Reading: Goliath by Scott Westerfeld

Goliath by Scott Westerfeld is the third in a series set during a WWI alternate universe. In it, the two warring factions are called the Darwinists (or Allied Powers in real life) and the Clankers (or Central Powers). Darwinists believe in evolution (remember high school science?) and create beasts made up of several creatures. Clankers are the nuts and bolts side that believe mechanics is the way to go. You still there? Good.

Now add an Austrian Clanker prince, Alek, onto a floating beastie ship along with a girl, Deryn, pretending to be a boy so she can serve in the Royal British Air Service and mix for three books. Anyway, the point of view jumps between Alek and Deryn as they travel around the globe in the airship Leviathan.


In the book, there is no traditional villain. The Germans serve as a sort of Stormtrooper bad guy, in that they are just kind of annoyingly there and never seem to hit their targets. Nikola Tesla is the closest thing to a villain character because he plans to use his machine Goliath to bring peace to the world. I wish this book had delved into the issue of "for the greater good", but I guess I can't expect too much from a book meant for young tweens.



Keith Thompson



Best part of the book series would have to be the illustrations. Scattered throughout the pages you see full page illustrations to just tiny characters like this perspicacious loris, one of the fabricated creatures of the Darwinists. With such a creative concept of creatures vs. machines, it helps to have visual guides to what it all looks like. The world Westerfeld created feels real with these illustrations or perhaps as real as a book featuring floating whale ships could possibly be.

Overall, I liked this series. It had: secret identities, fantastical beasts, forbidden romance, history, illustrations, steampunk elements. I don't know what else I could want in a young adult book.