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[ Currently: Editing a podcast while my son plays. ]
As the author of the Uglies series, Scott Westerfield is a YA publishing superstar. His books have sold millions of copies, an justifiably so. His Uglies series is easily one of the best bits of sci-fi written in the last five or ten years. Adult, YA or kids – that was a good sereis.
Leviathan is the first book of his new steampunk trilogy and it is a solid outing. Set in WWI Westerfield’s vision pits the traditional machines of steampunk against the invented life forms of gene manipulation. The Darwinists are the latter, and they have mastered genetic science in a way we only dream of. This has allowed them to create life forms that take the place of machinery. Instead of zepplins, they pilot giant hydrogen inflated relatives of whales that themselves host a complete ecosystem of hydrogen sniffers and glow worms. The Darwinists make up the countries that we know as the Triple Entete, Britain, France and Russia.
The countries that are using the advanced machines are known as the clankers and they make up the Central Powers or Triple Aliance, specifically Germany, Austria-Hungary and Turkey.
In this world we meet Alex, the sole heir to Franz Ferdinan, yes, that Franz Ferdinan, who is suddenly thrust into the world of politics when his parents are murdered. He flees to Switzerland with a small group of tutors and loyal retainers. On the British side, we meet Deryn, a young woman who desperately wants to be an airman. The only problem, girls are not allowed. So Daryn becomes Dylan and joins the air service, working as a midshipman on the flagship of the British air service, Leviathan. Their two worlds collide when the Leviathan crashes in the valley where Alex is hiding. Both young people are pulled into the murk that is WWI.
Westerfield has created a masterful tale that weaves together history and an inventive twist on steampunk. I am sure someone will correct me, but I have not seen a lot of genetic manipulation in steampunk. This may be the invention of a new subgenre. What should we call it? Genepunk? Clonepunk?
Go get this.
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