The League of Seven by Alan Gratz, illustrated by Brett Helquist

Unlike most people, Archie Dent knows that monsters are real.  That's because his parents are members of the Septemberist Society who protect the world from the monstrous Mangleborns.  They are currently trapped under ground, but every thousand years or so they rise again but have always been defeated by The League of Seven, who form in the time of need.  The Mangleborn are now waking, and when Archie's parents and the rest of the society is taken over by the Mangleborn, Archie sets out to save the day, and maybe form the new League of Seven himself.

This was a great start to the series, plus it was steampunk, which I very much enjoy.  It's 1875 America, and the reason everything is run on steam is because the Mangleborn feed off electricity.  It's the Septemberist's job to make sure electricity isn't discovered, and put an end to when it is.  There was some good world building going on, most mysterious is that all contact has been lost with Europe, which might mean it's been overtaken by the Mangleborn.  That was just mentioned in passing, but I'm sure it will show up again later.  Essentially the world kind of gets remade every time the Mangleborn show up and destroy everything.

The League of Seven is always made up of seven kinds of people - a tinker (like an inventor or mechanic), a law-bringer, a scientist, a trickster, a warrior, a strong man, and a hero.  Archie is convinced he is the hero of the new League of Seven, even though he can't quite figure out what his strengths are.  He meets two other kids around his age while trying to save his parents, Fergus, a young mechanic, and Hachi, a First Nations girl out for revenge.  It's after they start working together that Archie decides they're the new League of Seven, with Fergus as the tinker and Hachi as the warrior.

Various historic figures show up in the story.  We have Thomas Edison, the crazed scientist who's determined to harness electricity no matter what the cost.  There's Tesla, a paranoid recluse and member of the Septemberist Society.  There's also lots of delightful mechanical creations, I mean, it's steampunk.  So we have the ever polite Mr. Rivets, Archie's family's Tik Tok servant, who can fill a variety of roles from pilot to protector depending on which card is inserted in his back.

As the story progresses, Archie, Fergus, and Hachi begin having strange dreams, where they hear the Mangleborn speaking to them, and see Archie's parents working toward freeing one of the monsters (remember, they're brainwashed).  Archie, however, seems to have a strange connection with the monster, who keeps calling him Jandal a Haad and telling him he's made of stone.  As the group struggles to find answers, Archie learns more about the previous Leagues of Seven, and begins to worry that he's not the hero after all, he's something stranger and more dangerous.

It was a great mix of action, adventure, and even a bit of horror (what with monsters eating people).  I also like the entire League wasn't formed by the end of the book.  They may have defeated one monster, but there's plenty more where that came from.  Further members will be found in future books.

And don't you worry, steampunk fans, there are airships.  There are always airships.  There's even a battle while on an airship.  It doesn't get better than that.

The League of Seven comes out August 19, 2014.

The Clockwork Scarab by Colleen Gleason

Mina Holmes, niece of the great Sherlock Homes and Evaline Stoker, sister to Bram Stoke, have been contacted by Irene Adler herself under orders of the Princess of Wales.  Girls are disappearing and turning up dead, each with a mysterious metal scarab beside them.  Mina and Evaline will need to work together to figure out who is behind the terrible crimes - no easy task for a vampire hunter and a careful and knee observer!

This was a fun start to the series.  It establishes an arch-nemesis, leaves things hanging, introduces various characters and potential love interests and leaves you wondering how Mina and Evaline's relationship will continue to evolve, if it does at all.

We are in a Steampunk version of London in 1889.  I liked that it was actually explained why London had gone with steam rather than electricity (it was political) which is now outlawed.  Mina is much like her uncle - meticulous, logical, and with a knee sense of observation.  Mina misses nothing and always has a plan.  Evaline is her opposite.  Evaline, carrying on the destiny of her family, is a vampire hunter with supernatural strength.  Evaline doesn't like to wait to figure things out, she'd rather act.

I find Evaline incredibly tiresome.  She was constantly getting them into trouble because she couldn't just wait and listen before she felt the need to do something dramatic or punch someone.  I found Mina much more likable, even though she feels the need to cover emotion with her cool, Holmes logic.

The book was told from both Mina's and Evaline's perspective.  This worked well, as it allowed the reader to get a different perspective on the characters.  Mina thinks herself plain and awkward, but that doesn't seem to come across to other people.  Mina sees Evaline as beautiful and easily gets along with people, but Evaline sees herself as trapped in a world she doesn't belong.

There was a weird time travel aspect that didn't quite seem to fit with the rest of the book, and I'm not sure where it's going to go.  While in the British Museum, Mina discovers Dylan, who seems to have been transported back in time by the power of the statue of Sekhmet.  He helps Mina in the end, but mostly he just mopes about and their were sparks between them.  But it was a bit odd. 

Of course, both girls have potential love interests, although nothing is really for sure by the end of the book.  Evaline was helped multiple times by a mysterious man called Prix, and Mina has a bit of a rivalry going to a young detective named Grayling.  I predict some kind of love triangle between Mina, Grayling and Dylan. 

By the end of the first book, Mina and Evaline have a grudging respect for each other.  They have come to care for each other, but are they friends?  It's unclear.

Waiting on Wednesday: Etiquette and Espionage by Gail Carriger

"Waiting On Wednesday" is a weekly event hosted by Breaking the Spine to spotlight an upcoming release that we're excited about. This week I'm waiting on Etiquette and Espionage by Gail Carriger.

It's one thing to learn to curtsy properly. It's quite another to learn to curtsy and throw a knife at the same time. Welcome to finishing school.

Fourteen-year-old Sophronia is the bane of her mother's existence. Sophronia is more interested in dismantling clocks and climbing trees than proper etiquette at tea--and god forbid anyone see her atrocious curtsy. Mrs. Temminnick is desperate for her daughter to become a proper lady. She enrolls Sophronia in Mademoiselle Geraldine's Finishing Academy for Young Ladies of Quality.

But little do Sophronia or her mother know that this is a school where ingenious young girls learn to finish, all right--but it's a different kind of finishing. Mademoiselle Geraldine's certainly trains young ladies in the finer arts of dance, dress, and etiquette, but also in the other kinds of finishing: the fine arts of death, diversion, deceit, espionage, and the modern weaponries. Sophronia and her friends are going to have a rousing first year at school.

First in a four book YA series set 25 years before the Parasol Protectorate but in the same universe. (summary from GoodReads)

I think you all know we love Gail Carriger, she's crazy smart and writes a delightful tale. Can't wait!

Etiquette & Espionage comes out Feb. 5, 2013!

Avigon: Gods and Demons by Che Gilson, art by Jimmie Robinson

Avigon is the greatest clockwork ever made.  Her creator, Pulsifer, is the Master Clockworker of the realm, and gave her the ability to think and feel.  Avigon now begins to question herself.  Is she more than a clockwork?  Are her feelings real, or it is just that she's been created to be that way?  In order to discover who she really is, Avigon must leave her creator and venture out into the world.

This was a really cool twist on the much explored "are machines capable of human emotions" story.  Avigon is the most exceptional clockwork ever created, and because of this she has much more feeling than any other clockwork.  She lives and works for Pulsifer, as an assistant but also a guard.  Although she doesn't look it, she is a combat clockwork.  When Avigon begins to truly struggle with who she is, the only thing she can do is run away and explore it.

Pulsifer lets her go.  This has happened before with other clockworks and they always come back.  Pulsifer is confident that Avigon will come back too.  And she does come back.  Avigon has one unfortunate experience after another.  She researches clockworks at a library, where she meets a university student.  They become friends (she is so expertly crafted she doesn't look like a clockwork).  Avigon hoped that he would be able to love her even as a clockwork, but she soon realizes that is not true.

She abandons her key and allows herself to wind down and is found by an amateur clockworker who takes her in.  He knows she's a clockwork, and claims he's in love with her.  When Avigon says she does not love him back, he says it's not a problem, he can just reprogram her so she will.  Avigon begins to realize that she really had the most freedom when she was with Pulsifer.  Out in the world she is something to either be taken advantage of or looked down on.

There's a side plot going on about Pulsifer being challenged as Master Clockworker, and Avigon being sold to the empress, but mostly it was about Avigon's journey.  It was a good story, and such an interesting twist with her deciding to return to Pulsifer and being happy about it, and satisfied with her life now.

The art was very interesting.  Black and white and everything is drawn very long and thin.  It gives the world and people a strange and slightly creepy feeling.

Soulless: The graphic novel by Gail Carriger and Rem

Alexia Tarabotti is the model Victorian lady, as long as you overlook her rather strong Italian features, overabundance of curves, age, and lack of soul. And if you're the werewolf Lord Maccon you also have to overlook the hedgehog incident and the annoying habit of showing up at the most inconvenient times and places, such as the parlor beside a dead vampire. As Alexia skirts the travails of disappearing werewolves and vampires, her best friend's hats, and rather unseemly urges toward Lord Maccon, she must also decide what her place is in supernatural London society and if she'll be alive to claim it.

I'm not sure if we here at Wandering Librarians have really gone in depth about our love of Gail Carriger and all things Parasol Protectorate. Ms. Carriger is an absolute gem, who maintains a persona at all times and has blatantly above-average intelligence. We were quite excited about this being re-released as a graphic novel (I won't call it a manga because neither the artist nor the writer are Japanese, nor was the book created in Japan). I can't say that I was disappointed, or that it didn't meet my expectations, but for some reason I felt like something wasn't present.

I loved the illustrations, they were quite wonderful at encompassing the personalities that I got from the prose. The storyline had all the important bits of the book, and the not-so-important parts that made it delightful. I loved Lord Akeldama, he was just as magnificent, if not more so, in the graphic novel as the novel.

I think what I missed, having read the novel first, were the detailed descriptions of Alexia's thoughts and the explanations behind everything. I think if I had read this first, I still would have enjoyed it but not had the passion to recommend it to everyone I know that I have now. So what I suggest is that you read the novel first (or read the entire series straight through) and then read the graphic novel. You'll appreciate it more that way.

Waiting on Wednesday: The Unnaturalists by Tiffany Trent

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Breaking the Spine to spotlight an upcoming release that we're excited about. This week I'm waiting on The Unnaturalists by Tiffany Trent.

 In an alternate London where magical creatures are preserved in a museum, two teens find themselves caught in a web of intrigue, deception, and danger.

Vespa Nyx wants nothing more than to spend the rest of her life cataloging Unnatural creatures in her father’s museum, but as she gets older, the requirement to become a lady and find a husband is looming large. Syrus Reed’s Tinker family has always served and revered the Unnaturals from afar, but when his family is captured to be refinery slaves, he finds that his fate may be bound up with Vespa’s—and with the Unnaturals.

As the danger grows, Vespa and Syrus find themselves in a tightening web of deception and intrigue. At stake may be the fate of New London—and the world. (From Goodreads)


Teen archivist/cataloger? Steampunk? Totally on board. The added bits of intrigue and romance are an added plus.


The Unnaturalists comes out on Aug. 14th.

Corsets & Clockwork: 13 Steampunk Romances

The title pretty much says it all.  Another steampunk anthology, this one focusing on steampunk romances.  The title is fairly silly.  I mean, it might as well be Corsets & Clockwork & Top Hats & Goggles & Airships.  However, I thought these writers did a much better job at creating steampunk worlds than the authors that were part of Steampunk!  Perhaps because these authors were given some kind of direction as to what constitutes steampunk?

I read about half of it.  As ever with an anthology, some stories were good and some were not, but by the time I'd read six stories I was bored and wanted to read something else.

Of the ones I read, I most enjoyed Wild Magic, by Ann Aguirre, who wrote Enclave, and Deadwood by Michael Scott who wrote the The Secrets of Immortal Nicholas Flamel series.

Wild Magic was a fairly straight forward love story, with a high class girl falling in love with a boy beneath her station, but it had a bit a twist, and I thought Aguirre did an excellent job with the world creation.  I really got an understanding of how the world Pearl lived in work, and the fear of magic, even though the ruling houses are the ones who have magic in their backgrounds.  Pick is one of the Wilds, and convinces Pearl to help him let magic loose into the world.  Pearl falls in love with him, and it seems like Pick loves her too, but there's something he isn't telling her.  This story was really more fantasy based than steampunk, but there were some automatons that attacked them.

Deadwood was lots of fun.  It took place in the American west (Deadwood is in South Dakota) and was very exciting and adventury.  Martha and JW meet on and airship on their way to California, and find themselves in the middle of a terrible plot!  Luckily for the rest of the passengers on board the airship, both Martha and JW don't let much get in their way, and they're not about to leave anyone behind.  There's a funny little reveal at the end.

So it's not that I didn't enjoy the stories I read, it's just that after reading a handful I was all set and ready to move on to something else.

Boston Book Festival: Steampunk

The first session Anna and I went to was Steampunk!  Yes, the exclamation point is part of the title.  It was with Kelly Link and Gavin Grant, editors of the Steampunk! anthology, Holly Black and Allison DeBlasio, who is Mrs. Grymm of Dr. Grymm Laboratories.  It was moderated by Maya Escobar, Teen Librarian at the Cambridge Public Library.  I was particular interested in this session because I was curious as to what the editors of the anthology had to say about steampunk.  The anthology was so all over the place, I wanted to know if there had been any criteria for the writers.

Kelly explained that they wanted to throw the term "steampunk" out to the authors and see who they would interpret it.  So that explains that.  They chose what authors they wanted to write for them and they said, "write a steampunk short story."  It was totally up to the writer to define steampunk.  Kelly said that, "no one is sure how to define steampunk," and that it was still a question without a defined answer.  She said characteristics of it were strongly character driven narratives, and that they provoke a sense of wonder.  They can be romance, mystery, horror, anything at all.

Steampunk! An Anthology of Fantastically Rich and Strange Stories

I feel like the title pretty much sums it up.

I had a major problem with this anthology: most of the stories weren't Steampunk.  This, of course, requires that I define Steampunk as a genre, which is harder then it should be.  When I think of Steampunk, the sense of place is very strong.  What makes a book Steampunk, rather then science fiction, is that it takes place in a place where there shouldn't be advanced technology.  I often link Steampunk with alternate history (although alternate history is not always Steampunk) because by going back in time to a period where there wasn't this sort of technology and then placing it in, gives it a very strong sense of place.  I have difficult accepting something as Steampunk when we're on a planet after Earth has been destroyed, because they would have already had advanced technology.  I have a hard time accepting something can be Steampunk when it's set in the modern day.

The Great New England Steampunk Exposition

How did I not know this is happening?  Also, why does it have to be on the weekend that I have both Weekend Duty AND the Sunday library shift?

Anyway, although I will not be able to go (sob) if you are in the Massachusetts area, you totally should.  It's this weekend, September 16-18 in Fitchburg MA.  Among the festivities will be a Victorian insult competition, a Whiskers competition and selections from a Steampunk opera.  Of course there will be lots of vendors and things like that, and a concert featuring Abney Park on Saturday evening.

I'm sad I can't go.  If you go, you should tell me how it was.

Goliath by Scott Westerfeld

This is the final edition in the Leviathan trilogy. Arianna did a review of Behemoth a while ago, and here's my take on Goliath.

Alek and Deryn are headed to Russia on the Leviathan on a secret mission to rescue Dr. Tesla, the inventor that created the electric cannon that almost took the Leviathan down in Istanbul. Supposedly he has a weapon that could end the war immediately, and of course Alek feels that it is his destiny to help end the war and therefore support Dr. Tesla in his efforts. During this time Deryn is struggling with the fact that more people know she is a girl and Alek knows that she's in love with him. Relationships are becoming complicated, and even more so as Alek because more involved in politics and must sacrifice his own secrets to cover her own.

I have to say that I wasn't as pleased reading this than I was the first two books. They were fantastic and this wasn't as. I'm not saying it was bad, it just wasn't as good as the first two. There wasn't as much action and there wasn't as much drama. It was a bit staid, instead of major action there were just tiny little humps of action. Nothing huge. I mean things, I'm pretty sure, were intended to be game-changers but they didn't come off that way. They were just little hiccups of action.

On a brighter note, I really enjoyed the character development. I felt like both Alek and Deryn grew up in this book, they actually acted on their emotions as opposed to brooding which was excellent. Dr. Tesla was obnoxious but necessary. And the other ancillary characters were fine, but lets not forget that this is Alek and Deryn's story and they were fantastic.

It was a nice little wrap up to the series, the historical tie-ins were BRILLIANT, and overall a satisfying story. Just not the best out of the bunch.

This is coming out Sept. 20. Check it out.

Waiting on Wednesday: Goliath by Scott Westerfeld

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Breaking the Spine to spotlight an upcoming release that we're excited about. This week I'm waiting on Goliath by Scott Westerfeld.

Alek and Deryn are on the last leg of their round-the-world quest to end World War I, reclaim Alek's throne as prince of Austria, and finally fall in love. The first two objectives are complicated by the fact that their ship, the Leviathan, continues to detour farther away from the heart of the war (and crown). And the love thing would be a lot easier if Alek knew Deryn was a girl. (She has to pose as a boy in order to serve in the British Air Service.) And if they weren't technically enemies.

The tension thickens as the Leviathan steams toward New York City with a homicidal lunatic on board: secrets suddenly unravel, characters reappear, and nothing is as it seems in this thunderous conclusion to Scott Westerfeld's brilliant trilogy.

So I'm not really waiting on this one, because I got the ARC from ALA, but I'm really excited about starting to read it!

Goliath comes out September 20.

Steampunk Prime: A Vintage Steampunk Reader edited by Mike Ashley

Steampunk stories from before the age of computers and spaceships.  And electricity, in some cases.  This is book of short steampunk stories written between 1880 and 1914.

In the introduction, Mike Ashley talks about how we think of steampunk as a more modern creation, a reimagining of history.  But steampunk was being written during the time period that modern steampunk so often reimagines.  It was fascinating to read these stories before all kinds of scientific advances had been made.  And it's funny, what we imagine today really wasn't all that different from what was being imagined in 1880.  Space travel, flying cars, robots (only they weren't called robots, they were called automatons), being able to preserve people and then wake them up hundreds of years later. All that stuff that steampunk and science fiction write about to this very day.  Hmm.  Maybe we haven't come so far after all.  Oh, and airships.  There MUST be airships, it's an unwritten rule.

Some of the stories I found totally boring, and some I thought were more straight science fiction than steampunk, but all in all it was really interesting to read.  If you're a steampunk lover, I'd definitely say check it out.

Waiting on Wednesday

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Breaking the Spine to spotlight an upcoming release that we're excited about. This week I'm waiting on the graphic novel Heartless by Gail Carriger.

Lady Alexia Maccon, soulless, is at it again, only this time the trouble is not her fault. When a mad ghost threatens the queen, Alexia is on the case, following a trail that leads her deep into her husband's past. Top that off with a sister who has joined the suffragette movement (shocking!), Madame Lefoux's latest mechanical invention, and a plague of zombie porcupines and Alexia barely has time to remember she happens to be eight months pregnant.

Will Alexia manage to determine who is trying to kill Queen Victoria before it is too late? Is it the vampires again or is there a traitor lurking about in wolf's clothing? And what, exactly, has taken up residence in Lord Akeldama's second best closet?

This is the fourth in a series called The Parasol Protectorate. If you haven't read any of the first three, I STRONGLY recommend them. They're amaze-balls. As in laugh out loud hilarious. That and the fact that Carriger seems to have a clever grasp on what's going on in her steampunk universe. Super clever, kinda sexy, and just overall awesome, I'm excited for this next installment.

Heartless comes out June 28!

Girl Genius by Phil and Kaja Foglio

Agatha Clay had never invented anything that worked.  All her attempts either didn't work at all or exploded.  If only she didn't get horrible headaches when she tried to concentrate!  After a particularly strange day, which started off with the locket she's been told never to take off getting stolen, she ends up on board the airship Castle Wulfenbach, controlled by the Baron who rules the land.  Could Agatha be a Spark after all?  Why would anyone want to hide it from her?

I have mixed feelings about this one.  I'm not sure if I'd add it to the Great Graphic Novels for Girls list.  It had a lot of potential, and it got better by the third volume, but still...

So I don't think I'm giving anything away by saying that Agatha's locket kept her from becoming a Spark.  You'd figure it out like three seconds in.  A Spark is an engineering genius.  Unfortunately, most of them end up going mad.   Once Agatha's locket is stolen, she has a tendency to fall asleep than wake up in her underwear having built some crazy amazing engineering feat.  Which means there's a fair amount of time she's running around in her underwear.  She's certainly clothed more than she's not, but yeah, a lot of underwear time.  And then people making comments about her being in her underwear.

This is an omnibus edition, so it has the first three volumes.  The first volume is done in black and white pencil style, and the following volumes are in a greyscape style.  As soon as we switch to greyscape, Agatha's chest doubles in size.  And it was super noticeable what with her hanging out in her underwear.

So there was that.  While Agatha does consistently stick up for herself, she's not much of a character.  She's a pawn for most of the first three volumes.  Aside from that, I found the world very confusing.  The story itself is not, but trying to work out what was happening (What is everyone afraid of?  Why are there Sparks?  What are the wasps?  What is the Baron protecting people from?) in the world was quite convoluted.  Maybe this was on purpose.  Things didn't start coming together for me until the third volume.  Then I started to piece things together and Agatha started to become more of a character and it got better.  Perhaps in later volumes it gets better still, and Agatha starts doing some engineering when she's fully conscious and clothed.  That would be nice.  I generally like steampunk a lot, but this is not one of my favorites.

Agnes Quill an Anthology of Mystery by Dave Roman

Agnes Quill is a teenager who is just trying to make a buck. Having taken over the family business, she uses her special abilities to help the strange inhabitants in her steampunk city Legerdemain find what they're looking for. Whether you need to get rid of some ex-girlfriend zombies, keep your underground community connected to electricity, or find an expensive heirloom in a corpse's head, Agnes is the girl to solve your mystery. (It helps that she can see ghosts since most of her clients are dead.)

I liked this book quite a bit. It seemed very fresh even though it was published five years ago, I loved the steampunk traits mixed in with the mystery and Agnes was just so wonderful and funny. There were four stories with a different artist for each: Jason Ho, Dave Roman, Raina Telgemeier, and Jeff Zornow. I actually didn't really catch on until about 3/4 of the way through that the main character in each story was supposed to be the same girl, but it was still wonderfully done. I especially liked Ho's and Zornow's artwork, it seemed to really fit the setting of the stories. The others were good, but perhaps a little too simplistic. Regardless, awesome. Pick it up and give it a go. You won't regret it.

Boneshaker by Cherie Priest

Zombies and airships and history; this book had everything!

There was gold to be mined, supposedly locked under the ice of the Klondike during the early days of the Civil War.  Russia commissioned inventor Leviticus Blue to create a machine that could cut through the ice.  Levi created such a machine, but during the first test is took out a chunk of Seattle, releasing an underground gas that kills anyone who breaths it and turns them into the walking dead.  The city is evacuated and walls are erected to contain the gas.

16 years later, Blair Wilkes lives outside Seattle with her 15 year-old son Ezekiel.  Blair is shunned because she was married to Leviticus Blue, the man everyone blames for their troubles. Zeke is convinced that his father was innocent, that Levi didn't intentionally destroy the city.  Zeke sneaks back into Seattle, overrun by "rotters" and Blight gas to try and prove his father was a good man.  And now Blair must go in after him.

While I was reading this, I totally had a dream that I was bitten by a zombie and was slowing turning into one.  It was very unpleasant.

Alternate Histories and Steampunk Week

OMG guys, I'm a day late posting this, but the week of December 13th is Alternate Histories and Steampunk week, started by Leila over at Bookshelves of Doom.  Lots of fabulous blogs are taking part of this, so look for great alternate histories and steampunk book reviews from such blogs as:

• Bookshelves of Doom (duh)
• Chasing Ray
• Finding Wonderland
• A Chair, a Fireplace, and a Tea Cozy

And probably many others as well.  I think I will read Boneshaker by Cherie Priest, for my contribution.  It is sitting on my bookshelf and I haven't gotten to it yet so this is the perfect opportunity.

Learn a little more about steampunk and alternate histories:

Steampunk: Full Steam Ahead from SLJ
Steampunk 101 from Tor.com

News

Dear Scott Westerfeld. Let us marry. For you, sir, are made of awesome. Scott Westerfeld lets the haters of steampunk have it.

Well, it seems I have not read many of PW's Best Children's Books 2010. However, Monsters of Men is on the list. Yay!

This is my YA book cover:
















You can create your own at 100 Scope Notes or check out the gallery. Some of them are really good. I didn't do the author's name part, because as Sam at Parenthetical pointed out, it's actually people's names and that doesn't seem right.

Yes, it's very sad that the New England Mobile Book Fair is being sold, BUT if Anna and I can just find ourselves a generous benefactor, we're totally going to buy it, so never fear book lovers! If anyone has any tips on finding a generous benefactor, do let us know.

Behemoth by Scott Westerfeld

In this alternate WWI steampunk trilogy the Darwinists (Britain, Russia) whose warships are made of fabricated animals, and the Clankers (Germany, Austria-Hungry) who use metal and steam for their machines, are moving closer to all out war.

When last we left our heroes, Deryn, who has disguised herself as a boy in order to join the British Royal Air Force and is going by Dylan, and Alek, the prince of Austria-Hungary whose parent's assassination set in motion the start of World War I, were aboard the air ship Leviathan heading toward Istanbul (not Constantinople).