Book One of Leviathan Series
Rating: Three out of Five Stars
I am a huge Scott Westerfeld fan after the Uglies series. It’s on my “Ultimate Top Favorite Series” list so I thought I would push my boundaries a little bit with a an author I enjoy. So cheers to me for frolicking into the meadow of steam-punk land hand in hand with my good friend Scotty! Whoo!
Unfortunately, I was kind of punched in the face by a meadow tiger with this book. I hadn’t really done any research on steam punk before but I figured “how different could it be?”. Being a SciFi, fantasy, dystopia, post-apocolyptic genre lover I talk A LOT about WSOD (Willing Suspension of Disbelief). For those that don’t know what it means, it’s basically how far can an author push a made-up world/plot in story before your brain goes “this is too surreal for me to enjoy”. Leviathan exploded my WSOD. The concepts were just too crazy for my meek mind to handle. The only way I had any idea what was happening was because of the pictures that Westerfeld inserted into the chapters. I read a lot of crazy shit, dragons that talk, mind magic, hell I love the batshit crazy world of Alice in Wonderland! But this history meets furturistic technology, Darwin meets Apple, Inc. Holy crap balls, what a ride.
Needless to stay, I like to be punched once in awhile. It’s the only way to learn and grow and all that jazzy jazz. I like the overall plot and characters, even though it was all a tich bit Bourne Identity-ish (they NEVER get hurt? WTH!) and happenstance may be a little TOO coincidental.
If you are looking at moving into steam punk, this a good book to ease into. I will read the rest of the series eventually, but I think I need to get my bearings again, do a little research so I can comprehend the basics so that next time I will enjoy it and not play catch up the whole time.
So while frolicking may not have happened, I tripped and stumbled into a quite enjoyable genre, once I have background. Snaps for new books!
Rattle The Stars 
Tell me what you think!