Son of the assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand and heir to the Austrian empire, Alek is on the run (in a giant walking machine) from the relatives and politicians who would rather see him dead. Meanwhile, Deryn is masquerading as a boy (Dylan) in the British navy, learning to work on the mostly-alive airships. Their paths intersect when Deryn’s airship — on a mysterious mission to the Ottoman Empire — Leviathan crash-lands near Alek’s hideaway in Switzerland.
This was my first foray into steampunk, and I'm honestly not sure what I thought of it. I liked some of the characters (Deryn, in particular), but something about the giant walking machines and animal-based airships seems like it would work better in a visual medium. Westerfeld did a great job of describing everything and there are plenty of illustrations (wonderfully done by illustrator Keith Thompson), but I'm still not sold on the genre. That said, I'm going to have to read the rest of this trilogy, since the end was rather abrupt and leaves everything (including an airship) up in the air.
Don't let this one put you off Steampunk! I recommend Cherie Priest's Boneshaker for another shot at it. Or, if you don't mind mixing in some paranormal romance, Gail Carriger's Soulless series (bonus: Soulless won the Alex Award as best Adult/YA crossover, so you might be able to use it for your YA Lit class!).
ReplyDelete