Cloudy With a Chance of Books

In an alternative Europe, Darwinists have successful unraveled and recombined the stuff of life to create new animals. The Leviathan is a Darwinist engineered giant dirigible that is primarily sperm whale, but encompasses a whole ecosystem of animals each working to keep the Leviathan military airship aloft. Deryn disguises herself as a boy in order to realize her dreams of flying in the Royal Air Service and serves aboard Leviathan.

Westerfeld reimagines the first world war as a battle between the British and French Darwinists with their genetically engineered animals built for battle and the Austro-Hungarian Clankers with their mechanically advanced tanks and walkers which remind me of creations from the video game Battletech.

Half of the story is told from Deryn’s perspective as she hides her gender to enlist.  The other half is told from the perspective of Alek who is the orphaned child of Archduke Ferdinand whose murder triggers The Great War.  The orphaned Alek hides in the mountains of Switzerland with his trusted advisors hoping to avoid capture or assassination.  When Leviathan is sent on a special mission to carry Darwinist created eggs out of Britain, she crashes bringing Alek and Deryn’s stories together.

This delivered a number of reading pleasures.  I love stories of girls in disguise infilitrating male institutions and Deryn’s story of hiding her identity in order to fly was thrilling.  The Darwinist creatures and clanker tanks were fascinating creations and made for some epic battle scenes.  The larger political intrigue driving the action left mysteries and suspense for the sequels.  If you know something about WWI it is fun to note the changes, but the reader doesn’t need to know that history.  I would recommend this strongly to readers who enjoyed Airborn by Oppel or Airman by Colfer.  It is very different from Westerfeld’s Uglies books, but every bit as well written and enjoyable.  Keith Thompson’s illustrations paired nicely with the text and did not make the book more juvenile for me.  Instead, the illustrations added a coolness and I think teens who enjoy graphic novels will particularly appreciate them.  448p., 2009.