Levaithan

   I picked this book up after a reccomendation from a friend. In addition, the rest of my family, with the obvious exception of my brother, has read it already.
   The first thing that you notice when you read this book is the WW1 style map inside the front cover. In fact, throughout the whole book, there are excellent drawings that really help you to visualise the story. One of the first ones, of the stormwalker, was one of my favourite pictures.
   The story is set around two people, Derin Sharp, who pretends to be a boy so she can join the air force, and Alexander Ferdinand, the son of Franz Ferdinand. Derin comes aboard the Leviathan, a giant flying whale, when her tryout for joining the airforce goes wrong. Alex is woken up in the middle of the night by Count Volger and Master Klopp, and when he realises that they aren't going for a practice run, he accuses them of kidnapping him and lying to him. However, he soon discovers that assassins are actually after him to prevent him from taking the throne after Franz Ferdinand is killed.
   One of the main interesting points of this book is that the Entente have "Darwinist" creations, such as the Leviathan, or the fletchete bats, as part of their civilisation, while the Central Powers, or "Clankers", use steampunk machines, like the stormwalker.