Book Review-Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld

Title: Leviathan
Author: Scott Westerfeld
Series: Leviathan #1
Published by: Simon & Schuster 2010
Length: 448 pages
Warnings: None
Other factsWesterfeld has also written the Peeps and Uglies series, the Midnighters and a short story in Zombies vs Unicorns.
Summary from Goodreads: Prince Aleksander, would-be heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, is on the run. His own people have turned on him. His title is worthless. All he has is a battletorn war machine and a loyal crew of men.
Deryn Sharp is a commoner, disguised as a boy in the British Air Service. She's a brilliant airman. But her secret is in constant danger of being discovered.
With World War I brewing, Alek and Deryn's paths cross in the most unexpected way…taking them on a fantastical, around-the-world adventure that will change both their lives forever.
Review: The first thing that attracted me to this was the beautiful steam-punk cover to the second book, Behemoth. The blurb gave me high hopes, and I really wasn't disappointed. I didnt like  Westerfeld's Uglies series, but this is something completely different, and it fits steampunk perfectly.The idea of warships made of machinery and animals, cross dressing, lady boffins and world war 1 thrown together with humour was pulled off perfectly. I liked the strong personalities of all of the characters, from the main ones Alek and Devyn, to the extremely irritating  midshipman who is featured in a total of about two pages. Every single one is well fleshed out, believable and easy to connect with. So much happens in this book, that you would not believe that the second half of this happens over a time period of four days. Four days. You can fit a lot into four days in real life, but its unbelievable that that much could happen in said time period. That fact is a reminder of exactly  how fast paced and thrilling the whole thing is, ie very. To top it off, Keith Thompson's illustrations are extremely beautiful, breaking up the lines of text and adding that little finishing touch to the book.

Overall: This book gets strength 5 tea because it was so good, that I literally stayed up until midnight to finish this, and I'm sure you'll want to as well.

Nina xxx