Behemoth by Scott Westerfeld

 Title: Behemoth (Leviathan #2)

Author: Scott Westerfeld

Publisher: Simon Pulse

Release Date: October 5, 2010

Source: Purchased

Buy the Book: Amazon / Book Depository / Indigo

The behemoth is the fiercest creature in the British navy. It can swallow enemy battleships with one bite. The Darwinists will need it, now that they are at war with the Clanker powers.

Deryn is a girl posing as a boy in the British Air Service, and Alek is the heir to an empire posing as a commoner. Finally, together aboard the airship Leviathan, they hope to bring the war to a halt. But when disaster strikes the Levithan’s peacekeeping mission, they find themselves alone and hunted in enemy territory.

Alek and Deryn will need great skill, new allies, and brave hearts to face what’s ahead.

After reading Leviathan last year, I was really looking forward to reading Behemoth, the sequel, but for a variety of reasons I unfortunately didn’t do so until quite recently. I really should have taken the time to read it sooner because it was an incredible book and it reminded me of why had loved the first book so much.

Now aboard the Leviathan and headed toward the Ottoman Empire, Alek finally feels like he belongs somewhere. But in order to not become a prisoner, he has to do everything in his power to hid his true identity, especially now that Austria-Hungary and Britain are officially at war with each other. Deryn has proven she is a good soldier but that still doesn’t mean she can tell everyone she is a girl disguised as a boy. If she did so, it would mean the end of her career in the British Air Service. But with her attraction to Alek growing, going on pretending to be a boy may be more difficult than she originally thought. But Alek and Deryn may have bigger things to worry about, as they find out when they arrive in Constantinople. Soon enough, they find themselves in way over their heads and they might just have the chance to change the entire course of the war.

The story in Behemoth takes you on a crazy adventure to say the very least. The action starts right on the first page and doesn’t stop until the very last word. Once again, I was completely captivated by the story Scott Westerfeld told in this book. More than anything, I love the way he has re-imagined the events of World War One. The way the Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance powers are presented as Darwinist and Clanker powers, respectively, sort of brings a new perspective to the whole thing. Like I said in my review of Leviathan, I more or less know the events of the First World War by heart and it’s a period of history I love studying. So the fact that the story is a retelling of those events only makes me love the book that much more.

As much as I thought Alek would be nothing more than a spoiled prince when I read Leviathan, in Behemoth my opinion of him completely changed. He definitely grew and really wasn’t afraid to do whatever it took to save himself and those he cared about. But more than anything, he was willing to do anything to stop the war, even when it meant revealing some of his more precious secrets. Personally, I liked Alek more and more with every page I turned. Once again, Deryn amused me to no end. She always seemed to find herself in the craziest situations and I couldn’t help but laugh at half of what came out of her mouth. now that she finally knew what her feelings for Alek were, I couldn’t help but feel for her. As much as I wanted her to tell Alek the truth about who she is, I could also understand that she couldn’t do that without throwing away her career in the British Air Service. In her position, I don’t know what I would have done.

Behemoth was an absolutely amazing book and Scott Westerfeld once again proved that is a truly fantastic writer. I now can’t wait to see how this incredible journey will come to an end in Goliath, the third and final book in this trilogy.