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
|