The Leviathan Trilogy

Do you know that horrible sadness you get when you’ve just finished a really great book? I get that ALL THE TIME. Because I generally really like books. And I am obsessed with a genre that’s really really good at sucking you in, making you think that you’re part of that world, introducing you to characters that you think of as friends. And then it ends and it throws you out into the street alone. And it will never call unless it needs something. Like money. Or crack. And you just have to stand your ground. Don’t let it back into your life because you can’t be hurt like that again. You just can’t.

JK I reread books all the freakin’ time.

Like this one for instance:

I found it in the library when I was in a post-awesome-book slump and I thought it looked pretty promising. I mean, it has a pretty sweet cover, it says “#1 New York Times Bestselling Author” on it, and I’ve always kind of had a weird affinity for whales.

yeeeaeeeaaAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

And at this point, I just really needed something to pick me out of my slump. So I walked up to the front desk, checked it out, and immediately sat down and started reading it. (Side note: librarians frown upon this).

Now, remember when I listed all the promising things on the cover? I neglected to notice the tiny little words at the bottom. If I had seen them before I started the book, I never would have considered reading it.

The words say “illustrated by Keith Thompson”.

Ruh-roh.

I will gladly accept the fact that I enjoy reading books geared towards people eight years younger than me, but I find it a little hard to admit that I’m reading picture books. That is just a little bit too far below my age level.

Someone who had even an ounce of pride would probably put this book down, claim, “I’m too old for this shit” and storm off to read some Pittacus Lore.

But I’ve never been one for pride so I kept reading it.

And I finished it.

And I forgot absolutely everything about Leviathan.

I don’t mean to say that it is a forgettable book, it’s just that I don’t have the space in my brain to retain the details of every young adult book I read. I read SO MANY. You have NO IDEA. So I don’t even try to remember them because they’re really easy to re-read. And the part of my brain that remembers this sort of thing is already full. With every last detail and minutiae of the Harry Potter series. Do you want to play Harry Potter trivia sometime? I will OWN YOU.

This is me.

So last week I was in a depressed state after finishing the Trickster’s Choice series, and I needed another book to pull me out of it. I saw that Leviathan’s sequel was out and I kind of remembered liking it, so I checked out both Leviathan and its sequel, Behemoth.

It kind of worried me that both of the books’ titles are synonyms for “big”. Is Scott Westerfeld trying to compensate for something?

No, ladies. He isn’t.

This series is all sorts of well-endowed.

Even with the pictures! It took me a long time to come to terms with them but once I accepted the fact that they were there to stay, I actually realized just how useful they are. It’s really kind of hard some times to imagine exactly what Scott Westerfeld is describing, and having a freakin’ awesome picture right there is extraordinarily helpful. Usually I like to have my own interpretation of what characters or places look like, but Westerfeld’s places and characters are so weird that if the pictures weren’t there I would be TOTALLY lost.

Like this, for example.

So let me give you a little background on the story. This series is steampunk to the MAX. It’s a reimagining of World War I except the British and French are using genetically fabricated animals as weapons, and Germany and Austria are using machines that look like the ones from Avatar.

Except about 93% more badass.

The story follows Alek, an Austrian prince who’s parents’ murders start the war. He is being hunted because of his potential claim for the Emperor’s throne. We also follow Deryn, a Scottish girl who is posing as a boy in order to be a soldier aboard the airship Leviathan.

Oh, and one more thing.

Leviathan is a flying whale.

YEEEAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!

What’s shocking about these books is how accurate they are. A lot of the characters are based on real people, and the timeline of events is pretty much how it happened. And everyone knows that the Austrians rode mechanical horses that shot phosphorescent flares at their pursuees:

Like so.

Scott Westerfield wrote an afterward for both books explaining what in them is based on fact and what is made up. A shocking amount of it is historically sound so I definitely recommend this for parents who are concerned that their children don’t know enough about World War I. I know that that’s a rising concern in our country.

So I read both of these books in one week and then fell into my slump again. Who knows when the third and final book in the series will be released? I’ll have to reread them all again because I definitely won’t remember them by the time the third is out.

Then I remembered that there is such a thing as the internet, so I looked it up.

And guys, the third book came out YESTERDAY!!!!

This is probably the most excited I’ve ever been in my life.

I have been in possession of the new book for only a few hours, and in that time it has received love that would rival the Velveteen Rabbit. It’s called Goliath, which is a lot better than some of the titles I had guessed: Huge, Colossal, Brobdingnagian, Hulk, Huge Throbbing Member, etc.

I’m only a chapter in but I can tell it’s going to be a gem. As were it’s predecessors. GEMS ALL AROUND!!!!

The moral of this story is to never judge a book by it's age-appropriateness. It's also a plea for authors to write more books about whales. I have a serious fetish.

YEEEAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!

PHOTO CRED:

http://boingboing.net/2009/10/06/scott-westerfelds-le.html

http://smokeandmirrorsblog.com/2009/10/30/free-willy/

http://sophieplayle.com/the-visual-appeal-of-steampunk-scott-westerfelds-leviathan/

http://themindislimitless.blog.com/2010/11/11/leviathan-by-scott-westerfeld/

http://www.applesofmyeyes.com/page/3/

http://scottwesterfeld.com/books/leviathan/

Trickster's Choice

This book was recommended to me in middle school. You know why? Because the main love interest is "sooooo hawt!".

...calm down.

I’m not saying anything against my friend. She was young, she was excitable, and her hormones were raging.

Puberty lets you get away with all kinds of shit.

But I never trust that a book is worth reading just because a character is attractive. If books were judged by that standard, then Stephanie Meyer would be the most celebrated author of our time.

Literary greatness?

So I never got around to reading it at the time, but it was always at the back of my mind, toying with me, luring me to it, calling me: please, oh please, peruse my pages!

Nah I’m just kidding I totally forgot about it.

Until a few weeks ago when I saw it on my friend’s bookshelf. I asked her if it was good, she said yes, and so I decided to read it. I mean, if the book itself wasn’t good at least I knew that the love interest was cute, right?

But it didn’t matter. Because this book ROCKS!!!

But I do have to warn you, just in case you start reading this and hate it, then curse my name, then voodoo doll me, it starts out slow. It took me a loooooong time for me to become familiar with the world that Tamora Pierce has created. And let me tell you, has she put time into creating it. Tamora Pierce is one of the most prolific young adult writers I have every encountered and, I’m a little ashamed to say, this is the first book of hers that I’ve read. A ton and a half of her books, though, take place in the world of Trickster’s Choice, with different series starring different characters.

We got:

The Song of the Lioness series starring Alanna the Lioness, a girl who wants to be a knight:

The Immortals series starring Daine, a young mage who is discovering her powers:

Don't you wish you could model for things like this? And then find yourself in bookstores doing weird shit with butterflies? That's all I want.

Oh, and if you don't know what mage means, look it up. I'm encountering it more and more in the young adult books I read.

Then there's The Protecter of the Small series starring Kel, another girl who wants to be a knight like her idol, Alanna.

Am I the only one who feels just a little uncomfortable by that third one? I mean, it's literally just a picture of her chest.

Then comes the Trickster series starring Aly, Alanna’s only daughter.

Holy sequel, Batman! There's another one! YES.

And then, finally, the Beka Cooper series, which takes place 200 years before the start of the Alanna series:

This cover makes me want to piss myself a little.

Allllll of these stories take place here:

And the characters from different series interact with each other often. In other words, this has the potential to have an incredibly huge and geeky fanbase. And I’m pretty sure it does.

So, back to why Trickster’s Choice is the shit. Once I got acclimated to this new and very strange world with all it’s magic and immortal creatures and freaking unicorns and all that, I was able to appreciate the character of Aly. Now, she starts out the series as seeming like an unappreciative daughter who only cares about her looks and loves to meaninglessly flirt with local boys. But as the book goes on she surprises you. This girl knows her shit. Like reeeaaallly knows it. She gets kidnapped and turned into a slave and then becomes bodyguard to two of the most hunted girls in the kingdom, and she manages to keep her head, and save everyone’s ass, like, literally all the time. There is rarely a moment where Aly is not saving someone’s ass.

"We owe our asses to you."

She's also super good at persuading people to do whatever she wants. She keeps certain information from some people and then reveals it to others just to her advantage, so that she’s always holding all the cards. She’s scary good at this. Almost too good. There were moments when I was like, does she have flaws??? But, you know what, I got over it, because the plot was amazing, and I actually kind of liked that she was sort of invincible.

What makes this book so great is that it’s not a story of luck and chance. It’s a story of strategy. Everything that Aly does has a purpose in the long run and she is incredibly smart about it. Her foresight is freakin’ 20 20. It’s ridic. (that’s short for ridiculous. I like to shorten words. It saves ti).

It’s a mother flippin’ joy to read this book because you just want to know what Aly will do next and how she’s going to save the day. And it’s not like she’s saving the day by charging into huge armies with a lance and some throwing stars. Nooooooo she’s spying. She sneaks around pretending to be an innocent slave when in fact she’s searching through trunks and eavesdropping on important conversations.

It’s so boss!

So, guys, guess what? We have ourselves a GEM!!!

Tamora Pierce created this.

Now we know that young adult fantasy isn’t full of horrible writing, and dumbass characters that no one can relate to. Thank you Tamora Pierce for helping to save the integrity of the genre!!!!

Oh and the main love interest is totally cute. My middle school friend was so right.