One of the news reporters turns out to be Eddie Malone, an irritating man who stalked Alek and Deryn in the second book of the series. Deryn is asked to guide the film-maker and his men around the ship and she soon gets annoyed at their nosiness. Hearst who wants to capture “moving-pictures” of the Leviathan's arrival in New York. The storm blows the Leviathan across the Pacific to California where they are greeted by a Mr. Deryn still has not told Alek she is actually a girl.Ĭlick here to see the rest of this review

In the second book of the series, Behemoth, Alek tells Deryn that he not just an Austrian noble but the heir of the Austro-Hungarian throne. In exchange that the Leviathan give Alek and his men a lift away from the Germans, Alek helps attach an engine from his broken down Walker (a war machine that moves on two legs) onto the Leviathan, improving the airship's speed and maneuverability. Since meeting each other, Deryn and Alek have become steadfast friends, having survived many adventures together. The Leviathan is an airship that is essentially a giant whale-creature that flies by burning hydrogen produced from a symbiotic relationship with bacteria in its guts. In the first book of the series, she meets Alek when she rescues him and his men and bring them aboard the Leviathan.

Deryn Sharpe is a young English girl who has disguised herself as a boy in order to become an airshipman like her father. Alek is a Clanker but as the story progresses through the first and second books of the series, he becomes more at ease with the Darwinists, who are mostly British. In this world, allegiances are divided roughly into two groups: the Clankers (societies based on machines) and the Darwinists (societies based on genetically modified creatures). He and his most loyal men (among them a Count named Volger) successfully manage to elude them. After his father's assassination in the first book of this series (Leviathan) the Germans try to kill him in order to take full control of the countries under his rule. Alek is the legitimate heir of the Austro-hungarian throne and he is on the run from the Germans. This novel is an alternate historical sci-fi where main characters Alek and Deryn prevent a mad scientist from using his invention to kill innocent people, in a bid to end World War I.

Goliath book scott westerfeld