I finished listening to the audiobook of Leviathan today. After I bought it from iTunes, I was a little leery because it was only 8 hours (as opposed to the >10 hours of The Lightning Thief, and the ~20 hours of most of the Harry Potter books). I was surprised it was such a short audiobook since seeing the paperback in Hastings and Barnes and Noble made me think it was reasonably long.
On the whole, I enjoyed the book very much. I haven’t read much alternative history, but I definitely liked the flavor it gave the book (it is set in an alternative World War I timeline). In addition, the conflict between genetically engineered animal vehicles and mechanized vehicles was interesting and enjoyable for me.
I really enjoyed the two main characters. To be fair, I am a sucker for strong female characters who disguise themselves as males. Both children had enough sadness in their lives, enough joy, enough pettiness, and enough confusion to feel real to me.
The reader did a good job, and didn’t get in the way of my enjoyment of the book the way the reader of The Lightning Thief did.
My main complaint about the book is that it ends on a cliffhanger. In my mind a book should be a complete thought. Cliffhangers are fine at the end of chapters, or sections in the book, but the story should be reasonably resolved by the conclusion.
While short, I’d recommend this audiobook to people who enjoy fantasy, young adult fiction, alternative history, and audiobooks in general. Based on the reader/narrator, I have no reason to recommend either the audiobook or print book more highly. It was a great listen.