Leviathan (2009)

Scott Westerfeld has created an alternate history where Europe has two facing sides; the Clankers and the Darwinists. The Clankers, from eastern Europe, have developed mechanical machines that mimic the movement of animals and the Darwinists, from western Europe, have fabricated animals to be their war machines.

But Deryn's favorite lectures were when the boffins explained natural philosophy. How old Darwin had figured out how to weave new species from the old, pulling out the tiny threads of life and tangling them together under a microscope. How evolution had squeezed a copy of Deryn's own life chain into every cell of her body. How umpteen different beasties made up the Leviathn - from the microscopic hydrogen-farting bacteria in its belly to the great harnessed whale. How the airship's creatures, like the res of Nature, were always struggling among themselves in messy, snarling equilibrium.

Alek finds himself orphaned, his father Austrian Duke Ferdinand and his less-than-royally born mother have been killed. Alek is spirited away by two of the Duke's men who take him to a hideaway in the Alps, set up for just an occasion. Deryn is a young English woman who disguises herself as a man (Dylan) to enter the British Air Service and gets a position on the Leviathan, a fabricated whale with the ability to generate enough hydrogen to take it aloft. When taking a secret cargo to the Ottoman Empire, they are attacked and crash in, you guessed it, the Alps.

Deryn had always reckoned herself a tomboy, between Jaspert's bullying and Da's balloon training. But running with the other middies was mroe than just punchups and tying knots - it was like joining a pack of dogs. They jostled and banged for the best seats at the middies' mess table. They taunted each other over signal reading and navigation scores, and whom the officers had complimented that day. They endlessly competed to see who could spit farther, drink rum faster, or belch the loudest.
It was bloody exhausting, being a boy.

This exciting action is enhanced by illustrations by Keith Thompson which help the reader get a vision of the size and complexity of the machines described. There will be a sequel to continue the action. This is a real page turner with nonstop action. I highly recommend this book to science fiction and war fiction readers.

My rating for this book: ++++

Ptolemy's Gate (The Bartimaeus Trilogy, Book 3) (2006)

By far the best of the three books, Jonathan Stroud finishes the trilogy in a final confrontation between the magicians, commoners, and assorted magical beings. In each book we have learned more about the relationships between the three classes through history and here we learn more about the relationship between Ptolemy and Bartimaeus.
Nathaniel, at the age of 17, is the youngest magician at his rank in the government, thanks to the excellent work of his djinni, Bartimaeus. England is fighting a war in America and it is his job to write pamphlets to recruit commoners to fight, a harder and harder job as recruits quickly become casualties. (Those Americans) He tries to convince the government that Gladstone's staff could be used to bring the war to a quick end but it seems that someone up high has different plans for it.
The trio of Nathaniel, Bartimaeus, and Kitty save England in a final battle that is not to be believed (I don't want to give anything away here).
I highly recommend this whole trilogy through to the end! Fantasy and magic fans will love it!
My rating for this book: +++++

The Golem's Eye (The Bartimaeus Trilogy Book Two) (2004)

Jonathon Stroud continues to give us an intriguing world and story in this second book of The Bartimaeus Trilogy. Now Nathaniel is given his magician name of John Mandrake (but Bartimaeus and readers still know him as Nathaniel) and is assigned to a new master, Ms. Whitwell. They are assigned to find out who or what is causing major damage to parts of London. Nathaniel calls on Bartimaeus, his djinni, to find out who the culprit is. Suspected are a group of commons called rebels since they are stealing magic items to use against the magicians.
One of these rebels is Kitty, a young lady we met in the first book. Now the chapters are from the vantage point of three different characters. We learn why Kitty hates magicians so much and learn how she became part of a gang that is instructed how to break into Westminster Abbey and pillage the tomb of one of England's magical heroes, Gladstone, for magical items buried with him.
We meet new creatures and follow Nathaniel and Bartimaeus on their quest to solve London's latest mystery. Along the way, we see how a ruling class continues to keep others at bay by using (or abusing) their "powers" and, as history proves, the ruled classes find ways to work their way out of subjugation. I'm on to the third book to see if revolution is in the wind and how Nathaniel, Bartimaeus, and Kitty make out.
My rating for this book: ++++

The Amulet of Samarkand (The Bartimaeus Trilogy Book One) (2003)

Someone once said that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. Indeed I have seen many people who think they know a lot about a topic and they just don't realize how much they don't know. In Jonathan Stroud's book, Nathaniel is handed over to a magician at the tender age of five to be an apprentice. The story takes place in London and, like Harry Potter, a major magic culture exists in the middle of non-magic people. A mean and ambitious magician named Lovelace, humiliates the boy when he is eleven, after only six years of training. Nathaniel studies advanced books behind his mentor's back until he feels he is able to summon a djinni. He calls forth Bartimaeus, a powerful djinni, thousands of years old. He commands the djinni to steal a certain artifact, the amulet of Samarkand, from Lovelace and the action really begins.
The story is told from the viewpoint of Bartimaeus in some chapters, peppered with footnotes. The first book I read with footnotes I found very tedious but in this book it works. As the djinni explains (in a footnote, of course), "By and large, humans can only manage one conscious level, with a couple of more or less unconscious ones muddling along underneath. Think of it this way: I could read a book with four different stories typed one on top of the other, and take them all in with the same sweep of my eyes. The best I can do for you is footnotes." The other chapters are written from Nathaniel's point of view but since he is a simple human, there are no footnotes.
There are imps and magic spells and ancient languages which all make this a fun and diverting book. I will try the next book in the series to see if the fun continues. Harry Potter and all fantasy fans would get a kick out of this book.
My rating for this book: ++++