Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld is a YA novel with an alternative history/steampunk theme. The book follows two young protagonists from either side of an escalating conflict that mirrors WWI. The Darwinists (Britain, France and Russia) have taken evolution to the extreme and had created many ‘fabricated’ animals, including a huge airship made from the body of a whale. The Clankers (Germany and Austria-Hungary) are more mechanically inclined and use zeppelins and huge mechanical walkers. It’s an incredibly cool alternative history setting, and I very much enjoyed the plot, which made good use of both characters, first separately then together. My only gripe is that when I started it I didn’t realise that it’s the first part of a trilogy, meaning that it ends on a bit of a cliffhanger, and I’m now desperate to read the second book, which will not be published until later this year.