Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld (by Guest Reviewer)

It is the cusp of World War I, and all the European powers are arming up. The Austro-Hungarians and Germans have their Clankers, steam-driven iron machines loaded with guns and ammunition. The British Darwinists employ fabricated animals as their weaponry. Their Leviathan is a whale airship, and the most masterful beast in the British fleet.
Aleksandar Ferdinand, prince of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, is on the run. His own people have turned on him. His title is worthless. All he has is a battle-torn Stormwalker and a loyal crew of men.
Deryn Sharp is a commoner, a girl disguised as a boy in the British Air Service. She's a brilliant airman. But her secret is in constant danger of being discovered.
With the Great War brewing, Alek's and Deryn's 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.

I was at first a little hesitant to pick this book up since I’m normally not that into fictional books about the World Wars but once I started reading it, I couldn’t stop. The book was well paced and the characters were enthralling. Since I like animals, I also found the creatures in the book very interesting and the machines were cool too.

I quickly got attached to Aleksandar because of his friendly personality and Deryn was a fiery female character who can take care of herself.

Normally, when there is a lot of illustrations in a book, it seems to make the book seem like it is for younger children but the illustrations in this book did not seem that way at all. They were very well done and added to the story by helping me see what the creatures and machines looked like when long descriptions would have bogged down the story.

The thing that bothered me most in this book was that the author referred to evolution quite a bit. Still, I am eagerly awaiting the second book.

|Pages: 448|Year Published: October 6, 2009 |Publisher: Simon Pulse|
|Genre: Science fiction, steampunk, alternate history |
|Age Group: YA, ages 12+|Buy or Borrow? Both|
|Content: None|

|Enjoyed It: 4/5|Content Rating: 5/5|Overall|

Review by Jessi