The Manual Of Aeronautics: An Illustrated Guide To The Leviathan Series (2012) - Plot & Excerpts
This is a great companion to the Leviathan series and to those who haven't yet read them, this is still an awesome book. It combines two of my favorite things art and world building. The drawings are beautiful and very detailed and there are nice snippets of information about the alternate timeline the Leviathan series takes place in. It focuses on the "beasties" and technology that was in the novels and only adds a few commentary about them which makes sense as this is a guide to the Leviathan series. My only complaint is that it doesn't explore the world; like I said it stuck to tech and the "beasties". I was such a fan of the illustrations in the books, but this "manual" felt really sparse to me. I was expecting to get an understanding of how these beasts and machines really worked, and I don't feel like I have more insight into the Clanker tech or the living mechanisms of the Leviathan. The map of the airship is the most detailed portion of the book, and even then there are a lot of gaps. There are also no close-up diagrams of Goliath or Tesla's metal detecting device, both of which I would have appreciated. There are also updates on Alek, Dylan, Barlow and Volger, but I knew where all of them were going except Volger. I felt that insight into Klopp, Bauer and Hoffman's futures would have been more useful.The illustrations are still gorgeous, but I feel like I learned more about the design listening to Westerfeld discuss his process with Thompson at the ALAN Breakfast than I did from the book.
What do You think about The Manual Of Aeronautics: An Illustrated Guide To The Leviathan Series (2012)?
Loved it, but would really only appeal to those seriously into the Leviathan series.
—Nay
Wonderful illustrations of people and apparatuses used in the Leviathan series.
—bmatthews90
If you've read the trilogy, you should read this. Simple as that.
—Red1
Only 53 pages? They really condensed it, this edition.
—brutus
