Leviathan review

Leviathan
by Scott Westerfeld, illustrated by Keith Thompson
Simon Pulse
October 2009

Leviathan is an unusual steampunk adventure, as the action is set during an alternate history of World War I, rather than the Victorian period.  In this story, the British style themselves as "Darwinists" and have a formidable air force composed of genetically modified "beasties."  Their German opposition, known as "Clankers" use over-sized metallic walkers and tanks.  The story follows, in mostly alternating chapters, two young protagonists, Deryn, a.k.a. Dylan Sharp, a midshipman in the British air navy and Aleksander Ferdinand, son of the murdered Austrian Arch-Duke and a budding Clanker pilot.

Deryn, the new Darwinist recruit, is hiding a secret -- "he" is actually a "she."  Her brother and recently-deceased father have given her an unconventional upbringing and encouraged her interest in flying, even though only men are allowed in the air service.  I felt that Westerfeld really hit the right note with Deryn.  It's such a common science-fiction and fantasy trope to have a young girl disguise herself as a boy in order to go off and have adventures... but it's pretty uncommon to see characters address this problem with the seriousness that it deserves.  Deryn spends the first three-quarters of the novel terrified that she will be found out.  Being caught is her number one concern, and it drives most of her decisions, including her impetous piloting and her foul mouth. (Westerfeld's gritty street vernacular includes terms like, "clart," "boffin" and "barking spiders.")

Alek is the son of the recently murdered Arch-Duke Ferdinand of Austria.  He is on the run, aided by two of his loyal retainers, and remains one step ahead of the war-mongering Germans, as he attempts to re-group and prove his legitimacy.

The thing that surprised me the most about Leviathan was my own reaction to the Darwinists.  I found myself thoroughly skeeved out by the description of the living airships, with their attendant symbiotic life-forms creating a self-sustaining biosphere.  A typical ship would be mostly whale, with perhaps a bit jellyfish and a number of other "life threads" mixed in.  It would be accompanied by double-nosed hydrogen sniffing dogs, flocks of bats and birds, messenger lizards and more.  Plenty of thought went in to how the living airships would be fed and how waste management would be handled.  Oddly, the "Clanker" steam-driven technology, appealed to me much more.  How awesome would it be to pilot one of those?  From the description in the book, they sound just like the AT-AT walkers from Star Wars.

I'll recommend this for Westerfeld fans, and steampunk aficionados looking for something a little different.

Compare to:
Mortal Engines - Philip Reeve
The Bloomswell Diaries - Louis L. Buitenbag
Soulless - Gail Carringer

I borrowed this book from the library.

Mothstorm review

Mothstorm: The Horror from Beyond Uranus Georgium Sidus!
by Philip Reeve
Bloomsbury USA Children's Books
October 2008

First line: "Dunderhead! Clodpole! Ninnyhammer! Booby! Nitwit! Gumph! Yes, 'twas the season of Peace and Goodwill at Larklight, and my sister Myrtle and I, snug in our fleece-lined, winter-weight spacesuits, were out upon the front porch, decorating our Christmas Tree."

The final installment in the Larklight trilogy provides more of the fantastic steampunk Victorian sensibility made familiar to us in Larklight and Starcross. While Mothstorm could easily stand on its own, reading the earlier books is highly recommended. Humorous footnotes accompany the text, and as usual, David Wyatt's intricate illustrations add much to the feel of the book. We are treated to a few of Myrtle's flowery diary pages, but Art is the main narrator.

It's Christmastime in the Year of Our Lord 1851 and Art Mumby and his fussy sister Myrtle  have settled in for the holiday at their home, Larklight, a mansion located on one of the most distant asteroids of the British Empire. They are interrupted by a space-faring pudding worm, which disguises itself as a raisin and eats Christmas puddings from the inside out. In the meantime, Georgium Sidus (aka Uranus) has sent a distress call, and the siblings head out with the crew of the spaceship Sophronia to investigate.

The omnipotence of Art's mother, in actuality a Shaper, or incorporeal alien being who created and continues to influence the solar system for the past several millennia, is neatly sidestepped. Encountering an alternate Shaper in another solar system, we see a glimpse of how the world would be if ruled by a despot, rather than a gentle being committed to letting her creations have free will.

Brave and intrepid Charity Cruet, an explorer in need of rescuing, provides a great counterpoint to the always proper young Victorian lady, Myrtle. Charity and Art seem well-suited to each other. Space-pirate Jack Havock and Myrtle's romance shows signs of not being over yet, as they find themselves thrown together again.

The mysteries of Ssilissa's origins are finally revealed. The quiet girl-lizard pilot on Jack Havock's ship turns out to be a member of the Snilth race, from far beyond our galaxy. The Snilth recognize in Ssilissa's knobby tail the former royal family of their people, and abandon their warlike ways to settle on Pluto with her as their queen.

I thought the attempt to rescue Jack's family from the Venusian tree virus could have taken up a whole book on its own, but everything is rather quickly taken care of in the final chapter. Fans of the series will either be happy to see every loose end so neatly wrapped up, or (like me) wish that there were more.

Compare to:

Girl Genius - Phil Foglio

Calamity Jack - Shannon, Dean and Nathan Hale

Leviathan - Scott Westerfeld

Waiting on Incarnation

What can I say... I kind of have a steampunk obsession lately. This just sounds so good!

Incarnation
by Emma Cornwall
Gallery Books

September 2012

In the steampunk world of Victorian London, a beautiful vampire seeks out the author of Dracula–to set the record straight . . . If one is to believe Bram Stoker’s legendary vampire tale, Lucy Weston is Dracula’s most wanton creation, a sexual creature of the night who preys on innocent boys. But the real-life Lucy is nothing like her fictional counterpart—and she demands to know why the Victorian author deliberately lied. With Stoker’s reluctant help, she’s determined to track down the very fiend who transformed her—from the sensual underworld where humans vie to become vampires, to a hidden cell beneath a temple to madness, and finally into the glittering Crystal Palace where death reigns supreme.

Haunted by fragmentary memories of her lost life and love, Lucy must battle her thirst for blood as she struggles to stop a catastrophic war that will doom vampires and humans alike. Ultimately, she must make a choice that illuminates for her—and for us—what it means to be human.

Bloomswell Diaries review

The Bloomswell Diaries
by Louis L. Buitendag
Kane Miller
March 2011


This is a fast-paced action/chase/adventure written with plenty of of boy appeal. There's a bit of mystery as Benjamin Bloomswell is left with his uncle while his parents are on a business trip. Soon, he's shocked to discover that his parents are being reported dead in the newspapers. As he makes his escape from an orphanage in order to reunite with his sister, he's forced to stowaway on a ship headed from New York to Europe.

The story didn't feel as steampunkish as I expected. Except for the rarely seen mechanical clockwork men there aren't very many sci-fi'ish touches. Benjamin hides inside one when he's smuggling himself across international borders. This is a solidly middle-grade level read - there's not even a hint of romance, and the main part of the story focuses on the mystery of what's happened to Benjamin's parents. There's an almost dreamlike sense behind the chase scenes, as Benjamin escapes from one pursuer, only to have to stay one step ahead of another generic bad guy.

While this is an American-published book, it has the feeling of having been translated - it feels just a touch alien, which is not at all a bad thing. Fans of Lemony Snicket's Series of Unfortunate Events, or The Incorrigible Children of Aston Place by Maryrose Wood, who are looking for more stories of plucky, determined orphans fighting against conspiracies and impossible odds will enjoy The Bloomswell Diaries.




I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.

Calamity Jack review

Calamity Jack
by Shannon and Dean Hale, illustrated by Nathan Hal
Bloomsbury
2010

This creative re-imagining of the classic Jack in the Beanstalk tale is set in a steampunk Old West. It is a graphic novel sequel to Rapunzel's Revenge, but stands perfectly well on it's own. Seeing hints of Rapunzel's story in this book made me want to go back and read the first.

Jack is a ne'er do well lad who's always got a scheme or swindle planned. But his heart's in the right place, as he's only trying to make life easier for his momma, a hard-working baker. His best friend, a pixie named Pru, is a frequent accomplice to his hi-jinks. After landing in some hot water with a particularly dangerous heist involving a giant beanstalk, he decides to lie low and leaves his hometown of Shyport.  He soon meets Rapunzel, a lasso-twirling red-headed spitfire and after some adventures, the two of them decide to return to Shyport. Blunderboar, the cruel giant despot, is practically running the city, and Jack and his friends must act quickly to protect Jack's mother from the ant-people attacks that Blunderboar is orchestrating.

My favorite page of the book is the scene where Blunderboar's organic defense shield, consisting of shrieking male brownies, is deactivated by Pru and her friends. In the first panel, we see the lady pixies determinedly soar upwards in their hats, petticoats and Victorian finery. They face-off with the brownies, whose yells are cut short when the pixies pour on the charm, dimpling at them and offering a chorus of, "Hello, live around here?" quickly reducing the brownies to a group of hat-doffing bashful gents.

The Hales have woven a fantastic, yet believable, world where Native Americans, diminutive pixies, giants, pig-like people, invading alien insects and cowboys all co-mingle amidst locomotives, saloons, hi-tech dirigibles, floating palaces, crumbling buildings and run-down theatre districts alike. The colorful twang of the Old West vocabulary and the sure, action-packed, detail-laden full-color art pair very nicely. I would recommend this to graphic novel fans, especially those who liked (or didn't like) Patricia Wrede's alternate magical history Thirteenth Child.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.

Leviathan review

Leviathan
by Scott Westerfeld, illustrated by Keith Thompson
Simon & Schuster
2009


I was very excited to tackle the first book in Westerfeld's new planned series, a steampunk adventure set during an alternate history of World War I.  The British, who style themselves as "Darwinists" have a formidable air force composed of genetically modified "beasties."  Their German opposition, known as "Clankers" use over-sized metallic walkers and tanks.  The story follows, in mostly alternating chapters, two young protagonists, Deryn a.k.a. Dylan Sharp, a midshipman in the British air navy and Aleksander Ferdinand, son of the murdered Austrian Arch-Duke and budding Clanker pilot.

Deryn, the new Darwinist recruit, is hiding a secret -- "he" is actually a "she."  Her brother and recently-deceased father have given her an unconventional upbringing and encouraged her interest in flying, even though only men are allowed in the air service.  I felt that Westerfeld really hit the right note with Deryn.  It's such a common science-fiction and fantasy trope to have a young girl disguise herself as a boy in order to go off and have adventures... but it's pretty uncommon to see characters address this problem with the seriousness that it deserves.  Deryn spends the first three-quarters of the novel terrified that she will be found out.  Being caught is her number one concern, and it drives most of her decisions, including her impetous piloting and her foul mouth. (Westerfeld's gritty street vernacular includes terms like, "clart," "boffin" and "barking spiders.")

Alek is the son of the recently murdered Arch-Duke Ferdinand of Austria.  He is on the run, aided by two of his loyal retainers, one step ahead of the war-mongering Germans, as he attempts to re-group and prove his legitimacy.

The thing that surprised me the most about Leviathan was my own reaction to the Darwinists.  I found myself thoroughly skeeved out by the description of the living airships, with their attendant symbiotic life-forms creating a self-sustaining biosphere.  A typical ship would be mostly whale, with perhaps a bit jellyfish and a number of other "life threads" mixed in.  It would be accompanied by double-nosed hydrogen sniffing dogs, flocks of bats and birds, messenger lizards and more.  Plenty of thought went in to how the living airships would be fed and how waste management would be handled.  Oddly, the "Clanker" steam-driven technology, appealed to me much more.  How awesome would it be to pilot one of those?  From the description in the book, they sound just like the AT-AT walkers from Star Wars.

The last book I read which dealt with similar gender issues was Allison Goodman's Eon: Dragoneye Reborn.  Leviathan would be my go-to recommendation to steampunk enthusiasts everywhere and fans of Philip Reeve's Hungry City Chronicles or Jeanne DuPrau's Books of Ember series.


I borrowed this book from the library.

Upcoming Steampunk

I am so looking forward to Scott Westerfeld's Leviathan. It's due out October 6. Here's a trailer explaining what the story is about.

Dragon*Con 2009

Well, I didn't make it to nearly as many bookish events at D*Con as I'd planned. Actually, the convention is so huge, with hundreds of guest speakers, dozens of programming tracks and tens of thousands of attendees, it's pretty much a given that you'll only see a fraction of everything that's going on.

Probably, the most stunning thing is seeing so many of the costumed fans.

There were, as usual, plenty of stormtroopers to be found.

Steampunkers were in abundance this year. Think earth-tones, recycled and reused items in a future where Victorian aesthetic still holds sway. It's the future if the Industrial Revolution had never taken place, and ray guns were delicately hand-crafted with plenty of clockwork gears.

I even happened to run across, if you can believe it... a steampunk Boba Fett.

Mothstorm

Mothstorm: The Horror from Beyond Uranus Georgium Sidus!

by Philip Reeve

Bloomsbury USA Children's Books

2008

The third (and final?) installment in the Larklight series provides more of the fantastic steampunk Victorian sensibility made familiar to us in Larklight and Starcross. Honestly, this book could stand on it's own... but reading the first two in the series would be highly recommended. Some hilarious footnotes accompany the text, and as usual, David Wyatt's illustrations add much to the feel of the book. We are treated to a few of Myrtle's flowery diary pages, but Art is the main narrator.

It's Christmastime in the Year of Our Lord 1851 and the Mumby family has settled in for the holiday at their home, Larklight, a mansion located on one of the most distant asteroids of the British Empire. They are interrupted by the minor problem of space-faring pudding worm, which disguises itself as a raisin and eats Christmas puddings from the inside out. The major problem is that Georgium Sidus (aka Uranus) has sent a distress call, and the whole family goes out to investigate.

The omnipotence of Art's mother, in actuality a Shaper, or disembodied alien being who created and continues to influence the solar system for the past several millennia, is neatly sidestepped. Encountering an alternate Shaper in another solar system, we see a glimpse of how the world would be if ruled by a despot, rather than a gentle being committed to letting her creations have free will.

The brave and intrepid Charity Cruet provides a great balance to the ever fussy and proper Myrtle. She and Art seem well-suited to each other. Space-pirate Jack Havock and Myrtle's romance shows signs of not being over yet, as they find themselves thrown together again.

The mysteries of Ssilissa's origins are finally revealed. The quiet girl-lizard pilot on Jack Havock's ship turns out to be a member of the Snilth race, from far beyond our galaxy. The Snilth recognize in Ssilissa's knobby tail the former royal family of their people, and abandon their warlike ways to settle on Pluto with her as their queen.

I thought the attempt to rescue Jack's family from the Venusian tree virus could have taken up a whole book on it's own, but everything is rather quickly taken care of in the final chapter. Fans of the series will either be happy to see every loose end so neatly wrapped up, or (like me) wish that there were more. The book is coming out in paperback in November, so if you've missed it when it first came out, definitely consider adding this to your list of "must reads." And, it looks as if Larklight is in development as a movie to be released sometime in 2010, so I expect interest in this trilogy to continue.