Leviathan

Quel plaisir de lire un tel roman ! Du Steampunk comme je l'aime : divertissant, intéressant et inspiré de l'Histoire réelle.

Scott Westerfeld imagine ici une Première Guerre Mondiale dans laquelle les deux camps s'affrontent avec des technologies très différentes : mécaniques pour l'Allemagne et l'Autriche-Hongrie avec les machines géantes, biologiques pour l'Angleterre où les découvertes de Darwin sont allées beaucoup plus loin que dans la réalité et ont permis de concevoir des animaux géants capables de voler, tels des zeppelins vivants.

Dans ce cadre original et sympathique, l'auteur nous propose de deux le destin de deux adolescents : d'une part Aleksander, le fils de l'archiduc d'Autriche dont la mort à Sarajevo au début de l'été 1914 déclenche la guerre ; d'autre part Deryn Sharpe, une jeune fille qui se fait passer pour un garçon pour être recrutée au sein de l'armée britannique.

C'est rythmé, fun, plaisant à lire : un très bon moment de détente. La suite m'attend, avec le deuxième volume de la trilogie. J'y cours !

This is like the store-brand version of [b:The Golden Compass|119322|The Golden Compass (His Dark Materials, #1)|Philip Pullman|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1436741101s/119322.jpg|1536771]. It's still pretty good, and better than nothing, but it's also kinda doing it a favour to compare them.

Premise: What if Archduke Ferdinand was murdered after 200 years of steampunk? What if he had a kid who survived him?

I liked the giant walking machines, and the giant biological constructs, but I never quite believed in them. I loved Deryn, who is crossdressing so she can serve in the air-corps, and although I believed in her, I had trouble believing in Alek, who seemed at times so naive I was guessing he was twelve when I was told he was fifteen.

I had the most trouble believing in Deryn's sudden sexual awareness of Alek, who is honestly a bit of a wet rag. She's a fifteen year-old girl who's serving on a ship full of men, and you're telling me Alek gets her motor running? Have you met fifteen year old boys? I detect and resent the invisible hand of the author, here.

This book is a delight.

It is a well-executed steampunk WWI AU with enjoyable characters and excellent pacing!

More than that it is the tale of Alek, the most adorably dopey Austrian prince OF ALL TIME, who wanders around being full of ~heart~ but a bit inept due to dopiness and Deryn, a girl masquerading as a boy in order to serve in the British air navy, who is essentially The Most Interesting Man in the World.

The story basically goes:

Alek: DOOFS IS WELL-MEANING
Deryn: saves the entire British air navy like three times destroys some German zeppelins with her bare hands or some shit
Alek: RETURNS FROM WANDERING INTO MACHINE GUN FIRE Oh, Mr. Sharp! You're so brave and noble and adventurous and daring. D-do you think we could possibly be friends?
Deryn: has an awkward moment just to see what it feels like I HAVE COME TO RAVISH YOU- UH...I MEAN. I'M A BOY. YES A BOY. ALLLLL BOY. B-O-Y. WE CAN TOTES BE FRIENDS. JUST FRIENDS. YES.
Alek: How amazing! WE WILL BE THE BEST OF FRIENDS. I would like to stay with you foreverrrr if I coooould.
Deryn: is consumed by lust for the rest of the day

In short, every time Deryn shows up it's like:

~OH "DYLAN" SHARP~

BODICES RIPPING

AUSTRIAN PRINCES TURNING GAY

And you love it.

Now that I have referenced enough Kate Beaton and ridiculous beer commercials, this review can end.

I wanted to like this book for the following reasons: I like alternate history. For instance, I happen to enjoy the works of writers like Harry Turtledove (though not as much lately). Two, it is steampunk, which is a genre I like. Why I did not like it? I found the pace a bit too slow to get into, and the teen protagonists are pretty predictable in their actions after a while. I won't give more away than that so that others may read it. Now, on the positive, the descriptions of this alternate world and the whole Clankers versus Darwinists setup is simply very well described. If they made an art book of this world, I would probably buy it. Basically, I liked the fictional world, but I did not care much for the characters.

In terms of appeal. I think a good number of young adult readers may find this book appealing (it is a YA novel). Those who liked the author's other novels will probably like this. It was ok, but I will not be seeking out the rest of the planned novels of this new series. I mostly picked it up because I saw it highlighted in John Scalzi's blog. Setting and concept was great, but a pity the plot is so slow and the protagonists so common.