Leviathan!

Leviathan: a sea monster, identified in different passages with the whale and the crocodile, and with the devil, a very large aquatic creature, esp. a whale.
Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld, is a book that is based on World War One in 1914. Fifteen year old Deryn Sharp is a free spirited girl, who wants a chance be an airman like her father. Unfortunately in 1914, women didn’t have rights as men do today. To realize her dream, she must dress as a boy named Dylan, and fool everyone into thinking that there is nothing more to her than shortly cropped hair, and a gruff voice. She means to employ into the air service with her brother Jaspert, but she gets into an accident and winds up on the most famous ship in all of England, the Leviathan.
Meanwhile, Aleksander Ferdinand, the prince of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, is on the run from his own people. With his parents (the Archduke and his wife) murdered, everything he owns including his title, is worthless. His loyal crew and a Stormwalker (a mechanical machine that walks on two legs) is all he has to protect him. Through the course of the war, events begin to happen that allows Alek and Dylan/Deryn to meet up with each other and form an unlikely friendship and ally.
Scott Westerfeld creates a story that includes biology and machines. British, France, and Russia are Darwinists Empires. Meaning they create and evolve creatures that are able to do a variety of things. Lizards can give messages, giant Jellyfish can be be used as a hot air balloon, and the airship Leviathan, is a fabricated whale with many creatures supporting it.
The Austro-Hungarian empire, and the Germans are Clankers, meaning they use machines to replace things they use in warfare and daily life. Machines that walk on two, four, six legs are common. Advanced weaponry and inventions virtually have no limit.
To tell you the truth, the beginning of the book, was dull for me. Especially the parts when Alek was narrating. His sections of the book didn’t hold that much interest for me, but when he met up with Deryn/Dylan, things change much more dramatically, and begin to get interesting. Leviathan is a enjoyable book with a lot of history involved. He does a unique job of mixing fantasy, history, and technology into one book.
 
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