Leviathan

Title: Leviathan
Author: Scott Westerfeld
Series: Leviathan (#1)
Published: October 2009 by Simon Pulse
Pages: 434 (paperback)

Summary: It is the cusp of World War I. The Austro-Hungarians and Germans have their Clankers, steam-driven iron machines loaded with guns and ammunition. The British Darwinists employ genetically fabricated animals as their weaponry. Their Leviathan is a whale airship, and the most masterful beast in the British fleet.

Aleksandar Ferdinand, a Clanker, and Deryn Sharp, a Darwinist, are on opposite sides of the war. But their paths cross in the most unexpected way, taking them both aboard the Leviathan on a fantastical, around-the-world adventure….One that will change both their lives forever.

My Thoughts: My very first venture into steampunk and I wasn't too disappointed. I loved reading from our resident BA's point of view, Deryn, who's a girl disguised as a boy so she can be a soldier and an airman for the British royal navy. I also loved discovering the fabricated "beasties" who played as big a part in the war as any zeppelin, plane, or machine gun in this world.

It was a little harder for me to read from Alek's point of view, however. The POV's switched every two chapters between Alek and Deryn, and I've got to admit, I often found myself trying to rush through Alek's chapters in order to get to Deryn's faster.  This made it a little hard to get fully immersed into the story for me, in the beginning.

But that's not to say it wasn't a good story, because when I got about 75% through the book, I was completely hooked. The Darwinists vs. the Clankers! Beasties vs. machines! I couldn't put it down, I had to see what happened next.  It only took three-fourths of the book for me to fully enjoy both point of views, but I'm glad I read it. I love history and this time period as well as biological oddities, which this book has an abundance of, and I will definitely be continuing on reading this series.
My Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars