:P) But anyway, they're both still very likable characters and you can't help but sympathize with them.Īnd I have to say, the romance is just.

(I feel like Westerfeld's female characters are always more kickass than his male characters. Ahhh, I love them! I think Deryn is a slightly stronger character than Alek––both literally and figuratively. There's already a lot of great world-building in the prose, but the illustrations really help to bring the story to life. He draws everything in such amazing detail, with so much to look at. Sometimes I would just want to sit there and stare for five minutes. A lot of credit for these books' awesomeness must go to Keith Thompson, because his drawings are stunning. The machines and creatures he creates are super cool, and the books in general have a very distinct, gritty atmosphere to them that separates them from his other novels. It's awesome how he draws inspiration from actual history and puts such an original spin on it. And he really steps it up with this series. It's such a wonderful book and such a terrific ending to the series.įirst of all, as I've already mentioned, Westerfeld's world-building never disappoints. I really liked Leviathan and Behemoth, but I LOOOVED Goliath. And they just get better as they go along. Well, I guess that's about all I can say without giving a rundown of the entire plot. Our two main characters are Alek, the prince of Austria whose parents have recently been murdered, and Deryn, a girl pretending to be a boy named Dylan so that she can fight in the air service.

The story takes place on one of the 'airbeasts' called the Leviathan. In case you haven't read these books and know nothing about them (shame on you), they're about an alternate WWI, fought between the 'Darwinists' and the 'Clankers.' The Clankers use machines as airships/weapons, while the Darwinists use giant, fabricated animals. It's hard to beat his previous series like Uglies and Midnighters, but I think he just may have done it with the Leviathan trilogy.įirst of all, the premise is so freaking awesome I want to explode when I think about it. Sure, some are better than others, but they always have such awesome world-building, they're always exciting, and they're always a ton of fun to read.

I don't think I've ever been disappointed by a Scott Westerfeld book. See his work at WESTERFELD, WHY YOU SO AMAZING? Like, seriously. Visit him at or follow him on Twitter at Thompson’s work has appeared in books, magazines, TV, video games, and films. His other novels include the New York Times bestseller Afterworlds, the worldwide bestselling Uglies series, The Last Days, Peeps, So Yesterday, and the Midnighters trilogy. Scott Westerfeld is the author of the Leviathan series, the first book of which was the winner of the 2010 Locus Award for Best Young Adult Fiction.

Leviathan behemoth goliath