It is no secret that I am a huge fan of Scott Westerfeld's writing. I've read all of his books and spent a few years wandering around his blog for any ounce of information I could get. So when he announced that his new book Leviathan was to be released, I snatched it up as soon as possible and promptly devoured it.

Mr. Westerfeld's style is something that I enjoy very much, and it certainly didn't disappoint me in Leviathan. He inserts his readers right into the shoes of his characters. It makes the story so much more enjoyable. And of course, his action-packed scenes are always tasty.

If it was written by an author I wasn't already in love with, I might have been a little hesitant to read it, because Leviathan is an illustrated novel.

What? A picture book? That's for kiddies.

It absolutely is not. Keith Thompson, the illustrator, has added so much depth to the novel with his breath-taking artwork. I'm seriously amazed every time I look at one of his drawings. He brings Scott's words to life in ways I didn't know were possible. If you haven't had the chance to see any, here is a link to his website. http://www.keiththompsonart.com/gallery.html I highly suggest taking a look.

Before reading Scott's blog, I had never really heard the term 'steampunk' before. It's a really interesting sub-culture. It's explained in great detail by Scott Westerfeld, Cory Doctorow, and other experts on a steampunk panel.

Steampunk Panel - SLJ Day of Dialog, BEA 2010 from School Library Journal on Vimeo.

Anyway, moving on to the actual story! Again, this author succeeds in creating a whole new world within our own. The setting is just before World War I around the time of the assassinasion of Archduke Ferdinand. (And yes, this made me look very knowledgeable in history class. Always a good thing.) One of the main characters, Aleksander, the fictional son of the Archduke is thrown into a shocking race for his life after his parents were assassinated. During that time, he happens to meet Darren Sharp, a girl pretending to be a boy in the English military. There are clankers, people who rely on machines and mechanics for everything. Gears and spare parts are necessities to keep their stormwalkers and other machines moving.

There are also Darwinists(does the name ring any bells?). These are people who rely on genetically engineered airships and other creatures like talking messenger lizards to get by. So you see, these two groups fall on dramatically different ends of the spectrum Alek is vastly on one side and Darren on the other. Makes for an interesting friendship, no? Read and find out! This world full of unimaginable machines and...animals, if you could call them that, is definitely fascinating to say the least. I'm so very excited for the second book in the trilogy, Behemoth, which comes out in october.

<--- Darren in her huxley genetically engineered aircraft.

Check out Scott Westerfeld's blog for more information on Leviathan and Behemoth: http://scottwesterfeld.com/blog/

I give Leviathan a 5/5. It was a great read that left me wanting more.

Thank you for reading.

-Almi