Black Leviathan

November 18, 2019
German author Perplies’s first novel translated into English draws from Melville’s classic Moby Dick to craft an entertaining coming-of-age fantasy that falls shy of its epic ambitions. When Lian’s disabled father, a dragon hunter, or jäger, is murdered, Lian takes vengeance on his father’s killer and then flees with his friend Canzo. They enlist aboard the Carryola, an air-schooner traversing the Cloudmere, a misty “ocean” of air where dragons dwell. Adaron, the captain of the Carryola, is on his own obsessive quest for vengeance against the legendary Gargantuan, the dragon who killed his first crew and only love. Lian is faced with a difficult choice between pursuing the path of the jäger or finding his own fate. Perplies, author of the first German Star Trek tie-in novels, packs the plot with all manner of tropey diversions, among them mysterious derelict ships, floating islands, zombies, prophetic visions, and a mutiny, but the promising opening of this rollicking adventure gives way to a disappointing anticlimax that leaves many questions to be answered in future installments. Readers familiar with the source material will long for more thematic depth from this fantastical reimagining. Agent: Elisa Diallo, S. Fischer Verlag GmbH (Germany).

January 1, 2020
German writer Perplies' first novel to be translated to English is set in a world where a vengeance-obsessed captain of a flying ship vows to slay the mammoth dragon that killed his love years earlier. Essentially a fantasy retelling of Melville's masterpiece, the story revolves around Lian, an 18-year-old who is forced to flee his hometown when he kills one of the thugs who murdered his drunkard of a father. With nowhere else to go, he finds a berth aboard a floating ship that hunts dragons. The ship--which some say is cursed--is captained by Adaron, a tortured man determined to destroy the legendary Gargantuan, an ancient dragon that killed his crew and lover almost two decades earlier. With only his late father's hunting spear to accompany him, Lian begins an adventure that brings him up into the mythical Cloudmere, a vast ocean of fog where dragons and other strange creatures live and floating islands hold unknown wonders. As Adaron closes in on the Black Leviathan, who is one of "the oldest and greatest dragons of all," Lian begins a transformative journey of self-discovery that includes a mystical revelation while inside a crystal chamber. His father's spear is more than it seems--and Lian may be destined for much more than killing dragons. While the worldbuilding is impressive and the pacing brisk throughout, the narrative has several flaws. The budding romance between Lian and another character seems forced and unlikely. Additionally, the novel's predictable conclusion is a bit of an anticlimax after such a powerful buildup. But the biggest disappointment is in the lack of any thematic depth. The narrative is ripe for existential examination--Adaron's obsessive quest for vengeance as well as Lian's coming-of-age--but the story, while entertaining, is told on a superficial level. The flawed lovechild of Moby-Dick and Eragon.

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January 1, 2020
Perplies' first novel translated into English recasts Moby-Dick as a thrilling fantasy adventure, with the titular whale replaced by a similarly deadly dragon. Black Leviathan presents a world where land floats amidst the "Cloudmere," and intrepid drachenj�gers hunt dragons on their crystal-powered flying ships. Lian, a young man from a coastal town, signs on to a hunting ship to escape a price on his head. However, the Carryola's captain has his sights set on finding and killing the largest and deadliest dragon of all, the Firstborn Gargantuan. With a crew made up of the various fantasy races who people Perplies' aerial world, the Carryola sails out on its potentially doomed voyage and encounters a number of hazards along the way. While in places very obviously derivative of the Melville story, the fast-paced narrative and distinct setting should please readers looking for an exciting diversion. Recommended for fans of swashbuckling or dragon-filled fantasy settings such as the draconic Napoleonic wars of Naomi Novik's Temeraire novels or the airship-heavy entries in Square Enix's Final Fantasy video game series.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)