Sequel to Leviathan -- so much fun! I loved Keith Thompson's illustrations (again), the descriptions of Istanbul, and when I finally got to see the Behemoth. Includes an Afterword about what's true and what's fictional from history. Lots to discuss, and lots of anticipation for the final installment of the trilogy: Goliath! 
 Favorite quotes/discussion starters: 
 "You had to face what was in front of you, whatever your father's plans. Every man arrives at that point, sooner or later." 
 "The coffee arrived, smelling of chocolate and as thick as black honey." 
 "Gravity was something you could beat; all it took was hydrogen, hot air, or even a bit of rope. But being a girl was a miserable, never-ending struggle." 
 "Zaven pushed through the doors into a riot of color. The apartments' divans and chairs were covered with vivid silks, the electrikal lamps decorated with rainbows of translucent tiles. A vast Persian rug was spread across the floor, its meticulous geometries woven in the hues of fallen autumn leaves. Sunlight spilled in from a large balcony, setting the whole mosaic aflame." 
 "The world rests upon a turtle, which itself stands on the back of an elephant!" 
 Alek tried not to laugh. "Then what does the elephant stand on, madam?" 
 "Don't try to be clever, young man." She narrowed her eyes. "It's elephants all the way down!" 
 (at the library in Istanbul) "Did every wee sliver of knowledge have its own number? The system was probably quicker than wandering through the ceiling-high bookshelves, but what other books might she have found, doing it herself?" 
 "Use them?" Lilit asked. "What a horrid way to think of animals." 
 Deryn rolled her eyes. Had Alek taken up with Monkey Luddites now? "Aye, lassie, and you've never eaten meat?" 
 The girl frowned. "Well, of course I have. But that seems different, somehow." 
 "Only because you're used to it." 
 "A cage was still a cage, however luxurious." 
 "What's the point of legs if you can't take the barking stairs? Just get moving!" 
 "In a way, she'd managed the same trick Deryn had -- acting like a man -- without pretending, and that was a splendid sort of anarchy, one had to admit." 
 "The Leviathan had been brought to that mountaintop, and then here. It was up to him, Aleksandar of Hohenberg, to end the war that his parents' deaths had started." (fate/the "will of heaven") 
 "Aye, that's the barking strangest thing about battle -- that it's real."