That Is One Big Monster

Hello everybody, I hope you are all staying warm and cozy during this cold snap.  Please stay safe and have plenty of books to read when the electricity goes out.  Speaking of electricity I finished the book Behemoth, which is the second book in Scott Westerfeld's, Leviathan series set in an alternate WWI era.  Ok so maybe the two don't have a whole lot to do with each other, but I never said segues were my specialty.  I finished this book on my epic road trip of reading and craziness and am now ready to ramble on about it.  As always SPOILERS AHEAD!

We start our story a little while after the first book ends. We find our Austrian Prince in hiding Alek attempting to teach his British friend Midshipman Dylan (really a girl named Deryn in disguise) to fence aboard the now hybrid air ship Leviathan.  They soon get into a fight with two German sea ships called ironclads who decide to show off their new weapon, the Tesla Tower, which is essentially a super cool lightning tower!  The Leviathan is disabled, but is able to limp to the Ottoman Empire who at this point is still supposedly neutral in the coming conflict.  At this point we learn that the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire had commissioned Britain to fabricate (I love that term) a ship an its companion creature called the

Osman and Behemoth respectively. Both were produced and both were spectacular and both were kept by the British Empire to help them with the upcoming war.  The government told the Sultan that they were merely "borrowing" them and that they would be given over after the conflict was resolved.  This obviously makes for shaky ground for any British ship landing on Ottoman soil.  News finally gets out about the missing Prince and Alek and his men decide their best bet would be to make a run for it rather then become political prisoners of Britain. Alek is watching the weird eggs that made an appearance in the last book and one hatches right before he tries to escape.  The creature that emerges is a small monkey type creature that can produce incredible sounds.  It keeps screaming until Alek takes it with him, later learning the creature has imprinted on him.  Alek makes good his escape with a few of his men. Deryn goes with Dr. Barlow to present one of the eggs to the Sultan and try and mend the fences as it were.  When they get there it is apparent that the Germans have already made there move and are allied with the Sultan in all but official tidings. The egg is crushed and to prevent the Sultan from making Leviathan  leave, she tells him that they are offering it in place of the Osman.  This gives the Leviathan a few more days in dock to decide what to do about the iron clads with the dreaded Tesla cannons. Alek has met a man named Zaven, his daughter Lilit and Nene, Zaven's mother and the leader of the revolutionists.  The group is trying to figure out how to overthrow the Sultan using the various walkers that guard the different parts of the
city and are under control of the citizens.  The problem being that they are not allowed to be armed and are therefor no match for any of the big mechanical s that the army uses.   Meanwhile Deryn has been given a mission to plant carnivorous metal eating barnacles to massive nets strung across the channel that prevents the Darwinists from using any of their big sea monsters.   Her team is caught while she is underwater (using the coolest, weirdest, ookiest wetsuit ever) and she must find a way to escape.  She swims across the channel into what seems to be a ship yard and is nearly run over by the Orient Express, here complete with a steaming Dragon engine.  She makes good her escape and eventually hooks up with Alek who has found himself some friends in Istanbul.  Deryn makes the suggestion that they use "spice bombs", essentially bags of eye watering spices that can be lobbed into the mechanicals of the opposing side. Being the DIL of a pepper farmer I can tell you that this is quit effective.  The team goes into action, with a kind of twisted yet hilarious love triangle happening, probably the best use of the dreaded love triangle ever!  Seriously go read it, it's funny.  Alek convinces Deryn that by helping the revolution, they are also helping the Leviathan by destroying the Tesla towers to that it can lead the Behemoth in to destroy the iron clads which helps the revolution and may prevent the Ottoman Empire from going to war on either side.  All goes pretty much according to plan, the mech walkers destroy the Tesla towers, the nets dissolve and allow the airships to guide the Behemoth through the channel into the harbor to destroy the iron clads.  Unfortunatly Zaven is killed and one of Alek's men is injured.  Deryn convinces Alek to bring his men aboard the Leviathen and continue his quest to stop the war from there.  The whole ship now knows that Alek is the lost prince and actually treat him with honor and respect.
 The book ends there with the promise of heading to the Far East in the conclusion of the trilogy.

I have to say I really enjoyed this book.  In general I like the Darwinist/beasties side of this world better, but seeing the Clanker/mech side portrayed through the Ottoman Empire definitely gave it some real flavor.  I liked the setting for this book (the author actually went to Istanbul to get an authentic take on it, which I think really came through).  So often we think of WWI being a strictly European conflict, forgetting that the lines of countries and relationships were much different then.  The characters as always are great, I have come to seriously love Dylan/Deryn.  Her practicality and scratchiness (I don't know how else to put it) crack me up all the time.  I thought that the plot was a bit more exciting in this book then the first one, but I did miss some of the beasties (though there was still plenty), I guess since the first book had so much Darwinist stuff, it was only fair to put in more Clanker stuff this book...at least the author did it with flair.  I like how the author

treated his requisite love triangle.  We know from the last book that Deryn is probably in love with Alek, who has no idea that s/he is a girl and just really likes him as a friend he was never allowed to have growing up.  Enter Lilit who instantly causes Deryn to be jealous of her assumed love of Alek...until Alek informs Dylan that Lilit is really in love with him (who is really a her).  At the end Lilit implies that she knows that Dylan is actually a Deryn before whisking away to continue her fathers revolution.  The alternate history is always fun, with enough truth to make it recognizable, and enough fiction to make it enjoyable.  I find this to be less of a steampunk series and more of a alternate history series...which may be what steampunk is, but that is for another post.  The beastie that hatched from the egg is interesting with its ability to perceive much more then most humans, and it's unsettling way of conveying information.  I think that this little guy will possibly play a bigger part in the last book.  I am looking forward to see how this series finishes up and recommend this book at least as much as the first.  Oh yeah and it has the same awesome illustrator Keith Thompson as the last book.  I give this book 7 out of 10 beasties.
What kind of fabrication do you prefer mech or beastie?  Do you like alternate histories or do the inaccuracies drive you crazy?  Do I take way to much glee in twisted triangles?