Walker Wednesday #1

Welcome to Walker Wednesday, your weekly source of video about real-life walking machines!

This is, of course, Leviathan-related. One of the main characters in the series gets around in a Cyklop Stormwalker, which I first revealed two posts ago.

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But that’s not the only walker in the series. Keith Thompson also created these German horse scouts, which were revealed on io9.com a week ago. (Click here to read that post.)

They look like this:

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Anyway, here’s our real-life walker for the week: Plustech’s Timberjack, designed for cutting down trees. (We authors are all about cutting down trees, you know. Think about it.)

Pretty cool, huh?

One thing you’ll notice about real-life walkers is that they walk slowly. Animals are still much quicker than machines when it comes to moving on legs. In fact, animals are generally better than machines at everything, except under very specific circumstances. You might think that cars are faster than horses, but only if you create a very flat surface (aka, a road) for them to use. On almost any naturally occurring surface, horses win.

But I best not say more, as two of my characters have this exact same discussion in Leviathan.

Speaking of walkers, you can buy a fine art print of the old cover of Leviathan direct from Keith. A lot of the book’s interior art will be available after it publishes on October 6, but this piece is ready right now. Click here to take a look.

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45 thoughts on “Walker Wednesday #1

  1. Absolutly awesome Scott-la! So are you thinking about coming to Denver, CO(Tattered Covers[a book store]) if you are I will so be there. But if you are when?? :mrgreen: Oh Talie cool name, are you like Tally Youngblood?? Jk, no one can beat Tally, well maybe Aya from Extras, Jessica, Dess, or Melissa from Midnighters.

  2. hmmm…haven’t been on in like A REALLY LONG TIME!!! and once again changed my name. idk if anyone remembers but i was TYC leader, Forever Last, and BIGGEST GREEN DAY RAN EVER! haha i just like changing my name…keeps my creativeness flowing. hahaha. i like the new site…and am totallyy excited for Leviathan! it is going to be amazing just off the sheer fact that it’s written by SCOTT WESTERFELD!!! so like duh! it will be totallyy NINE KINDS OF AWESOME-MAKING!!! hahaha…so anyway….i love my new name!! hahaha. it comes off of one of the songs on Green Day’s 21st Century Breakdown…it’s called Viva La Gloria so i thought that it fit in with the Smoke cause it’s supposed to live and if anyone doesn’t know that’s what Viva means in Spanish…i know it might not be grammatically correct in spanish so im sorry in advance if anyone is offended by my ignorance but i am in Spanish II so i should know this stuff but my teacher isn’t teaching us anything (which is always a good thing!!) yeah so if im wrong…sorry!

    yeah so oh like everytime i listen to The Fray i think of Uglies series cause like the songs totally fit in with everything just saying. yeah so when/if they make the series into movies which i was told they would be then i think those songs should be on the soundtrack! but that’s just my opinion. haha.

    yeah so that’s it….OH YEAH!!! GREEN DAY ROCKS!!!!! <3

  3. I ♥ the horse things! They’re awesome!
    I soooo can’t wait for Leviathan!!! :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

    Viva La Smoke!: I love that Green Day song! Actually, I just love that whole cd! ^_^

  4. scott-la nice info about the horse vs. car thing. i like this cover better than the other one so, kieth, i might be getting it. Yaaaaaaaaay leviathan!!!!!!!!!!

  5. I got a finished copy of Leviathan yesterday and the illustrations are even more amazing than I thought they’d be. I’m really excited to start it!

  6. so extremely cool.

    lovvee the picturess i wish i could draw.

    2 AND A HALF WEEKKSSSS!!!! =]]] that makes me very happy =]]]

  7. Do you think I can do a book report in 3 days? I have a book report due on October 9th and Leviathan comes out October 6th. What will i do!!!!

  8. the day this comes out, i will not be able to focus at school. when extras came out, my friends noticed how i couldnt do anything. the same thing will happen for leviathan because i wont be able to get it until after 5 because of stupid school activities.

  9. That walker thing is PIMP! What an amazing invention. I hope it goes far. ^_^ So long as I get my hover board or hover car soon, too. 😉

    Still… waiting… for… LEVIATHAN. Gah. There are SO many books coming out right now that I WAAAAANT but I won’t get until my birthday in November! So not fair. At least I got Catching Fire. One book I could NOT wait for.

    Counting down!

  10. lol as long as I get the book day of Im satisfied
    so I don’t think it will bug me in school…I’ll just be excited

  11. Dahlia-wa: yeah that whole cd is pretty much like totallyy awesome! memorized it like the day after i got it!!! hahaha. Viva la Gloria is awesome! sadly they didn’t play it at the concert!

    that’s right! i went to a GREEN DAY concert!! it’s been a couple months and i still can’t believe i went!!! haha. seriously they are like awesome on their cds and stuff but to see them in concert is like a MILLION times better!!! they are awesome performers and you can feell the energy of the crowd surge through you as soon as they come on stage!!! it is one of the coolest things ever. like if you want to feel bubbly or actually i’d take it up to ICY!! that’s the way to do it!!! it makes you feel totallyy alive!!! nothing to compare it to. so if you like ever have a chance to go to one of their concerts…DO IT!!! and if you don’t i’ll hunt you down!!!! ….SERIOUSLY I WILL. hahahah.

    anyway…yeah im excited for Leviathan….it’ll be legit. we just read some like futuristic short story in English (waaaaayyy to easy for honors 10th grade english in my opinion, seriously the stuff we’re learning i could do when i was in like 6th grade!! needless to say im bored) but i digress…so like it’s called Cold Equations i don’t know if any of you have heard of it but it’s pretty good in my opinion but alot of people thought it was like depressing cause like someone dies ( i won’t give away the ending in case anyone wants to read it) but they also think it was too drawn out…i was about to say “If you think this is drawn out, then you should definitely read Breaking Dawn and then tell me about drawn out!” hahah seriously not bashing Stephenie Meyer or anyone who likes her but like all that suspense was built up and then……………nothing but maybe that’s just me. hahaha. im still like way excited for New Moon though…mostly coz of Rob Pattinson and Taylor Launtner (btw he gained 30! POUNDS! OF! MUSCLE!!! too hot!) hahah

    yeah anyway i realize i like to write alot!! everyone else’s blog is like a sentence and here i am writing paragraphs…oh well ahaha. i do the same with texting…i just have too much to say…that’s just the writer in me…hahaha yeah so that’s it.

    GREEN DAY ROCKS!!!! <3

  12. Viva La Smoke!: i almost got to go to a green day concert with my mom but then my dad planned this dumb family bar-be-que on that same day as the concert so my mom and i didnt get to go. we were listening them all day though.

  13. Viva La Smoke!: You’re sooo lucky! I’ve only seen their concerts on tv, and yes, they are rather good live. I wouldn’t mind going to a Green Day concert (okay, I’d be really happy if I got to!). But I’d still rather see Muse live. They are my favorite band in the whole universe, and they’re awesome live! :mrgreen:

    Amy~la: Too bad you didn’t get to go to the concert. 🙁

  14. Amy~la: ok so im going to hunt your dad down!!! just letting you know in advance! who in their right mind schedules a bar-be-que on the day of a GREEN DAY concert?!?!?!? ugh..if i was you i would’ve like totallyy disowned my dad or like something else drastic…jk…im totally not serious…ok well i sorta am coz GREEN DAY is so freaking awesome and my favorite band of all time and i love billie joe armstrong!!! hahaha but that totally sucks…i would’ve probably shut myself in my room and blasted GREEN DAY while crying the whole night…that’s so sad…i kinda wanna cry for you…:(

    Dahlia-wa: Muse is awesome too! Green Day is just like my all time favorite!! but i like a lot of different bands..but my dream was to see GREEN DAY and it happened (still can’t believe it) hahaha. anyway…i’ve seen Muse live on tv and they’re good and i’d like to see them too. HOpe you get your wish someday!!! 🙂

  15. Viva la smoke, your sooo lucky Green Day is soooooo awsome!! I love them. Guess what, New Moon comes out on my b-day and Taylor Lautner is so hot! Are you serious, 30 pounds of mucles?!?!?!?! That’s crazy!

  16. WOAH! That was Leviathan art from the Artist I saw on Deviantart! I thought so but I wasn’t sure cuz you hadn’t said anything about it…but yay!

  17. Jessie-wa: I KNOW!!! GREEN DAY IS BEYOND AMAZING!!!! 🙂 especiallyy Billie Joe Armstrong…i mean can you say HOT!!!! hahaha. and New Moon on your birthday? AWESOME!!! i can imagine how you’re going spend your day…hahaha. and yes Taylor Lautner is super HOT!!! haha especially with shorter hair..he just looked weird with it long..haha anyway….YEAH im serious!! 30 POUNDS!!! i thought i had originally heard 3 but my friends who are waaayy into him corrected me and said 30 and i was like “TOO HOT!!!” hahah. im more of a Rob Pattinson fan though but sadly his abs in the movie are like airbrushed (seriously they can do that!!!) and computerized and all in all NOT REAL!!! i was upset when i found that out. 🙁 oh well no one can be perfect! haha 🙂

    GREEN DAY ROCKS!!! <3

  18. on my birthday im just gonna be like freaking out, my friends r gonna kill me cus im not gonna shut up about it. i like taylor more, anyways rob’s engaged.

  19. There’s a robot with legs (and nothing else, lol) at the University of Michigan that walks around on a bar–we got to see it at Tech Day. 🙂

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