A review by scribesprite
Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld
4.0
The style came easily to me even if it is my first historical sci-fi book. I usually avoid sci-fi for the reason that they usually have long series. I read somewhere that there is a sequel to Leviathan but I forgot. I probably would've read the book anyway though because Deryn is a girl disguised as a boy and that in and of itself would hook me to almost any book.
Absolutely loved the whole Darwinist v. Clanker bit. The fact that Westerfeld really made it fit so easily without making everything overly complicated was greatly appreciated. I haven't read a book with pictures in it in a long long time and I have to say that I actually thought it was great. Usually when I struggle with creating images I just keep rereading it, but the drawings really helped and I could tell the illustrator thought through his illustrations.
The characters Deryn and Alek are well developed. At first I didn't like Alek because he seemed so immature for a 16 year old aristocrat but he grows throughout the book. Deryn’s point of view is what I was looking forward to and she is what I hoped she would be. She is tough and smart even without the education that Alek has. Alek’s immaturity lessens and his feelings of entitlement do too. As the book progressed I could like both characters equally. I also enjoyed the secondary characters: some are funny, some are just so darn loyal, and some are mysterious.
But I couldn't get rid of the nagging feeling that these two characters seem younger than 15 and 16. The book was more juvenile than I thought it would be -though that alone probably would not have stopped me from giving it 5 stars. The truth is that I really have no other complaints, it just didn't grip me completely. But I'm definitely going to read the sequel. I just gotta know...
Absolutely loved the whole Darwinist v. Clanker bit. The fact that Westerfeld really made it fit so easily without making everything overly complicated was greatly appreciated. I haven't read a book with pictures in it in a long long time and I have to say that I actually thought it was great. Usually when I struggle with creating images I just keep rereading it, but the drawings really helped and I could tell the illustrator thought through his illustrations.
The characters Deryn and Alek are well developed. At first I didn't like Alek because he seemed so immature for a 16 year old aristocrat but he grows throughout the book. Deryn’s point of view is what I was looking forward to and she is what I hoped she would be. She is tough and smart even without the education that Alek has. Alek’s immaturity lessens and his feelings of entitlement do too. As the book progressed I could like both characters equally. I also enjoyed the secondary characters: some are funny, some are just so darn loyal, and some are mysterious.
But I couldn't get rid of the nagging feeling that these two characters seem younger than 15 and 16. The book was more juvenile than I thought it would be -though that alone probably would not have stopped me from giving it 5 stars. The truth is that I really have no other complaints, it just didn't grip me completely. But I'm definitely going to read the sequel. I just gotta know...