Nominated for a prestigious Nebula Award - the Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy - winner to be announced mid May 2010.
This is an incredibly original and thought provoking novel. Think Europe 1914 - the war is raging. Two kids, a boy who would be heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne and a girl who also happens to be a brilliant aviator are thrown together in enemy territory. With stunningly detailed imagery throughout, the book will come to life in your hands. Any 10+ boy or girl will find it unputdownable.
The year is 1914 and Europe, armed with futuristic machines and biotechnology, is on the precipice of war. Prince Aleksandar is fleeing for his life, having discovered that his parents have been assassinated and that he is now a target for the Clanker Powers, a group determined to take over the globe with their mechanical machinery. They will stop at nothing to get what they want, so Alek knows his only choice is to keep on running. When he meets Deryn Sharpe, an orphan girl who has disguised herself as a boy so she can to join the British Air Service, they form an uneasy, but necessary, alliance. But the pair will soon discover that their emerging friendship will dramatically change their lives and the entire course of the Great World War...
Scott Westerfeld is a software designer, a composer of music for modern dance whose works have been performed both here and abroad, and an author. He lives in New York City and Sydney, Australia.
