Leviathan

The book in which I will be basing my third year minor project on is a steampunk novel written by the American author, Scott Westerfeld.

The first book of the trilogy, “Leviathan” was released on the 6^th of October 2009 and won the Aurealis award later on that year for best young adult novel.

The triology consists of Leviathan, Behemoth and Goliath, all which are set in an alternate version of world war one.

Synopsis from the back of the book –

“Two opposing forces on the brink of war

The Clankers, who put their faith in machinery, are squaring up to the Darwinists, who have begun evolving living creatures into tools. Prince Aleksandar, the would be heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, comes from a family of Clankers, and travels the country in a walker, a heavily fortified tank on legs.

Deryn Sharp, a girl disguised as a boy, works for the British Empire. Crewing an airship made of living animals – the ultimate flying machine. Now, as Alek runs from his own people, and Deryn crash lands in enemy territory, their lives are about to collide.”

Clanker – Clankers are countries that use steam-driven iron machines who are more commonly referred to as Clanker nations. The main Clanker nations are Germany and Austria Hungary, the central powers.

Darwinists – Like the name, Darwinist countries employ fabricated animals as their weaponry. An example of this is the British airship Leviathan, which is a Whale airship. The countries of this faction include Britain, France, Russia, Belgium, Serbia and Japan