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Deryn Sharp is one of the main characters in the Leviathan series by Scott Westerfeld. I’ve only read the first two.
She’s about 15 or 16 and she’s one of those characters who are perennial favorites among female readers–a girl disguised as a boy. I wonder why we do like them so much? But that’s a post for another day.
Deryn is intelligent and brave. She loves the Darwinist creatures that her father worked around before his death. She decides that she is going to follow in his footsteps and join the British Air Service as a ship’s boy on board a flying ship. In their world, this amounts to a flying whale. I know. But it’s really cool and makes sense in the context of the story.
She of course manages to land herself in all kinds of trouble. She’s not really a troublemaker, she just reacts so quickly to situations that she’s in the middle of them before anyone else has time to blink. She never hesitates to do the right thing or the brave thing.
The one thing that bothers me a little about her is that she can follow orders a little too blindly. She’s so intelligent, I have a hard time believing she wouldn’t question some orders. I guess she wants so badly to stay in the Air Service that she does what she can to stay in the officers’ good graces.
As she’s getting a little older in the books, I enjoy watching her struggling with her femininity. She definitely has some feelings for one guy in particular, but he has no idea she’s a girl. True, that’s a standard complication in these kinds of books. It doesn’t make it any less entertaining for me though.
Who did you connect with this week? Link your post on Mr. Linky, then be sure to go check out the other Character Connections!
Who do ya love?
Or love to hate?
You know you’ve got a lot to say about some larger-than-life characters, and this is the place to say it. Write a straightforward post. Draw a picture. Vlog, write poetry, write fiction, cast the role, be as creative as you want!
Be sure to post the book’s title and author, and be very careful not to give away spoilers while talking about how much you love your characters.
Mr. Linky will be posted here on The Introverted Reader every Thursday.
I have an affiliate relationship with Malaprop’s, my local independent bookstore located in downtown Asheville, NC; and Better World Books. I will receive a small commission at no cost to you if you purchase books through links on my site.
1 Comment
I'm listening to Alan Cumming reading the last in the Leviathan series. Deryn is great, a great female character, like you said, a"perennial favorite" 🙂