Clanker countries mainly include the German and the Austro-Hungarian Empires (with Italy and the Ottoman Empire loosely affiliated). This provides enough 'historical credibility' to allow for the suspension of disbelief, which is one of those story-telling necessities that too many stories like this fail to provide. Like Charles Darwin's expanded exploits being the basis for the Darwinist advances, Westerfeld provides a similar back-story (though not yet as well explored) for the Clanker advances, which are based on the work of Nikola Tesla, the real life contemporary of Thomas Edison.

Instead, these countries have developed advanced, steampunky technology that they use to create mechanized machines able to locomote on legs and looking a bit like Imperial Stormwalkers for the Star Wars fans out there. Well the Clankers think that the Darwinists are a bunch of godless heathens and reject all use of “abominations” in their society. I will leave it to you to discover all the examples Darwinist “creations” in the book, but they are many and varied and clever. I mean, you can't have your giant Moby Dick air ship deciding on its own where it wants to fly.preferably away from the giant, skin-ripping bullets. One critical tenet of Darwinist science is that the “bred” creates must not be “sentient” and must only have the intelligence necessary to perform the functions for which they were created. The countries using this technology are known as “Darwinists,” and include, primarily, Great Britain, France, and Russia (basically the Triple Entente of the real WWI). Not only did he foment that little evolution revolution, but he also managed to crack the DNA code and perfected gene-splicing, allowing for the bio-engineering of all manner of “specialized” creatures bred to perform particular functions. So in this alternative world, Charles Darwin was a busy boy.

There are a host of inventive creations in this book full of ' nicely done,' but I want to run the highlighter over the two primary world-building concepts (i.e., The Clankers and the Darwinists) because they really struck me as swelling with genius, and their engorgement was made all the more pronounced by the art, which is impeccableness itself).įirst, the DARWINISTS. YA fanatics.Scott Westerfeld got it very, very right in this smart, slickly crafted re-imagining of World War I.

Goliath book scott westerfeld