The full-color, slightly larger format, all-singing and all-dancing art book to the Leviathan series, also known as The Manual of Aeronautics, is OUT NOW. Actually, several people have found them on store shelves over the weekend, but today is the official release date. (Well, tomorrow morning in the United States. BUT YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN . . . )
You can go buy the Manual with your monies! Or ask your librarians for it, or get it online at Powell’s, Barnes & Noble, Amazon, or IndieBound.
UPDATE: Oh yeah, the paperback of Goliath also came out today!
One of my favorite features of the Leviathan series is that each of the books has a splendid color endpapers by Keith, and the Manual is no exception. Which means I get to follow my tradition of revealing the endpapers on publication day.
As a wrap up of the series, Keith and I wanted to do something that encapsulated the whole series, with pretty much all of the characters in it. Also there was a certain piece of fan art about Deryn and Alek posing for the cover photo on Goliath. So we thought it would be cool for Keith to create the photo shoot for the Clanker/Darwninist Co-Existence Treaty signing!
Most likely, the image below wouldn’t really happen in the world of the Leviathan. I mean, all these characters wouldn’t all get credit for what they did to end the Great War (and all of those machines and beasties in the background would be a bit of a mess). But think of this as a visual confection, a collage that reveals the themes of the book (not unlike the frontispiece of that OTHER Leviathan).
So this is what we went with, and from this humble idea Keith created this awesome image:
Click here for the HUGE and zoomable version. And then see if you can find all the amusing (or sad) details.
Feel free to comment on the Manual in this comment thread, given that there aren’t really spoilers for an art book. (Or are there? Hmm.)
So I guess this is KIND OF THE END. You know? I mean, I’ll certainly post about the Leviathan series again, and people will go on talking about it and cosplaying it, and as new people are born and taught to read, they’ll discover it for the first time. Also, it’s completely possible that someone will make graphic novels or movies or interpretive dances of it, or that I will do more work in that universe someday.
But that doesn’t change the fact that with the Manual finally out, the Leviathan series is kind of . . . over now, at least in its original flavor version. *MAKES SAD FACE WITH TINY TEAR*
It’s been a great five years of working with the awesome Keith Thompson, who really threw his genius into this project, making it much better and bigger and realer than I could ever have hoped it would be. (I’m pretty sure I’ll be working with him again. Steampunk card game!)
It’s also been great having so many voluble, passionate, opinionated, and ridiculously creative fans. Thank you for coming along for the ride, and especially for all the amazing fan art. You are the best.
Seriously. Barking spiders to all of you.
@195&200: Yay, I’m not the only one!
And we’re over 200 now!
Oh I just realized I got 200! Yay me!
@182 Ohhh… I didn’t picture Eddie Malone so young and cute. I always found him kind of annoying, but this puts a new spin on things. (And for some reason I pictured Newkirk much taller.)
@203: I think Malone is plenty scruffy-looking. But I thought Newkirk was taller, too.
And so the few commenters spree starts again.
@203-Me too! But Newkirk is pretty cute in the picture too. Really.
Is everybody dead or something?
CONFIRM YOUR EXISTANCE!!!
@206- Really? I think he looks a bit like a toad.
@209-Rusty looks a bit like a toad. Duh. NEWKIRK DOES NOT LOOK LIKE A TOAD.
Oh man-I just thought of something. What if all the Westerbloggers were killed/kidnapped along with Scott, and me and PWH weren’t, do it’s up to is to save everybody??? HOW HORRYFYING…
@210- I still think Newkirk looks like a toad. Or maybe it’s just that i don’t find blond people attractive (hope I’m not insulting anyone).
@211- First I’d have to find money to buy a plane ticket to California.
It just struck me that school is starting in less than a week and I’m transitioning from a school in a house with a class of 12 people to a massive school with a class of around 600 people *shudders*
@212-I thought you were blonde….?
@215- I am. But should one really be attracted to one’s self? Isn’t that vanity?
I don’t know what I’m saying anymore…
I am resisting the urge to scream in frustration. SEVEN MINUTES. SEVEN FRIKING LITTLE MINUTES. AAAARRRRGGGHHH!!!!
I could not resist the urge.
Middy Joe? Have you ever heard of danisnotonfire on youtube? If not, he seems like someone you’d find amusing, you should watch some of his videos.
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=X_Qdx7aGF9k
There. I’ve posted an irresistable link to one of his videos. Maybe you won’t like it. Hopefully the link actually works.
I am perfectly functioning in a different galaxy (compared to you all), thank you. BEEP. EXISTENCE CONFIRMED.
hey, i’m still here too! i wasn’t allowed much Westerblog time lately. i still have summer reading.
and @214 and 216, where do you go to school??? and it’s called narcissism.
@Scott (114): I played the fun game and noticed some more differences (in comment 172,) in case you missed them.
Hello! Existence confirmed! XD I had to download new sercurity to my computer and it took forever….
@223- I go to a magical place called high school were everything smells bad and I literally have to walk 1/4 of a mile from each class to the next.
And yes, narcissism, like Narcissa Malfoy.
@226-Yes, I was just thinking of Narcissa Malfoy.
And I’m sad now. I really wanted to go rescue Scott. (and then get his autograph!)
ARGH!!! I almost exploded from laughter when I saw Alek standing on a box. And what’s all this Huxley clart about the series being over??? THERE IS FANFICTION TO BE MADE!!!!!
@228: I agree! And I’m listening to a magical thing called the audiobook of Goliath. <3 Chapter 15 right now….Herculean inundation. ^^
This picture makes me indescribably happy.
CAN’T GET THE MANUAL FOR TWO WEEKS JDJHRSKJVHZKJFRNCKNCG
;_____; LEVIATHAN WILL LIVE ON IN OUR HEARTS. </3
-game face- I WILL GET THE MANUAL. And BARKING SPIDERS! They are ALL there! Keith didn’t miss anyone (exept for Deryn’s Da and Alek’s mother, I think they should have been included among the dead). Just wow. Thank you Scott, for writing such a magnifencent trilogy. Levaithan and all it’s characters will remain in my heart forever. <3
You know how in the 1st book Deryn’s drawing the new Clanker engines, then she’s imagining them being in a future edition of the manual? Since this new manual is obviously a new version, 1915 or so, they should totally have had in there “Leviathan’s Clanker Engines, obtained 1914, illustrations courtesy of Midshipman Dylan Sharp” . That would be so cool, just add in a little fan detail.
Yeah, I think they should have added in more stuff to expand the world. There just wasn’t any new stuff in there at all, just stuff that’s already been in the books. 🙁
(P.S. Hey Flupke, love your name! I love the Quick and Flupke series 🙂 )
I MUST HAVE THIS MANUAL!!!!!! UGH I HAVENT READ LEVIATHAN
IN S