Goliath Summery

Goliath is the third and final book in The Leviathan series that follows the lives of Alek, the son of Franz Ferdinand of Austria, and Deryn Sharp aboard the Airship Leviathan. The novel is very similar to the events in World War One, starting with the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, the diplomatic mess enveloping the Earth, first Russia, then Germany, France, Austria, Belgium, Japan, and lastly the United States, with Europe looking like this. One key difference although is the Ottoman Empire was not involved with the Central Powers as it was in our history.

There are numerous differences in the technology used throughout the world in this book. For instance, the Allied Powers followed on the theories of Charles Darwin and fabricated animals using DNA from other, natural animals. The Central Powers had a mechanical economy, very similar to a steampunk civilization, only using more energy sources than steam. Some nations dabbled in both Mechanical Science and Darwinist Fabrication, such as The United States and Japan.

Many key characters are aboard the British fabricated air ship The Leviathan, some of these characters include Nikola Tesla, Dr. Barlow, and Count Volger. These characters support Alex Ferdinand or Deryn Sharp in many ways. Nikola Tesla was introduced to the crew when they picked him up in the middle of the bitter cold Siberian Desert. He was taken aboard The Leviathan to be brought to New York City. Dr. Barlow is a scientist working for the British, trying to improve and create new fabricated animals. She spends her time on The Leviathan overseeing the animals and the ship itself. Newark is a Midshipman, the same rank as Deryn and does many tasks with her. Count Volger is a advisor to Alek. He is a great fencer and taught both Alek and Deryn. Lastly, Alek was in direct line of succession to the Austrian throne until his father married someone not in a royal family, making him unable to become emperor, but the Pope wrote a letter making him heir to the throne, only count Volger and Deryn know of it. Deryn is forced to pretend to be a man so she can serve in the air corps. She is one of Alek’s closest friends and later tells him her secret.

The Prelude to Goliath, Behemoth, ends with an Ottoman Revolution helped by The Leviathan. Next, the airship traveled to Japan to assist in the siege of Tsingtao, but was side tracked from a request from the Czar of Russia, the lower level shipmen didn’t know what they were doing at the time but they knew something new was happening because they picked up a large amount of supplies, unknowing if it was food, new weapons, new animals or, something completely foreign. The way of transporting the cargo was very risky, two Russian Bears had been loaded with the supplies, this cargo was massive as were the bears, the taller than a house and at least the width of it. Instead of landing to transport the materials onto the ship two midshipmen, Deryn and Newark were attached to the ship with cords and jumped down to attach hooks to the cargo to bring it up into the cargo bay of the ship. This was a very dangerous mission and required many things to go right. The mission was successful, but the cargo was heavier than expected and the crew on the airship had to throw off many things to make the airship airworthy.

After reviewing the contents of the container, they found what made the package so heavy, mechanical parts. Alek and a few of his tutors that joined him on The Leviathan were called to examine the pieces, figure out what its used for, and put it together. While this was happening, The Leviathan was making its way to a remote Russian base in Siberia to pick up Nikola Tesla. When they arrive they saw a dead airship and large savage Russian Bears, to protect The Leviathan from the bears crewmen throw meat away from the ship to pull the bears away from the ship. Tesla was out in Siberia to conduct testing for a weapon that could decimate a entire city using Earth’s magnetic field.