How do I even begin to describe this book? Uh...
Plot summary: During the beginning of an alternate-history World War I, a girl dresses up as a boy to join the RAF (which uses genetically engineered creatures for everything). Meanwhile, the son of Archduke Franz Ferdinand flees to Switzerland in a steampunk/dieselpunk mech tank.
It would already be epic with either the steampunk or the genetically engineered warbeasts. I can see WWI-with-monsters (we already have the-Napoleonic-Wars-with-dragons, after all), and WWI-with-steampunk almost begs to be written. It's the inclusion of both that makes this so unique and cool.
I see that this is a trilogy with two more books (Behemoth and Goliath), so I'll probably be getting those out of the library at some point.
My main quibble with this book is that it's rather too evolutiony in the British parts. If it didn't have that, I would have pretty much no quibbles.
Were this a videogame, I'd rate it: T for violence. The multiple POVs (Deryn in the RAF and Alek in his steampunk mech tank) might be a tad tricky, but it could be done.
4 stars. Could possibly have been 5, conceivably, if not for the evolution.
(Endnote: The titular Leviathan is an airship that's actually a giant genetically modified whale being. Because this is Leviathan Britain and everything is alive.)
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