On their first night in the castle, Volger tells Alek that the Archduke legalized his marriage to Princess Sophie, making Alek the rightful heir of Austria-Hungary. Through various mishaps and adventures, Alek and his crew arrive at a castle in Switzerland. Every two chapters, the perspective of the story switches between the teens.

Barlow and fears that the woman will discover her true identity.Īs Alek is sneaking through Austria-Hungary and learning about the plight of his common people, Deryn is hard at work aboard the airship. To Deryn’s dismay, the Leviathan is adding another crewmember, a female scientist with a secret mission. Only boys can be airmen, so Deryn disguises herself in her brother’s clothes, adopts the name Dylan, and joins the crew of the most famous airship in Britain, the Leviathan. Meanwhile, Deryn Sharp dreams of flying and joining the Air Service. The assassins are relentless, however, and Alek is forced to suppress his fear and grief and learn to live on the run. The young prince doesn’t understand why he is being hunted because he has no title or power due to his mother’s common blood. The team spends weeks trudging toward the Swiss border, hiding in the forest and fighting off assassins who are trying to kill Alek. Their child, Prince Aleksander, is forced to flee his home in a stormwalker with a crew of four men, including his master of mechanics, Otto Klopp, and his fencing teacher, Wildcount Volger.

The book opens the night Archduke Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary and his wife Sophie are assassinated. The Clankers, which include Germany, Austria-Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire, rely on intricate, diesel-powered machines that can walk and run at high speeds while firing machine guns and cannons. The Darwinists, which include the British Empire, Russia, and France, rely on fabricated beasts, animals that are genetically engineered in a lab using Charles Darwin’s discoveries on how to mix DNA strands from different species.

In this world, the war is fought between the Darwinist world powers and the Clankers. Leviathan is the first book in a trilogy that takes place during the early days of World War I. This guide refers to the 2009 Simon Pulse eBook edition.

Leviathan westerfeld novel