Today's post will be a review of the first book in Scott Westerfeld's YA steampunk Leviathan series.
Book One: Leviathan (released October 2009)
This isn't so much a review as it is a mash note. I loved this book. The world Westerfeld has created is an alternative-early 20th century as the European powers are moving toward WWI. The alternative part? The world is divided into proponents of evolutionary tinkering (Darwinists) and proponents of steam-powered mechanization (Clankers). The Brits and their allies are Darwinists, and the Austro-Hungarian/Germans are Clankers.
Deryn is a fifteen year old girl who disguises herself as a boy so that she can join the British Air Service, which uses great Beasties resembling squid filled with hydrogen. She loves to fly, and she has to protect her secret at all costs, or she risks being stuck forever on the ground.
Alek is the son of the murdered Archduke, on the run from his own people and the Germans with only a few loyal men to help him run his mechanical Stormwalker (which looks a bit like ED-209 from Robocop) to the safety of the Swiss border.
The characters are believable and the story is engaging--Alek and Deryn are thrown together and have to learn to trust each other despite being on opposing sides of the coming War. Keith Thompson's illustrations are fantastic (in all senses of the word) and a welcome addition to the text.
I loved the book, and I devoured it in two sittings. Highly recommended, especially if you are a history or science buff. Westerfeld has done his homework, and his creations (both Clanker and Beastie) are believable. I found myself wishing I could get a ride on the Leviathan myself.
Next review: Book Two: Behemoth (released October 2010)
I haven't had much time online this week (a good thing) but I am getting my remaining brain cells together to review a few books for the Steampunk Challenge:
- Leviathan and Behemoth by Scott Westerfeld
- Boneshaker and Dreadnought by Cherie Priest
- The Windup Girl and Shipbreaker by Paolo Baciagalupi
- Soulless, Changeless, and Blameless [The Parasol Protectorate] by Gail Carriger (and by the time I get to it, probably Heartless as well, as it's due out July 1)
- Steampunk ed. Ann VanderMeer and Jeff VanderMeer
- The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers
These have all been reviewed elsewhere, and the Steampunk Scholar is a far more in-depth resource (and should be since it's his PhD thesis)--but I'd like to take a crack at them too.
...I've just been buried under an avalanche of student writing. As a composition teacher with three sections, I get 24 papers per section every time I collect an assignment, each of which takes at least 20 minutes to grade. I also teach Early American Literature, so I get journals, papers, and now midterm essays to work through.
I really want to write for the Steampunk Challenge but I have to get out from under these piles of papers first.
I have started reading Cherie Priest's Dreadnought in the late evenings the last few days, instead of catching up with "The Big Bang Theory". I am finding it better reading than Boneshaker and Mercy Lynch a more engaging heroine than Briar Wilkes.
That's all I've got for now.
Mamalayne, out.
Today's is the first post for the year-long Steampunk Challenge put on by Rikki Donovan. From October 1, 2010 to September 30, 2011, I will be reading and reviewing works of the science fiction sub-genre known as steampunk.
I am choosing to take it as a fairly broad category; some critics will only call a work steampunk if its setting is an alternate-Victorian era (e.g. George Mann's The Affinity Bridge and its sequel, The Osiris Ritual) as opposed to a society whose technology is dependent on steam power. Others (myself included) are inclined to be a bit looser, if only because it adds to the pool of cool books to choose from.
Here is my [initial, unofficial, in-no-particular-order] list:
- Boneshaker and Dreadnought, by Cherie Priest
- The Diamond Age, by Neal Stephenson
- The Difference Engine, by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling
- The Affinity Bridge and The Osiris Ritual by George Mann
- The Anubis Gates, by Tim Powers
- Steampunk, edited by Ann Vandemeer
- Steampunk Prime, edited by Mike Ashley
- The Strange Affair of Spring-Heeled Jack, by Mark Hodder
- The Parasol Protectorate (Soulless, Changeless, Blameless, and [forthcoming] Heartless, by Gail Carriger
Each of these falls under the narrower definition of steampunk, though I will also be reviewing Ship Breaker and The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi (these are set in a climatologically altered future where fossil fuels are gone/nearly gone and the remaining people are forced to improvise). All of them are readily available through Amazon (some are new, some not so much).
My first exposure to the genre came with The Difference Engine, and I have been steadily building my collection. I look forward to reading (or in some cases re-reading) these books and getting into good discussions with my fellow Steampunk Challenge participants.
The first of my reviews (forthcoming, after I've graded my most recent batch of 72 composition papers) will be on The Difference Engine by my favorite SF author bar none, William Gibson (written in conjunction with his co-author Bruce Sterling).
