Scott Westerfeld's Blog, page 41

We are only one week away from the release of Leviathan. But the big news at Casa Larbfeld today is the release of Justine's new novel Liar!

[image error]

As you might guess, Liar is about a girl who doesn't always tell the truth—not even to the reader. It's one of those books in which the whole story (indeed, the whole world) gets flipped upside down in your hands every few chapters or so.

Of course, it would seem uxorious and self-serving to heap praise upon my wife's novel, so instead I will direct you...

The Good News: Actual copies of Leviathan exist in the real world.

The Bad News: They are sealed in cardboard boxes in the impregnable basements of your friendly local bookstore, armed with thermite bombs that will explode if they are opened prior to October 6. These boxes look like this:

[image error]

If you see one, do not touch it before Tuesday, October 6.

In other news, it turns out that my steampunk "panel" at the New York Anime Festival is just me. So I can rock out, showing images from Leviathan and ...

Simon & Schuster's annual BlogFest is happening right now! BlogFest is a huge group blogging project in which the same questions are answered by me and 39 other S&S authors. (Click here for the full list). Today's question is, "If you could have any superpower, what would it be?"

Not every author answers every question, but there are usually three or more of us for each one. It's been cool to see different writers respond to the same stimulus.

Click here daily for the Blogfest homepage.

Now...

Here at last is the info on my big Leviathan tour. But first the bad news: I'm probably not coming to your home town.

Why not? Well, I can't go everywhere. In fact, I can only go to a tiny sliver of this gigantic country, even in five weeks of hard touring. So most of you will be disappointed. I AM SORRY ABOUT THIS. (As for other countries: There are plans for the UK, France, and Australia. But no details yet.)

Luckily for me, I cannot be blamed! This schedule was created by the giant S&S...

I'll be posting the schedule for my continent-spanning Leviathan Tour on Sunday, but I thought I'd stick this bit of news here in the meantime: I'm appearing at Teen Central here in NYC next Tuesday!

For the first time ever in the US, I'll be showing unseen images from Leviathan on a big screen and talking about the series. The books aren't for sale yet, but I'm happy to sign whatever you bring.

When

Tuesday, September 22

5:00PM

Where
The Grand Central Branch of the New York Public Library, on...

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.

[image error]

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:

[image error]

Anyway, here's our real-life walker for the week...

Thanks to everyone who came to the NYPL reading last week. It was totally awesome and packed, which is how we authors like it. For those of you who weren't there, I read a bit of Chapter 2 of Leviathan, the part that goes with the image I posted last week.

And now a message from our sponsor, Swarovski Crystal.

Tally took a steadying breath, the room spinning again, but in a good way. She gestured for the windows to transpare a little more, and in the sunlight she saw the new additions.

"Ooh...

What with all the trailer hoopla, I forgot to post a new illustration at the beginning of the month! So it's time for more Leviathan art!

You may have notices that the first three images were all from the Darwinist side of things. (That is, weird beasties.) This was an oversight on my part, because the Clanker side of the war (weird machines) is equally cool.

So I give you . . . the Cyklop Stormwalker!

[image error]
One of the main reasons I chose Keith Thompson is his equal facility with strange creatures...

This official Leviathan trailer is pretty amazing. It's made entirely out of

Keith Thompson's art from the series, and has been rocking my world.

I'm glad I can finally share it with you.

Enjoy:

Thanks to everyone at Motherboard and Simon & Schuster who made

this possible.

Here's the YouTube link, if you want to embed it in your own blog.

Leviathan comes out October 6. Spread the word!

Before I sink completely into Leviathan-mania, I want to point out that it's now possible to buy my New York trilogy in their shiny new packages. The covers were designed by Rodrigo Corral, who designed the Uglies series, and they are beautiful.

Check them out:

[image error]

[image error]

[image error]

I really like the urban poetry of these covers, and the odd palettes as well. Each one has its own interesting mix of colors. The other cool thing is that the new books are a sweet small size, 7″ x 5″ (17.8cm x 12.7cm), and thus are very cu