08 October 2009 LEVIATHAN by Scott Westerfeld and Keith Thompson, ill., Simon Pulse, October 2009, 448p., ISBN: 978-1-4169-7173-3
"'Mr. Sharp, I presume?' The lizard let out a throaty chuckle.
"Gobsmacked as she was, Deryn almost answered. Of course, the message lizard was only repeating what one of the officers overhead had said to it.
"'Greetings from the Leviathan,' it continued. 'Our apologies for the delay. Bad weather and all that.' It made a noise like a man clearing his throat, and Deryn half expected the lizard to raise a tiny fist to its mouth. 'But here we are at last. We'll be taking you in on the dorsal side, of course -- standard procedure.'
"The lizard paused, and Deryn pondered what 'dorsal' might mean.
"'Ah, yes. I'm told you're just a sprog. Well done, getting lost on your first flight.'
"Deryn rolled her eyes. First a bag of gas and insect guts had carted her halfway across England, and now she was getting cheek from a barking lizard!"
There have been numerous books published over the past couple of years in honor of the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin. But none are more ambitious and provocative (or sweeter) than LEVIATHAN, the first book in Scott Westerfeld's new steampunk trilogy.
LEVIATHAN is set in an alternative history World War I and the two main characters are teens. Alek is the on-the-run orphan son of the assassinated Archduke Ferdinand of Austria and his insufficiently-royal wife Sophie. An important secret here (as opposed to "real" history) is that the Pope had previously signed off on Alek's being able to succeed his now-dead father, despite his mother being who she was. The second teen is Deryn Sharp, the slight, Scottish, flight-loving daughter of her beloved dead balloonist father who signs up for the British Air Service disguised as a boy called Dylan.
"Alek shivered. He'd heard awful stories about the Darwinists' creations: half-breeds of tigers and wolves, mythological monsters brought to life, animals that spoke and even reasoned like humans, but had no souls. He'd been told that when godless beasts were created, the spirit of demons occupied them -- pure evil given flesh.
"Of course, he'd also been taught that the emperor was wise and kind, that the Austrian people loved him, and that the Germans were his allies."
What is so profound about this alternative history is that here Darwin also discovered DNA and the ability to mess with it, and now Britain has spent decades building on Darwin's discoveries by engaging in genetic engineering to create new creatures and ecosystems -- many of which can be utilized militarily. "Umpteen different beasties made up the Leviathan" which results in its being a living, breathing machine with all the benefits and drawbacks inherent in such a concept. There are all sorts of other wild and weird "fabs" that have also been created. It has certainly got to make one wonder to what extent bone-chilling, top secret genetic engineering experiments are being conducted this very minute in which corners of the world. (One more thing in my world to think about now.)
But what is constantly so much fun about LEVIATHAN is following these two attractive, vulnerable, really endearing teens; wondering whether Deryn is going to be discovered to be a girl; and waiting to find out what might ultimately happen between Deryn and Alek after they meet -- assuming Dylan/Deryn's true gender is eventually revealed. But that is not a sure thing, being that she's worked quite hard on learning to behave like a boy prior to entering the Air Service:
"Alek might have been trained in combat and tactics his whole life, but Dylan was a real soldier. He swore with an effortless extravagance, and during lunch had thrown a knife three meters and hit an apple square in its heart. He was skinnier than most boys his age, but could work alongside men and be treated as their equal. Even his lingering black eye from the crash had a piratical swagger to it.
"In a way Dylan was the sort of boy Alek would have wanted to be, if he hadn't been born the son of an Archduke."
As Scott Westerfeld notes, LEVIATHAN "looks ahead to when machines will look like living creatures, and living creatures can be fabricated like machines." Given the serious level of enjoyment I've gotten out of reading LEVIATHAN, what I am looking ahead to is receipt of the second book in what should be a wildly popular trilogy.
Richie Partington, MLIS
Instructor, San Jose State University
School of Library and Information Science
FTC NOTICE: Richie receives free books from lots of publishers who hope he will Pick their books. You can figure that any review was written after reading and dog-earring a free copy received. Richie retains these review copies for his rereading pleasure and for use in his booktalks at schools and libraries.
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