bookgazing | 'Behemoth' - Scott Westerfeld

‘Behemoth’ is getting love everywhere and I’m not about to spoil the party. All the things I enjoyed in ‘Leviathan’ were present in this second steam punk novel by Scott Westerfeld and I also discovered a few things more things to squee over.

Here are a few of my favourite things about ‘Behemoth’ (probably full of spoilers).

The inventiveness and originality of the technology

‘Behemoth’ takes place in Istanbul, part of The Ottoman Empire, which uses Clanker machines in the shape of Darwinist creatures. This combination of Clanker technology with Darwinist design makes it unique and makes it an ideal, powerful ally for both sides during the current war. After the first book I assumed that Istanbul’s choice to comine Clanker and Darwinist elements would make it an ideal vision of society that Deryn (Darwinist) and Alek (Clanker) are supposed to work towards. It quite quickly turns out that this is not so; although Istanbul’s sultan is interested in Darwinist technology, he’s heavily allied with and probably controlled by, German Clanker forces. The aesthetic presentation of Darwinist technology appears in Istanbul’s elephantine walkers. However, when Dr Barlow, the ship’s ‘lady boffin’, tries to create stronger links between Darwinist Britain and Istanbul, by offering the sultan one of her mysterious eggs, a mechanical hand is used to crush it. This shows that Istanbul is currently much more of a Clanker city. Istanbul offers the promise of the further invention which could come from the co-operation between Darwinist and Clanker technology in a society, but sadly despotic control puts a stop to that radical development.

Even if Darwinist sensibilities haven’t gained a real hold in Istanbul, it’s so much fun to see the the creature shaped walkers and watch them be incorporated into Deryn’s adventures. There’s so much other fun technology to enjoyas well, for example gliders, a bed that walks, walkers in the shape of Gods and Goddesses, and a deadly electricity canon. My favourite new piece of technology that appears in ‘Behemoth’ was the underwater suit Deryn gets to wear, which has a mouthpiece made from synthesised squid.

The action sequences

The first battle sequence takes place aboard one of the mechanised elephantine walkers, which provides a battlefield that allows Deryn to make resourceful use of a trunk and huge ears as original, interesting weapons. Battles that involve metal elephants, which can’t be horribly injured, are just fun!

Sometimes, in action adventure books, it feels like the author feels like they have to porovide the reader with a certain quota of fighting, because, well that’s what the action adventure genre often seems to be all about, especially military novels that fit this description. In ‘Behemoth’ each battle feels like it exists for a reason. It reveals a little bit more about the plot, or maybe adds detail to the world building, for example the first battle sequence lets the reader know that someone is attempting to sabotage the Darwinist cause in Istanbul. I like battles to have an added narrative purpose, besides pushing more peril and action into a story, because I think (random writing theory time) if an author is focused on an extra reason that requires them to include a battle then they might avoid over burdening the novel with static, set-piece action which will stop the overall plot from moving forward at a decent pace.

The compact, clear writing style

I’d almost describe Westerfeld’s style in these books as business like, but that makes it sound much too cold and devoid of detail, so here’s a quote so you can judge it for yourself:

‘Alek realized that a huge shadow was moving beneath him, steam huffing from its joints into the cool night air. One of the great claws was reaching out…

He fell, dropping into the giant metal hand. The impact knocked the breath from him, sending pain shooting through his sore ribs. He skidded for a moment, the buttons of his tunic snapping against steel, but the claw closed in a huge bowl around him.’

He gives the reader all the information they need to picture exactly what is happening, but only gives information that helps to advance the plot, the readers understanding of the main characters, or their understanding of the novel’s world. He doesn’t take trips away from the main point to describe the many fun, but diversionary prospects that writing a steam punk novel must provide. Now I’m a big fan of writers who do spend time going off to explore world building tangents (Pratchett) but I think expanding on a point without clogging up the narrative pace is a hard skill to master, so I also appreciate a clear follow through in my sci-fi.

The illustrations

Here are some links to the wonderful illustrations, courtesy of
Scott Westerfeld’s blog and io9.

Keith Thompson’s illustrations for this series are crowded with detail, which reminds me vaguely of things like Durer’s woodcuts (love) and the original wrap around covers for Terry Pratchett’s Discworld books, but in every other way Thompson’s style is totally different. There’s a lot of strong shading used which adds to the texture of the scenes and draws the eye in to search through the shade and lines. This may cause readers to spot more details as they peer closer to make sense of what their eye is telling them. I’m not an art reviewer. I know what I like and I like a lot of different stuff, including Thompson’s art style.

The exploration of diverse areas of Westerfeld’s world and where it takes us

This point could be summed up by ‘Jewish matriarchal ruled society, Lilit, confronting Alek’s (rubbish) contextually realistic ideas about women head on Ahahahaha YAY!’. I hope Angela from Bookish Blather won’t mind if I put her words up here in place of my own inarticulate squeeing:

‘Alek and Deryn become involved in the resistance movement - which introduces my favourite character, the feisty revolutionary Lilit, who has dreams of bringing women's liberation to Istanbul. She also has a huge crush on one of our dashing heroes. Lilit is a young woman destined for greatness and could probably support a whole novel of her own!

That kiss, that knowing kiss from Lilit (ask for spoilers in the comments if you like). Oh. I’m crossing my fingers that Lilit appears in ‘Goliath’ '.

‘Behemoth’ as a second book

Something I didn’t really notice until I got to the end of ‘Behemoth’ is how clever Westerfeld has been in creating the second book of his trilogy. Westerfeld can’t move his overall plot (Alek heading to the Pope to reveal his identity) forward much in this second novel, because he needs to save all that drama to create a satisfying resolution in the final book. ‘Behemoth’, like most other second books in trilogies, has to be kept kind of a static point in the big over arching journey, to forestall too much happening too fast. To achieve this, ‘Behemoth’ effectively becalms the characters in an episodic side adventure that takes place in Istanbul, which contains some twiddly bits that relate to Alek’s main journey but ultimately don’t move that main plot forward too much. While this ‘let’s go off on a totally different story’ approach is part of what makes second books the bane of readers everywhere (I admit it, there aren’t many trilogies I can think of where the second book was my favourite)Westerfeld has packed so much clever plotting and creative action into this separate adventure, that it is near impossible to notice, or care, that the narrative drive behind ‘Behemoth’ barely contributes to Alek’s book spanning quest, or Deryn’s (inevitable, surely) discovery.

Was there anything I didn’t like?

Wellll, I’m still not convinced I like the romance that’s developing between Deryn and Alek. Deryn clearly cares for him and when she feels sad that her social rank would keep them apart, even if Alek knew she was a girl, I felt for her. I want Deryn to have whatever she wants, but I also genuinely like Alek and think they’d make an excellent pair. I’m just annoyed that the necessary plot device of having Deryn conceal her sex means that she’s expressing her awkward romantic affection for Alek, without any reciprocating ‘does she like me, am I being weird, what does this MEAN’ commentary from Alek. The romantic relationship feels unequal, right now. I’m not ruling out falling in love with the resolution to this romance though (or y’know being devastated by love kept apart by circumstances), just proceeding cautiously.

Reviews

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