LARS'S LIBRARY: MY REVIEW OF SCOTT WESTERFELD'S "LEVIATHAN"

LEVIATHAN. By Scott Westerfeld. Illustrated by Keith Thompson. Simon and Shuster Children's Publishing, 2010. 464 pages.

Aleksander, a prince barred from his throne, is up past his bedtime in 1914, playing with tin soldiers. Given who he is, it follows that in this imaginary battle, the French and British forces stand "no chance against the might of the Austro-Hungarian Empire."

What prevents the boy from becoming king is his mother, Sophie. Franz Ferdinand married her for love rather than dynastic succession, and children of the union are denied the crown. For now.

Suddenly, the surreptitious playing and the actions of make-believe armies are interrupted, and the prince is whisked away to very real battles. When Aleksander threatens his abductors with beheadings ordered by his father, one of them counters, "Alas not, Your Highness…. Your parents are both dead, murdered this night in Sarajevo."

Does it sound like history? The 1914 assassinations of Austro-Hungarian Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife in Sarajevo did begin World War I. European nations, insecure about their imperial standing, reacted all too swiftly, leading to the unraveling of a complicated network of alliances and counter-alliances, and a long and brutal war that solved nothing and left more than nine million combatants dead.

Franz Ferdinand did fall in love with Sophie Chotek. Her lack of pedigree meant a marriage designated as morganatic, between social unequals. Offspring were out of the royal line.

But hold on. There was no son named Aleksander. If there had been, his tin toys would probably not have included "diesel-powered walking machines," nor "Darwinist monsters." Actual models for such toys—that, of course, is complete fantasy.

A steam-punk fantasy made rivetingly believable by Scott Westerfeld. In Leviathan, the same powers still go head to head, but with competing technologies based on competing science. The British and the French have moved forward from the discovery of evolution to genetically-engineered living weaponry, while the Germans and the Austrians have taken steam-driven machinery to a new level—armored vehicles that traverse difficult terrain by walking on legs.

It’s not the Central Powers against the Allies, but Clankers against Darwinists.

Westerfeld creates the perfect foil for Aleksander in Deryn Sharp, a newly enlisted British midshipman learning how "fabricated beasts" work. The swirling stew of events in the aftermath of Franz Ferdinand’s assassination result in her getting a position on "the first of the great hydrogen breathers to rival the kaiser’s zeppelins"—the Leviathan.

Sharp is a quick study, brash and bold. Sharp also has a secret. She is not the boy that the Air Service thought they had signed up.

The Leviathan carries its own secret, a military secret zealously guarded by one of Britain’s "boffins." Dr. Barlow is an unusual scientific expert in the same way that Deryn Sharp is an unusual warrior. She’s not the expected gender.

The Leviathan rushes to complete its covert mission and perhaps keep war at bay. The Austrian prince runs to escape those who would eliminate any rival to the kaiser, a rivalry that could postpone a greater conflict. It’s inevitable that Deryn and Aleksander’s paths will cross.

What happens makes for a skillfully-woven tale of intrigue, suspense and adventure. Westerfeld has done a sterling job. Keith Thompson contributes extraordinary illustrations that perfectly fit the story, little wonders of chiaroscuro. Leviathan will keep middle schoolers, teens, and adults totally engrossed, and anxious to read, as I now am, its sequel, Behemoth. Perhaps it will also prompt them to find out more about World War I.

Highly recommended for fifth graders on up.