In the meantime, Austrain prince and archduke Alek and his comrades make a daring escape. But the German army has already made great headway in the Empire, and the Leviathan and her crew must buy precious time in order to make a daring strike against a blockade that could destroy their greatest ally, Russia. The Leviathan and her precious cargo have finally reached the Ottoman Empire, where a scientist aboard the airship hopes to make a gift of a precious egg to the sultan in order to mend strained relations between the Ottoman Empire and Great Britain. My hopes were well-founded - 'Behemoth' is just as exciting and fascinating a ride as its predecessor, and continues the adventures of Deryn, Alek, and their allies and foes in an entirely new land with new dangers. And I had high hopes that the sequel would deliver just as well, tying up some of the plot threads of the previous novel or at least serving as a nice bridge to the inevitable final volume.

A rollicking and exciting story, good characters, and a fascinating world were accompanied by richly detailed illustrations as well, and all that combined made for one of the most exciting alternate-history novels I've ever read. Its heroes were plucky and well-developed, and sympathetic enough to make me cheer for them throughout. I read and loved Scott Westerfeld's 'Leviathan,' a steampunk novel about an alternate WWI fought with mechanical walkers and airships on one side, and bio-engineered monsters on the other.

Behemoth westerfeld