Book Review: Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld

Posted by Debra in Books, Latest News, Reviews on November 18th, 2009

There has been a recent resurgence of a lot of common themes in science fiction and horror lately: vampires, zombies, werewolves, and so on.  However, the most exciting resurgence, albeit a small one—but here’s hoping, is one of setting.  I am, of course, talking about steampunk, because what could possibly be better than dark and gritty Victorian or Edwardian sociopolitical issues combined with crazy steam powered technology?  That’s right.  Nothing.

Scott Westerfeld, of Pretties and Midnighters fame, switches to the genre with surprising skill and originality.  In his October 2009 release of Leviathan, Westerfeld uses the beginning of World War One as a backdrop for the coming-of-age of two seemingly opposing characters. Leviathan pits the Darwinists (Entente Powers) against the Clankers (the Central Powers).  The Darwinists are inventors who manipulate living creatures’ DNA to create living weapons (such as airships based off of jellyfish) while the Clankers build theirs out of metal and power them with steam.  On the Darwinist side is a teenaged girl pretending to be a teenaged boy in order to be part of the military.  On the Clankers’ side, the teenaged son of the recently assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand (the very one!) is on the run and keeping his identity secret, especially from his own people.  However, as the seemingly separate storylines meet, it quickly becomes clear that there are more behind-the-scenes secrets surrounding the lives of both of the characters than previously thought.

Scott Westerfeld is known for his overtly didactic works. With Leviathan, on the other hand, he lets go of a lot of the blatant social commentary and has fun—and it shows. While this novel starts slow, it quickly picks up and has definitely left me hankering for the invention of a time machine so I can get the sequel, Behemoth, that come comes out October 2010, a lot sooner.