The Ninja Reader

Way to end it, Scott Westerfield! Way to leave us wondering!*mutters to herself*No, seriously. I actually went "WHAT?" when I realized that the next page was the Author's Note. If that's not the marking of a great book, I don't know what is.Also, expect me to yell "Bum-rag" a lot in the next few days. And Dummkopf. And barking spiders. To be honest, I quite like the obsceneties here.Alternative history can be tricky - as someone who has spent a fair amount of studying history, I can tell you there's a lot more involved than simply changing a few facts to fit your story. As it is, I'm not entirely certain that Westerfield's world building is quite so spot-on as I wished it would be. Oh, yes, it shows a great deal of knowledge not only in history, but in politics, and everything is made to look consistent with the story, but I have to admit that the Great War being all about Clankers vs. Darwinists is... a little far-fetched.Of course, there is that aspect of the story, and it provides ample room for discussion on religion, evolution, mechaniks (as they are spelled in the book) and how our society relies on them, and those conflicts are all well portrayed. But there were more reasons into WWI - Germany's hunger for colonies, France wanting to get back at Germany for the Prussian War, the dying Ottoman Empire and Europe's forces waiting to pounce on it, the ongoing conflicts between Russia, Britain and the Ottoman Empire, etc. Is the fact that these conflicts were not entirely acknowledged bad? Not really. In fact, in the world Westerfield creates, these conflicts may not have been as important, or may not have occurred at all. Everything's possible. As it is, the world-building is fantastic and I wouldn't have it any other way, especially when the characters are amazing!Now, I've made no secret of the fact that I love novels with great characters. The reason why I adore Looking for Alaska, Five Flavors of Dumb and Wildefire, Sister Mischief and The Demon's Lexicon books. I also love books that take their secondary characters seriously, and Goliath is no exception. Every character is not only three-dimensional, but interesting and engaging. It takes a special kind of talent to make the readers think of your characters as real. This is a fantastic conclusion to a fantastic series. I'd love it if everyone loved it as much as I did.Note: I recieved a copy of this book via Simon and Schuster's Galley Grab program.