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A review by ellie_bronte
Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld
3.0
The book alternates between two stories; Aleksandar who is orphaned at the book's beginning and is on the run with his most trusted servants, and Deryn who poses as a guy to join the Air Service. I'm a fan of books that bounce between points of view, to tell the story in a different manner from what is considered to be fact, and the specific personality that tells it. Weird enough, it took me about 8 weeks to finish this book and not because it was a difficult read, but I just wasn't compelled to pick it up. Finally, around page 150 things picked up and I finished it all in a matter of hours, but beforehand I was a little lost. In a world that is fabricated the reader is thrown into the story without much explanation, needing to pick clues from what is being said in order to piece together the world. Maybe that's what took me so long to get into it... But the illustrations was a smart idea to keep me hooked, visualizing the creatures and machines so not too much of the book was focused on explanation.
The story concept itself is amazing, the conflict between the Darwinists and Clankers. I was both fascinated and disturbed by the flying sea creatures and the talking lizards, and it's always a plus to feel conflicted over an idea. Once I got over the 150 page hurtle Alek and Deryn were great characters; I didn't have a problem with anyone in the cast. I especially loved when the two narrators finally met because it was then I noticed how different they were, from mannerisms to dialect. One of the problems I had with it was toward the end, where things one after the other just kept happening to the cast, creating victims of circumstance instead of people who were driving the story. I know a war is very random, and being victimized frequently happens but I found myself dozing off when it became one blow after the next. But besides that, my favorite aspect of the writing were the voices, which again, was amazing with the two points of view.
First books a lot of the time are a little boring since everything is trying to be established, but I can't wait to get my hands on the next book now that I plowed through the first.
The story concept itself is amazing, the conflict between the Darwinists and Clankers. I was both fascinated and disturbed by the flying sea creatures and the talking lizards, and it's always a plus to feel conflicted over an idea. Once I got over the 150 page hurtle Alek and Deryn were great characters; I didn't have a problem with anyone in the cast. I especially loved when the two narrators finally met because it was then I noticed how different they were, from mannerisms to dialect. One of the problems I had with it was toward the end, where things one after the other just kept happening to the cast, creating victims of circumstance instead of people who were driving the story. I know a war is very random, and being victimized frequently happens but I found myself dozing off when it became one blow after the next. But besides that, my favorite aspect of the writing were the voices, which again, was amazing with the two points of view.
First books a lot of the time are a little boring since everything is trying to be established, but I can't wait to get my hands on the next book now that I plowed through the first.