YA Book Review: Goliath

Goliath by Scott Westerfeld
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

While my review for the second novel in the Leviathan Trilogy was brief, I would like to take this space to summarize my thoughts on the trilogy over--as each novel strikes me as so similar that reviewing each individually would be like taking one novel (such as Cather in the Rye), dividing it into thirds and reviewing each section. The act becomes tedious, and unfair to what is a pretty good book in and of itself when you leave reviewing and blogging and "what did you think" out of the way.

Actually...what a pretty damning exercise in handing our students study guides to answer chapter questions as they read a novel.

My point--the Leviathan Trilogy feels like one Herculean book chopped into thirds to warrant the twenty dollar price tag per book. However, I was missing the engagement I felt in a trilogy such as the Lord of the Rings. Maybe my lukewarm applause comes from protagonist Alek and his Rosalind-esque mate, Deryn, only drifting from one part of the world to another more than engage in a definitive quest. There is no ring...no Mordor...even though those nasty Germans threaten to wreak havoc on the earth.

Actually the most interesting piece of all 1500 pages of the trilogy concerns the friendship between Alek and Deryn. More than the bombs, beasts, war machines, and cameos by Pancho Villa, Nikolai Tesla, et al...the trilogy works because it is about friendship and loyalty. The early stages of World War I is only a canvas...or a sneaky way to get a boy to read a book about relationships.

More of an indication of my age than anything else, I have to add that I struggled to finish the trilogy. But I did finish. Full disclosure will also reveal that I am that guy who read the first Harry Potter book and when I picked up the second I'd had enough after the first few pages. The freshness was gone for me...I needed more and read other things.

Remember all of those lines (queues) outside of bookstores?  Fans dressed in character waiting for the next Harry Potter book...that wasn't me.

All of this brings to light that sometimes YA novels do attract adult readers. I just can't imagine many adults reading this trilogy for any other reason than their kids and their classroom.

That said, The Leviathan trilogy will definitely be on my classroom library shelf because kids will like it. And kids are clearly the audience.

(Jeez, rereading what I read sounds so vile. I don't mean to bash and if it comes across that way I apologize to Westerfeld.) I'm such a Muggle.

View all my reviews

YA Book Review: Behemoth

Behemoth by Scott Westerfeld
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Among the books in the Leviathan Trilogy, I see more positive reviews for Scott Westerfeld's Behemoth...and, for me, I don't understand the differences. Not that I mean anything negative at all--I like the trilogy. I especially like the series for young adults.

It is safe, and clean, and a fun adventure. Worthy of your classroom library or your house if you have young kids who like fantasy and sci-fi.








View all my reviews

YA Book Review: Leviathan

Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I learned a few things about reading and 8th grade students in the last month, and my brain is reprocessing it as I begin to move through Scott Westerfeld books:

a) adolescents read and enjoy a good series
b) many series that my students have liked are built from the sci-fi or fantasy genres
c) steampunk is a sub-genre designed for adolescents...particularly boys

One of my commitments in my burgeoning summer book pile is to read several series that my students are reading. Among those are two by Scott Westerfeld: The Leviathan Trilogy and The Uglies series--both earned the critical and finicky Kirkus Star.

Book One of the Leviathan Trilogy, Leviathan, reminds me of The Golden Compass--an fantastical adventure. And lots of snow and ice.

I read Leviathan in under 24 hours and many disparate thoughts are jostling for space-time on the blog, so I'm going to list the thoughts in no particular order:

a) the Rosalind-esque device of girl disguised as boy (having budding feelings for a boy) has always been popular and is done well in this book...the whisper of a romantic element is very faint but present.

b) alternate history needs as open (young?) mind...so much is built on the actual events of 1914 that Leviathan serves as good exposure to people, places, and ideas for young readers
i. the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife by Serbian revolutionaries
ii. the assassinations led to war between Austria and Serbia
iii. the war between Austria and Serbia led to World War I
iv. the conspiracy theory that Germany coaxed Serbia into the assassinations to kick-start the war
v. Charles Darwin's discoveries and modern biology
vi. the development of fabricating new life through DNA
vii. Nora Darwin Barlow
viii. the now extinct thylacine (or Tasmanian Tiger)

Again, the novel is a good way for young people to hear the names and the basic ideas behind them, but it is not an exhaustive lesson in biology or the vagaries of the diplomacy between England, France, Germany and friends during the summer of 1914.  (We wouldn't want all of the facts to get in the way of a good story).

c) some of the magic in the book is the message that eco-systems are fragile, but can work together to improve our life and plant--the importance placed on bees, pollen, and birds cannot be denied, and given the current dangers for bees in our natural world it is nice to see them get some positive press in a novel.

d) unfamililar with "steampunk" it took a little getting used to, but I can understand why adolescent boys can enjoy it...a subgenre of science fiction and fantasy that includes social or technological aspects of the 19th century (the steam) usually with some deconstruction of, reimagining of, or rebellion against parts of it. In Leviathan the world seems to be divided between the Darwinist and the Clankers--Darwinists have fabricated new life forms (an enormous dirigible which is a cross between a whale, bees, bats, cilia, and many other species)--Clankers build machines resembling those from the early twentieth century, but with a bit of a twist.

e) I appreciate that human virtues are at the core of problem-solving in this novel: trust, friendship, loyalty to name a few.

A very likable novel, and one worthy of a place on your classroom library shelf, that may grow into a book you really like or love because it may inspire your boys to read...a series.

View all my reviews