Another Review at MyShelf.Com

Behemoth
Second in a trilogy
Scott Westerfeld

Simon and Schuster
November 2010/ ISBN 9781847386755
Teenage Fantasy /Steampunk / 1914 / Alternative version of England and Europe
Amazon US || UK

Reviewed by Rachel A Hyde

A year after Leviathan (also reviewed on this site) made its triumphant debut, Deryn and Alek are back for some more steampunk adventures. All this takes place in an alternative 1914 where the First World War has begun, but not quite as we know it. This is a place where Darwinists create fantastic beasts and battle Clankers who create fantastic machines. The intrepid pair and their friends and foes are where we left them aboard the live airship Leviathan, but not for long. On board is a secret cargo of mysterious eggs, bred by “lady boffin” Dr Barlow and bound for the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire. Istanbul is their destination, but nothing is going to go quite according to plan…

If you have enjoyed the novels of Stephen Hunt and yearn for some more steampunk adventures then this will suit admirably. This is quite a tubby tome but the pace rattles merrily along, not merely because of the thrilling adventures but also because of Mr Westerfeld’s imagination. Alternate realities work well if the author has taken the trouble to make them enough unlike what truly happened and are not merely a slight tweaking of events. Here is a 1914 that bears little resemblance to history, but enough to make the fantasy parts work well and be great fun. You don’t even need to rely just on the descriptions either as the book is filled with Keith Thompson’s attractive pencil illustrations that suit the mechanical and antique subject matter very well indeed, and add something further. The only alloy in here is perhaps the fact that the mighty Behemoth of the title is something of an anti-climax, and most readers are sure to be distracted by everything else that is going on rather than this rather brief final skirmish. This aside, here is speculative fiction at its most enjoyable, and is sure to appeal to anybody who likes this sort of thing whether they are teenagers or adults. I await the next installment eagerly.

Reviewer's Note: US edition is different

Reviewed 2011
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