Leviathan Series Second Book: Behemoth Review

Scott Westerfeld does it again. He wrote another edge-of-your-seat what’s-going-to-happen-next novel.

The second book in the Leviathan series, Behemoth, sees the war that started in the first book, heat up. Secrets that were kept by characters are revealed to other characters.

The last book, Leviathan, left Alek wondering about the importance of Dr. Barrow’s fabricated eggs.

Westerfeld is a master at creating a fantastical world.  This world is early on in the events of World War I.  Although the countries are familiar (Britain, Germany, Russia, Austria-Hungry, Ottoman Empire,) the means of warfare are foreign.  The British and their allies are Darwinists.  Their great ships and weapons are genetically engineered “beasties.”  For example, the ship Leviathan is like a giant floating whale that breathes hydrogen.  This makes it float in the air.  A hoard of other beasties inhabit the ship including glow worms that light the hallways and message lizards that run all over the ship giving messages to crew members.

The Germans and their allies are called Clankers and deal in mechanical weapons and engines.  They have walkers of all sizes.  I picture these to be similar to those in the movie The Empire Strikes Back when the Empire is attacking the Hoth base with their walker and giant dinosaur looking machines.  They also command blimps and iron-side ships.

The opening of Behemoth finds the Leviathan heading toward Istanbul on a diplomatic mission. In the opening chapters, the crew and Austrians aboard the massive flying beastie airship discover two German ironclads (what we would think of as traditional naval ships.) The German ships appear to be running, but attack the Leviathan with a new sort of weapon specifically aimed at bringing down the great British air beasts. The ship survives, but is wounded and Alek and his mind are branded traitors. They realize that they must try to escape when the airship docks in Istanbul. Of course things never go as planned.

Throughout the novel, Alek and Deryn struggle with where their loyalties lie as those around them make choices that lead the world further into war. Alek is forced to become a leader of his men and Deryn questions what’s best for her over what’s best for her country.

Through fate, Deryn and Alek become allies although their countries are on opposite sides of the war. Through their adventures on the Leviathan, the two come to trust each other. That trust is tested in Behemoth.

Another thing I enjoy when reading Westerfeld’s writing is his use of made up slang. The words can be normal words, but his characters adopt these words as slang. In the Uglies series (which I highly recommend reading) things were bubbly (good) or bogus (bad.)

In this series, Deryn often exclaims, “barking spiders!” She uses barking as her expletive/exclamatory of choice. She might say something like, “Alek, are you barking mad?” Deryn also uses the word squick to mean a short thing or a short distance.

These new uses and new words don’t disrupt reading. Actually, they add to the culture of the novel and the made up world.

While Midnighters and Uglies were series full of conspiracies, in this series, the characters all have big secrets they are keeping from each other.  Westerfeld switches between Alek and Deryn as storytellers so the reader is aware of the secrets and the characters’’ struggles to keep them.  We know at the beginning of the series that Alek is the only son of the Archduke of Austria-Hungry and in line for inheriting the throne.  Deryn wanted to be an airman so badly that she posed as a boy, Dylan, to get into the air force.  Her struggle to keep this secret becomes humorous at one point when Deryn is hit on by another female character.  Deryn is forced to choose giving up her secret or letting the girl hit on her.  She chooses the latter, keeping her secret.

I predict that her cover will be blown in a big way in the next and final book in the series.  Deryn will have to choose between her job as an airman (which she loves and is passionate about) and revealing that she’s a girl.  I think that Alek’s life will be in danger and she’ll have to give up the secret to save him.

As with Leviathan, Behemoth ends with a question.  The next book, Goliath, is due out on September 13, 2011.  I’m going to have it sent right to my Kindle on release day.