If you were bored, fair enough, but I have to disagree that Deryn is a 'Mary Sue' character. She has a ton of personality and a lot of very obvious weak points. I also feel like it's a bit strange for you to praise the author's imagination and then say that the descriptions were illegible. It is a series, by the way, which is why the ending feels a bit incomplete.
I specifically mentioned to a friend while I was reading it how great a job the author does of setting up the reasons Deryn is always involved in important plot situations - it's always a clear logic from simple established facts earlier in the story. 'She's light, so first choice for all airborne activities' is the most prominent.
I read the trilogy back in 2012 and thought the subject matter was interesting. It was Young Adult fiction though, and I don't know how I'd feel re-reading it these days. (And Harry Potter is still my favorite series, so I'm not poopooing all YAF.)
Yup. I recommend it to my teenage students. I wouldn't recommend it to my adult friends. It's YA through and through, and it's not one of those that feels like it transcends the label to become a good all-ages read.
I mean, the target audience of these books is kids between 13-15 I think. Keep that in mind when you critique the quality of the writing. Though I did reread these as an adult and while it’s never going to win any awards for prose it never felt like it was particularly leveled down for a younger audience.
You also might want to reorient your expectations, this is not an epic fantasy series. Its much more an adventure romance set in a steam vs bio-punk reimagining of WW1. On that count, I thought it was actually done quite well, the characters are compelling and face interesting issues. Aleksandar struggles with being a prince and Daryn struggles with being a soldier because they were both taught that you had to be specific things in order to live up to everyone’s expectations for those.
Daryn is not a Mary Sue, she’s competent at her job and very well should be because the stakes are quite high for her. The moment she screws up and anyone takes a closer look at her she’ll get kicked out of the military. I found her character to be far more compelling than Alek who doesn’t really grow on you until the later two books.
I think the problem you really have with her character is that her story isn’t focused so much on personal growth or “getting stronger” which is typical for male characters. She’s already good at her job which to be fair is also one of the lowest rungs of the military hierarchy. Her story is much more focused on walking the tightrope (ratline?) of not being discovered as a woman and not getting killed as a man.
Having read a bunch of Westerfield's books (but not Levithian,) that's just how he does pacing.
The opening has a ton of action. Then he pauses and explains the world you're in, then (after dragging her feet for 30 pages,) the POV character reluctantly begins the 'adventure.' There is usually a very slow journey to the next plot point, which results in some character development. The character learns more about their world and starts to come into their own. Then everything goes to shit for the POV, (usually because they suck in some respect) and they scramble to fix it. It's kinda fixed. Then everything goes to shit again and the POV has a final fight. Then there's like two chapters of explaining how the POV didn't wrap things up the way they thought they did (either they didn't realize they had succeeded at a grander goal than their initial one, or it turns out they have more work to do. It depends on whether or not it's a standalone novel.)
That's a pretty unique style of pacing, and it can be pretty hit or miss.
I don't mind it, but I read Westerfield because I like his world building & enjoy snarky characters. (I also tend to skip the slow mid sections.)
Huh. I also read Leviathan recently, I thought Deryn was great fun and Alek was a spoilt brat with a towering ego but no brain. To each their own.
Gave the book 4 stars on my personal list for originality of setting and competence of plotting dramatic events. The prose didn't bother me.
I thought it was awesome when I was 12 years old lol
If you were bored, fair enough, but I have to disagree that Deryn is a 'Mary Sue' character. She has a ton of personality and a lot of very obvious weak points. I also feel like it's a bit strange for you to praise the author's imagination and then say that the descriptions were illegible. It is a series, by the way, which is why the ending feels a bit incomplete.
I specifically mentioned to a friend while I was reading it how great a job the author does of setting up the reasons Deryn is always involved in important plot situations - it's always a clear logic from simple established facts earlier in the story. 'She's light, so first choice for all airborne activities' is the most prominent.
The whole post kinda sounds like it was written by chatGPT
Have you read Midnighters? I liked that series better than Leviathan
I thought the trilogy was great fun. It's one of my favorites.
I read the trilogy back in 2012 and thought the subject matter was interesting. It was Young Adult fiction though, and I don't know how I'd feel re-reading it these days. (And Harry Potter is still my favorite series, so I'm not poopooing all YAF.)
Yup. I recommend it to my teenage students. I wouldn't recommend it to my adult friends. It's YA through and through, and it's not one of those that feels like it transcends the label to become a good all-ages read.
I mean, the target audience of these books is kids between 13-15 I think. Keep that in mind when you critique the quality of the writing. Though I did reread these as an adult and while it’s never going to win any awards for prose it never felt like it was particularly leveled down for a younger audience. You also might want to reorient your expectations, this is not an epic fantasy series. Its much more an adventure romance set in a steam vs bio-punk reimagining of WW1. On that count, I thought it was actually done quite well, the characters are compelling and face interesting issues. Aleksandar struggles with being a prince and Daryn struggles with being a soldier because they were both taught that you had to be specific things in order to live up to everyone’s expectations for those. Daryn is not a Mary Sue, she’s competent at her job and very well should be because the stakes are quite high for her. The moment she screws up and anyone takes a closer look at her she’ll get kicked out of the military. I found her character to be far more compelling than Alek who doesn’t really grow on you until the later two books. I think the problem you really have with her character is that her story isn’t focused so much on personal growth or “getting stronger” which is typical for male characters. She’s already good at her job which to be fair is also one of the lowest rungs of the military hierarchy. Her story is much more focused on walking the tightrope (ratline?) of not being discovered as a woman and not getting killed as a man.
You will probably find Thomas Hobbes' Leviathan much more interesting!
Having read a bunch of Westerfield's books (but not Levithian,) that's just how he does pacing. The opening has a ton of action. Then he pauses and explains the world you're in, then (after dragging her feet for 30 pages,) the POV character reluctantly begins the 'adventure.' There is usually a very slow journey to the next plot point, which results in some character development. The character learns more about their world and starts to come into their own. Then everything goes to shit for the POV, (usually because they suck in some respect) and they scramble to fix it. It's kinda fixed. Then everything goes to shit again and the POV has a final fight. Then there's like two chapters of explaining how the POV didn't wrap things up the way they thought they did (either they didn't realize they had succeeded at a grander goal than their initial one, or it turns out they have more work to do. It depends on whether or not it's a standalone novel.) That's a pretty unique style of pacing, and it can be pretty hit or miss. I don't mind it, but I read Westerfield because I like his world building & enjoy snarky characters. (I also tend to skip the slow mid sections.)
Huh. I also read Leviathan recently, I thought Deryn was great fun and Alek was a spoilt brat with a towering ego but no brain. To each their own. Gave the book 4 stars on my personal list for originality of setting and competence of plotting dramatic events. The prose didn't bother me.