My 3rd Christmas Countdown review actually, in addition to coming off my read but not reviewed shelf, comes off my Summer reading list as well so I can finally cross that off (I'll finish it I swear,I just don't know when!) Also, I have a plan and may do 12 days of Christmas reviews after his as well, I might just review each book in a series for that one (actually, come to it, I know a series that has exactly 12 books so I'll use those, but I digress)
Leviathan is a historical (ish) novel, set "on the cusp of World War 1"1 and shows a totally different perspective (not historically accurate obviously, but different) on the War and why it was fought. It all starts with a young girl named Deryn Sharp, who pulls a Mulan and disguises herself as her brother to get into the army (well, British Air Service, but a spade's a spade). While on board a Darwinist vessel (kind of like a giant jellyfish, zeppelin thing, Barking Spiders!2 you have to read the book to understand). Anyway, she disguises herself as her older brother Dylan and they go off in the Leviathan to do exciting things, in the mountains they come across a broken down Stormwalker (a type of war transport used by the Clankers and go down to, not only search for survivors but possibly do a salvage (think Firefly in 1914, and less trench-coats, and space) and they find Alek (Prince Aleksander of Hohenberg) who fled his home to save his life after his parents were assassinated. So they bring him and his surviving crew aboard and for a wile they fly about wondering what to do with them, are they prisoners? are they...what? The leviathan is attacked and badly damaged and it turns out to be a good thing after all that Alek and his crew are aboard, with spare parts salvaged from the stormwalker our intrepid prince gets his hands dirty and becomes useful repairing the ship. Along the way they pick up Dr. Nora Darwin Barlow, a Darwinist Boffin (a scientist, they use lots of odd slang but it works with the time period and whatnot and it's really cool, no seriously, after I first read this book I went around saying Barking Spiders for about 3 days because it just caught on) anyway, they arrange for Nora to have passage to wherever it is she's headed (she's on a "secret diplomatic mission" that no one knows about and they go off to see the world.
Well, that's about all I can say about what happens (the series kind of blended together, it's been a while since I've read it, I couldn't remember if they'd met someone important yet and I didn't want to spoil the surprise. I think they meet him in the next book though, mustache, laser pigeon and all. (If you watched Sanctuary you'll suddenly know who I'm talking about) (On a side note, I just thought of another Harry Potter reference for no reason other than who I was just thinking of, "Is he a bit mad?" "Mad? He's great! But he is a bit mad yes." My friend Sara will know of whom I speak, he's our favourite scientist and he was a bit mad. Anyway I digress, I do recommend that everyone read this book, not only if you're a fan of historical fiction, it's funny, it's witty, it's packed with adventure, swordfights, chases, escapes, true love, miracles (OK that's the Princess Bride but the same principal applies). I do think you should read it, especially if you're a fan of Scott Westerfeld's other works, like the Uglies Series (which is good to, I might review it if I haven't already)
I think that's it for me just now. Read Leviathan and until next time keep reading, writing, reviewing, commenting and I'll see you next time for my 4th Christmas countdown review (I'll finally be caught up!!)
1 Yes I'm siting things but that synopsis line comes straight from the Shelfari synopsis
2 This is a quote from the book, actually, they say it a lot, kind of like how Ron says Bloody Hell quite a bit during the course of the Harry Potter Series, so this is sort of a citation but I sort of just wanted to make the tentative Harry Potter-esque connection between Deryn and Ron
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