Goliath (Westerfeld novel)

Goliath is a biopunk/steampunk novel by Scott Westerfeld, and illustrated by Keith Thompson. The novel is the third and final installment in the Leviathan series after Behemoth, released on September 20, 2011.

Heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne in hiding Prince Aleksander, and Scottish midshipman Deryn "Dylan" Sharp rescue Serbian inventor Nikola Tesla from the site of a 1908 Siberian Tunguska event meteorite blast. Along the way, Alek sees through Deryn's male disguise of Dylan on the organic airship Leviathan while gradually learning of Tesla's motives of using his invented weapon Goliath to end the war on his own. Alek destroys the inventor and his Goliath weapon under German attack in New York, triggering the entry of U.S. into World War I.

As the airship Leviathan travels over Russia, Aleksandar, Deryn, and Newkirk are in the middy's mess with the perspicacious loris Bovril, talking about great circle routes. Alek mentions Deryn's father was an airman, but Newkirk says that the airman was Deryn's uncle. An actual living two-headed messenger eagle from the Czar heads towards the bridge, interrupting their discussion. A message lizard sends Deryn to the bridge and Newkirk to the cargo deck. Alek goes with Deryn, and there Dr Barlow tells them to take the bird to the rookery and feed it. Deryn nearly confesses her secret to Alek, but hesitates to do so thus resisting herself. She quickly asks for a fencing lesson to cover the thing up. Count Volger tries to expose her gender unless she discloses the imperial message, but drops the attempt after some convincing from Deryn, who dares not to shake the confidence of Alek, who admires 'Dylan' unaware of her masquerade as a boy.

The imperial message is to pick up cargo from a fighting bear, but it is much heavier than expected, overloaded by metal parts and tools, and drags Deryn and Newkirk down into the trees until the crew manages to compensate by dumping clart (waste water) and other supplies. Dr Barlow orders Alek, with Klopp, Hoffman, and Bauer, to assemble the metal contraption and keep it secret. The loris shows them how it detects metal with Barlow's necklace.