I hesitated to read Scott Westerfield’s Leviathan because it is for “young adults,” but since it is a new steampunk book, and I tend to find YA books tolerable, I decided to read it in the end.
I found the book an uneven package, so I will start with the strengths. Leviathan is a very well-imagined and executed steampunk world of walking war machines and genetically engineered super-beasts. Set against the outbreak of World War I, the political divide between the German/Austrian alliance (Clankers) and the British/French alliance (Darminists) is overlaid with philosophical and religious differences over the use of machines and the manipulation of genetic material. These fantastic artifacts of engineering are wonderfully illustrated by Keith Thompson, and I would recommend any steampunk fan to at least flip through a copy just to look at the artwork.
The story follows two young heroes. Fifteen-year-old Deryn disguises herself as a boy to enter the British air force to serve on the living balloons and airships created by melding jellyfish, whales, glowworms, bats, hawks, and talking lizards. Think Harry Potter meets Horatio Hornblower meets Mulan. Her counterpart is Aleksander Hapsburg, the orphan son of Archduke Ferdinand. He flees the emperor’s assassins with his tutors and guards in a walking tank (think Star Wars) to a mountain hideaway in Switzerland. They’re both likable heroes, but neither one came across to me as particularly strong or memorable. They’re just…nice.
Deryn’s airship, the flying whale-beast called Leviathan, is shot down and crashes into the Swiss mountains. Alek comes out of hiding to help the survivors, and ultimately the Austrians and British join forces to escape the German military. And that’s it.
This is where we swing into the negatives. The hard cover edition features extremely large print, which pushes the book up to 450 pages or so, but the whole story feels like Act I. Naturally, there will be sequels, but we shouldn’t need sequels. We should want them.
The Harry Potter books each tell a single complete story within the larger, over-arching plot of the series. Each volume has a plot, and subplots, and a villain, and a resolution. Leviathan has no clear villain, just “bad guys out there in the world” and it has no clear plot. Alek is on the run from assassins, in general, and Deryn is just doing her job on her ship. They happen to meet, and fly away together. This is not a story.
There was also a disappointing lack of subplots. The secondary characters were fairly thin and interchangeable, with the exception of the British scientist and the Austrian count. You’ll find no rich cast of teachers, mentors, relatives, friends, love interests, and enemies. Which hurts the book.
So, I highly recommend the concept and the art, and I suspect when the series is complete I will also recommend the full story, but here and now, Leviathan is an incomplete book.
But in Westerfield’s defense, I would really like to see an adult version of this book, or an adult book set in the same world. It really is an exciting alternate reality, and I think if he were to tell a properly bloody and emotionally complex story in this world, it would be outstanding.
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