Leviathan Warfare Quotes
How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
Father always said that, with war on the horizon, everyone in the household had to be prepared. (2.13)
The idea that war is coming overshadows the whole first half of the novel—everyone is looking toward it and expecting it. It seems to us like this might make it easier to prevent, but we guess not when you're a nation-state with alliances all tied up like last year's Christmas lights.
Quote #2
"Assassins struck twice in the morning," Volger said. "Serb schoolboys hardly older than you, first with bombs and then with pistols. Both times they failed. Then last night a feast was given in your father's honor, and he was toasted for his bravery. But poison took your parents in the night." (5.35)
The assassination of Alek's parents really is the first major step on the road to war—as the assassination of the real Archduke Franz Ferdinand and Princess Sophie was in real life. And to think: people thought it was no big deal at the time.
Quote #3
His Serene Highness, Prince Aleksander of Hohenberg, was alone now. He might never see his home again. The armed forces of two empires were hunting him, set against one walker and four men. (6.41)
We'll be honest: we do not like those odds. If we weren't sure that Alek was one of the protagonists, we'd be pretty worried about him.
Quote #4
"Do not drop your guard until the other man does, Your Highness. Not in time of war." (9.59)
Wise words from Volger, who always gives Alek good advice, even if he wraps it up in an annoying-old-dude-who's-always-right-sandwich. Now if only Alek would listen…
Quote #5
Before Deryn had a chance to wonder what that could mean, she noticed a distant clanging over the roar of the hives.
"Do you hear that, ma'am?" she said.
"The general alarm?" Dr. Barlow nodded sadly. "I'm afraid so. It would appear Britain and Germany are finally at war." (19.56-58)
And now for the moment we've all been waiting for—well, at least some of the Leviathan's crew members have been waiting for it anyway. Sometimes when you're waiting for something bad to happen, you just want to get it over with already.
Quote #6
Deryn felt herself start to shake, unsure whether it was the cold or the shock of battle. She'd been aboard only a month, but this was like watching her family dying, her home burning down in front of her. (20.84)
Here we have a lull in the battle—a battle during which ten German aeroplanes have attacked the Leviathan repeatedly, leaving the airship pretty torn up. The Leviathan is Deryn's home and family, the one place she feels like she's doing what she was meant to do—and seeing that attacked is a big deal.
Quote #7
That young airman, Dylan, might have frozen to death if he'd lain in the snow all night. But Alek had saved him from frostbite. Maybe this was how you stayed sane in wartime: a handful of noble deeds amid the chaos. (25.9)
Maybe Alek has hit on something here. Even though he's too small to do much to influence the whole course of the war, he can do small amounts of good in order to make a big difference to someone else.
Quote #8
Alek squinted and covered his face. The whole airship glowed from within as it rose up, carried back into the sky by its own heat. The aluminum skeleton inside was melting. The Kondor twisted, then broke in the middle, a huge mushroom of fire bellowing from the split.
And then the two halves were swirling downward again.
They seemed to hit the ground gently, but the snow shrieked and hissed as melted metal and burning hydrogen turned it to steam. White clouds billowed around the two halves of wreckage, and Alek heard awful cries over the roars of flame. (33.42-44)
Deryn's been threatening us with what happens when fire gets too near hydrogen for most of the novel, and now we know. Fortunately it's not the Leviathan going down in flames; it's the Clanker zeppelin attacking it. Even though we know these people are the enemies of our main characters, we can't help but feel sorry for them—which just might be the point.
Quote #9
She stared out the window. "And our crew is smaller than it once was."
Alek nodded. He'd seen the shrouded bodies outside, and the men laboring to bury them in the iron-hard ice beneath the snow. (34.31-32)
Because this exchange between Alek and Dr. Barlow takes place a hundred pages after the Leviathan's first big battle of the war, we have almost forgotten that there were casualties from that battle that needed to be dealt with. This brings us back to the reality of what happens in war.
Quote #10
Deryn frowned. In all her weighing of promises and loyalties, she hadn't thought that far ahead. "Well… not quite the enemy. We're not at war with Austria, the captain says."
"Not yet. But from what Volger's heard on the wireless, it'll only be a week or so." He smiled sadly. "Funny, all those politicians trying to decide if we're enemies or not."
"Aye, barking hilarious," Deryn murmured. (40.66-68)
We've known throughout the novel that Deryn and Alek are on two different sides of the philosophical split between Darwinists and Clankers, so we've sort of assumed that they are enemies to this point. However, this reminds us that this actually has yet to be decided, as much by the characters themselves as by their nations.