Black Leviathan

Beware! A shadow will cover you, larger than that cast by any other dragon of this world. Black as the lightless chasm from whence it was born at the beginning of time.
In the coastal city Skargakar, residents make a living from hunting dragons and use them for everything from clothing to food, while airborne ships hunt them in the white expanse of a cloud sea, the Cloudmere.
Lian does his part carving the kyrillian crystals that power the ships through the Cloudmere, but when he makes an enemy of a dangerous man, Lian ships out on the next vessel available as a drachenjager, or dragon hunter.
He chooses the wrong ship. A fanatic captain, hunts more than just any dragon. His goal is the Firstborn Gargantuan—and Adaron is prepared to sacrifice everything for revenge.

Many thanks to Edelweiss and Tor Books for an eARC in exchange for an honest, unbiased review. Quotes are taken from an unfinished version and may differ from the final product.

Okay, look, y’all had to know I was going to read this, because not only is it about dragons, but it’s got a giant, intimidating looking dragon on the cover.

And by that I mean, it’s absolutely adorable and I want one to love and cuddle and slay my enemies with. We shall be an unstoppable force, and I’ll name him Steve, because I feel like Steves get a bad rap.

Black Leviathan is an adventure-packed, edge-of-your-seat retelling of Moby Dick … but with dragons! And a lush, expansive world that I refuse to leave, and you can’t make me. That’s it. This is me now. I belong here.

I had a few misgivings going in, because this is a translated work, and that can really be hit or miss. I had absolutely no problems with this one. Everything flowed beautifully, and mostly, I forgot entirely that it was translated, since it was so well done.

I don’t believe this is a series, and I doubt there will be more books surrounding this, but there should be. For so many reasons, and not just because I live here now and think you all should know the history of my new world. But also that, too.

❧ This is an expansive, intriguing world, with obvious Germanic influences, that includes a little of everything and was so easy to fall into and want to explore.

Our first great glimpse of the world is in Skargakar, a coastal city whose lifeblood is the processing of dragons brought back from jägers hunting them in the Cloudmere. And wow, what a variety of things you can do with dragons, from pets (which duh, yes, please), to clothing and armor, weapons, alchemy, food. Dragons mean everything to these people … and in different ways.

BUT WAIT! The world is so much freaking bigger. There are a variety of different races, all of which we get to see in action, and they have different abilities and cultures, from magic to wings, etc. I got a great feel for the different races, from Nondurier to the Drak to the one Sidhari we get to meet, Hanon’ka (the question mark shrouded in a mystery wrapped in an enigma that he is).

Perplies did a marvelous job of simply bringing this world to life and allowing us to journey through it, all the beautiful and terrifying and curious parts of it.

There’s not even any way I could really go into detail about this. You just have to see it for yourself. A few of the things you’ll get to see:

✿ Dragons (duh)
✿ Flying ships
✿ So many different types of magic
✿ Multiple different cultures
✿ Lots of different types of dragons
✿ The Cloudmere (a vast expanse of clouds, like a sea … but in the sky).
✿ What lies beneath the Cloudmere (hint: nothing good)
✿ Various religions and beliefs

Talk about a book hangover, man. I still haven’t been able to fully pull my head out of this world, and I don’t want to. Just … leave me here. Go on without me. I’ll be fine.

❧ Black Leviathan is a retelling of Moby Dick, so there’s a lot one might recognize going in. But boy does this breathe new life into an old classic.

Here’s where I put the customary disclaimer that it’s been way too many years since I actually read Moby Dick. I’m pretty sure it was, like, sixth grade, when I was … what, 11? And now I’m … *mumbles number*. Suffice it to say, I remember very little about Moby Dick, so if you’re looking for a comparison of the two, boy have you come to the wrong place.

What I will say is that the overarching plot of this book, particularly as far as Captain Adaron is concerned, will be obvious because of this retelling. Did this dim my enjoyment or experience with this book? Not at all. Actually, because I knew what ultimately was in store for the good ship and crew, I was all the more excited, because who doesn’t love a final showdown?

Despite turning the book on its head and making it his own, Perplies manages to keep some common themes from Moby Dick that I thought were done particularly well.

Because if you’re going to do a retelling, you might as well have similar themes, right? The book still had:

✿ Fate vs. free will
✿ Nature vs. man
✿ Race relations and fellowship
✿ Descent into madness
✿ Religion

It was actually interesting to see them done in a fantasy setting, yet see how clearly they translated to the real world and how easily the message shone through, without feeling preachy and obvious.

❧ In many ways, this is a coming of age story for Lian, our scrappy protagonist, and it was pretty much impossible not to root for him.

At first, he’s just a kid in a lousy situation. Drunk father holding him back from his dreams. Not much going for him, in particular. Then he’s thrust into … well, chaos, really. I wouldn’t call it an ideal path to following one’s dreams, but it did the trick.

Through the book, we get to watch Lian grow from a dutiful son, shackled to the coastal town he was born in, to someone who sets out to make his own future.

There’s so much growth in his character, little by little, born by sheer necessity and determination, but it was so much fun to watch. He’s just a kid trying to make the most out of a bad situation, without any of the scars yet that have kept the other characters alive and hardened them.

❧ There’s a really interesting balance between foreshadowing, death, darkness, and breathtaking beauty.

I mean, obviously this was going to be a dark book. You should’ve figured that out going in, but in case you didn’t, there’s widespread death and mayhem right in the first chapter. Plus, you know, that opening warning you about a fearsome, nightmarish monster in the deep? This ain’t no rose garden.

Still, not everything is bleak and hopeless, even when it is. There are so many scenes of breathtaking landscapes, meeting fascinating cultures, and just some wonderful light-hearted moments or exchanges. There’s a very hopeful and uplifting undertone, despite all the cynical darkness, and the balance between the two was so poignant and well done.

❧ There are so many haunted and scarred people in this, and I really just wanted to know more about all of them.

This could almost even be a sticking point, because we don’t actually get to find out more about them, but the fact that I was so curious and attracted to all these characters is a good thing, in my opinion.

I knew from the moment we saw them that I was absolutely going to fall in love with Ialrist and Hanon’ka, and I for sure did. I have a thing for the mysterious, haunted type, so maybe that’s why it worked so much for me here. I do wish that we knew more about why they were haunted, but ultimately, these characters were so interesting that I wanted to sail with them.

❧ Adaron’s arc is so relatable, yet terrifying, and boy does it work well as a cautionary tale.

Because, in fact, that’s what it was. Obsession can be good … or it can be deadly. Vengeance is almost always so. Combine the two, and you get … Adaron. Lian’s relationship toward the captain was a little confused … and so was mine. There were absolutely things that had me gushing over him and loving his character.

The hardest thing about Adaron for me is being able to see exactly what he could have been. For me, that was the most effective thing about his character.

Since it’s a Moby Dick retelling, of course you’d expect him to have the obsession going. But the hunt isn’t everything about his character. There are little moments that shine through where you can almost see the man he might have been—the suave, cunning sort who deeply cares about his crew. It made me mourn the man he became all the more, and I loved him as much as I hated him.

❧ I don’t normally (or ever, actually) do casts for books that I read, because that’s just not my thing. But with this? I felt these characters so much that I just couldn’t help it.

These people just popped in my head as I was reading, so it’d be a shame not to share them. Besides, I loved this cast so freaking much that they deserve a little more love and attention.

✦ Hanon’ka ✦

Played by: Michael B. Jordan

Hanon’ka is … a mystery. He’s the only Sidhari we meet, and it seems like not much known is about the secretive race. He’s got dark skin and glowing green eyes, which is pretty sexy, right? He wields some interesting forms of magic through incantation, and he’s an intimidating figure, particularly among the crew.

✦ Ialrist ✦

Played by: Idris Elba

Ialrist is a Taijirin, or vogelfolk, which means he’s got tan and white down over his skin and giant wings. He’s loyal, to a fault in fact, and was Adaron’s crewmate on the man’s fateful voyage where he first encounters Gargantuan (not really a spoiler, as this happens in the first few pages). There’s a definite history there that is also never explored, but I so wanted to know more about him. He’s both aloof and a mentor, and his character is just a bundle of contradictions, which I loved.

✦ Adaron ✦

Played by: Bobby Cannavale

Ah, our fateful Captain. Vengeful, obsessed, consumed by hate. And yet … so much more lurking beneath the surface? I don’t want to say too much about him, because discovering him is part of the book. But there are just so many facets to his personality, and I’m still sort of conflicted in how I feel about him.

✦ Lian ✦

Played by: Dylan Sprouse

Lian. Our leading man. Our intrepid hero. The kid we’re supposed to root for. And I did. His naivete is so clear, right from the start, and it was so effective that we get to see the ugly truth of the world through his eyes.

❧ I just wanted MORE … and sometimes that’s a good thing, and sometimes that’s not.

Especially if a book is a standalone, which it appears this is? This book could have easily been another 500 pages, and it wouldn’t have felt too long to me, because there were so many things to explore. Which also meant there were so many things that weren’t explored, just by necessity, and boy did that hurt.

All the characters have such a rich backstory that is touched upon and hinted at, but we never actually learn any of that backstory.

One might argue that it doesn’t matter because it didn’t pertain to this plot, but I would argue that it does matter, because I want to know, darn it! It’s like promising someone a Mercedes Benz and giving them Fred Flinston’s car. Sure, it gets the job done, but it’s just not quite the same.

This was especially the case with Lian’s father, Hanon’ka, Ialrist, and even Lian himself, though in reverse. There are plenty of times that Lian’s father’s history as a jäger is brought up, and he was apparently quite well-known and acquired some very special loot. Yet … it’s never really brought up, and Lian ends up finding out nothing about his father?

Same with Hanon’ka and Ialrist, whose pasts are heavily hinted at, over and over. I understand that they’re meant to be these mysterious, idyllic figures, but that’s not enough for me. I want to know more, because obviously, those pasts were important to those characters ending up where they were and how they were.

As for Lian? The foreshadowing about his future and his role in this world is so obvious, not to mention all the little things he encounters along the way that foreshadow something bigger and ancient in the world. All of which is mentioned and then dropped, which is frustrating, to say the least.

TL;DR: This needs to be a series with more books. Prequels. Sequels. Spin-offs. I’m not picky. There just needs to be more.

In a world full of dragons, how would you interact with them? Fear them? Raise them? Hunt them?