kick lately. Secondly, I was a fan of the late, lamented sci-fi series Farscape, which featured a species of living spaceships known as leviathans, so naturally the title and the concept leaped out at me. When I got a coupon from Barnes & Noble, I figured I'd give it a try. Westerfield creates a highly detailed world based roughly on the real-world politics of World War I. His Darwinist animals and Clanker machines come to life in one's mind, full of interesting details. The story picks up quickly and keeps going until the very last pages, often at a breakneck pace. With the black-and-white illustrations, I couldn't help thinking of old-school adventure books and those (often-butchered) illustrated adaptations of classics. Characterization mostly takes a back seat to the near-nonstop action and the building of Westerfield's alternate Earth, but I cared enough about the people to keep turning the pages. Of course, being a trilogy, a fair bit is left up in the air at the end. I wound up shaving a half-star for the occasionally annoying slang of Deryn's chapters, and for leaving just a few too many threads unresolved at the ending. (I also thought some of the illustrations were unneccessary... that, and more than once the illustrated Alek looked more like an "Alice" to my eye.) I'll still probably read the second book when it comes out in paperback... if Barnes & Noble remembers to send me another coupon, that is.