Booklog: Behemoth (Westerfeld / Thompson)

[nebroadwe]

Scott Westerfeld, Behemoth (illustrated by Keith Thompson)

Sequel to Leviathan. War has broken out among the Great Powers of Europe -- the Clanker empires of Germany and Austria-Hungary with their machines versus the Darwinist nations of Great Britain, France and Russia with their fabricated beasts. Caught in the middle on the British airship Leviathan are Alek, son of the late Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary and his morganatic wife Sophie, and Midshipman Dylan Sharp, born Deryn and masquerading as a boy to achieve her dreams of flight. After an indecisive engagement with a German warship armed with a Tesla cannon, the Leviathan limps into Istanbul (not Constantinople!), a hotbed of diplomatic activity as the British and the Germans each attempt to woo the Ottoman Sultan to their side. Meanwhile, Alek, escaping into the city to hide, discovers a democratic revolution brewing in the streets, while Deryn is given her first command, a sabotage mission to clear the way for the ship-crushing Behemoth. But secrets will out (especially with a clever Austrian count, a nosy American reporter, and a perspicacious loris or two sniffing around) and the thing about battles is that one squick of bad luck can make all your plans go pear-shaped ...

Westerfeld keeps the action and intrigue coming, tweaking history to hold off the end of the Ottoman sultanate so that our protagonists can fall in with the multi-ethnic Committee for Union and Progress (most of whose internal workings are kept off-stage, sadly), but hanging on to the ascendancy of Admiral Wilhelm Suchon in the Turkish court to set up a climactic land-air-sea engagement. (Oh, and letting Nikolai Tesla actually perfect his death-ray, which makes a stellar visual for the illustrations.) Alek and Deryn continue to be engaging point-of-view characters: Alek begins to take charge of his own destiny (under heaven, as he says -- though I could wish for a bit more attention to the Austrians' religious sensibilities; can't Volger at least cross himself when he speaks of the Pope's death?) and Deryn's masquerade strains at the seams even as she engages in conventionally successful boyish heroics (e.g. rescuing an ambassadorial party from terrorists almost single-handed. Booyah!). Her internal acknowledgment of the futility of her crush on Alek has a terrifying blind spot that promises trouble in Tokyo (the third book's potential destination, whee! I can't wait to see what Westerfeld makes of Taishou Japan this coming October). I'm rather surprised that Dr. Barlow hasn't twigged to "Dylan's" identity by now, but she does have a lot on her mind -- the hatching of that mysterious clutch of eggs from the previous book into perspicacious lorises merely deepens the mystery surrounding her purposes. (What is that woman up to?) Hopefully all will tie up neatly in Goliath, book the third-and-last.

Excellent stuff; highly recommended. A further recommendation: the fanworks of Julia156, who writes very clever, very well-researched Alek/Deryn in a lovely pastiche of Westerfeld's style.

Comments

[ishte.livejournal.com]

Waii! Tesla Cannon FTW!!!

[nebroadwe.livejournal.com]

Tesla cannon and naval ironclads v. giant live airship and clanks armed with [low-tech spoiler]. Life is good.