Anybody up for a bit of soaping at this hour?
- Locked due to inactivity on Aug 4, '16 4:20pm
Thread Topic: Anybody up for a bit of soaping at this hour?
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The story begins in 1914, with Alek being awoken in the middle of the night at the royal palace by his fencing instructor, Count Volger, and his Master of Mechanics, Otto Klopp. Claiming a training exercise, they take him with them on board a Stormwalker (a bipedal, diesel-powered walking war machine) and have Alek practice piloting it. However, when Alek becomes suspicious of where they are going, Volger reveals that Aleks parents (Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and Princess Sophie) have been murdered and they must flee Austria or he too risks being murdered. The archdukes death has already sparked a war between several nations, and it would be all too easy for them to make Alek simply disappear. In Austria, Alek and his companions make their way through the countryside, hiding in barns and gathering what meager supplies they can from local villages until they reach an old fortress hidden high in the Swiss Alps which has been prepared by Volger and the Archduke for this situation.
Meanwhile, a young girl, Deryn Sharp, is staying with her brother Jaspert in London. Her father died in a ballooning accident and her mother and aunts want her to grow up as a proper lady. Deryn dreams of being part of the British Air Service and to serve on one of the great airbeasts like the Leviathan. In order to do so, she must pretend to be a boy ("Dylan Sharp"). To pass the starting exam, she is forced to take a ride in a Huxley (a combo of a jellyfish and hot-air-balloon) to prove her air-worthiness. However, while in the air a storm hits, severely tossing Deryn and the Huxley about, and they narrowly survive. After she is left stranded over the North Sea, she is thrilled when she and the Huxley are rescued and inducted into the Leviathan, a massive and the most famous air-beast, which is mainly made after a whale, but is actually a massive ecosystem. She comes to enjoy being part of the crew, and makes friends with the Monkey Luddite Newkirk. The Leviathan's mission is to transport a top British scientist (boffin) and a secret package to Constantinople. Deryn (known as the boy "Dylan" by the crew) is surprised to learn the boffin is a woman, Dr. Nora Barlow, and is afraid she will discover her secret.
In the air over Europe, the Leviathan comes under attack from German airplanes. The crew fights back and manages to defeat the planes, but not before the great whales hydrogen bladder is severely punctured. The airship crash-lands in Switzerland on the very glacier where Aleks group is hiding. Alek and Volger witness the crash, but Volger insists they do nothing to interfere, as they will risk giving away their position to the Germans or being captured by the British.
Alek is unable to stomach letting the crew of the Leviathan suffer out on the ice, and secretly leaves the fortress to bring medicine to the crew of the fallen ship. The first person he finds is an unconscious Deryn, who had fallen from the rigging during the crash. Alek revives her and claims unconvincingly to be a Swiss villager. Deryn is suspicious of him and sounds the alarm, resulting in Aleks capture. Alek continues to insist he is just a bystander trying help, but the captain refuses to release him and instead leaves him under Deryns charge. The secret cargo brought by Dr. Barlow is revealed to be eggs of some kind, though most were destroyed in the crash.
Alek's "family" comes to his rescue, and battle would have erupted between the two if Deryn's quick thinking in bringing Alek to the front and holding him as a hostage hadn't brought everyone to the table to talk under a flag of truce. Realizing their differences are outweighed by their similarities, Alek offers a sizable chunk from their food storage so the ship can replenish its hydrogen supply and take off again. However, as they travel back to the Leviathan, two German zeppelins appear and send out commandos to capture them. Unfortunately, one of the zeppelins escapes, and the Stormwalker is severely damaged by an aerial bomb, making it impossible to stand up and repair.
Thanks to the diplomacy of Dr. Barlow and a bright idea from Alek, the two groups decide to combine their technologies and leave together as one group. Alek also admits his true origins to Deryn/Dylan and Dr. Barlow when he realizes he let a few too many things slip. The Austrians dismantle the Stormwalker and use its engines to replace those lost by the Leviathan. The Austrian engines prove to be much more powerful than its previous ones, propelling them quickly away from danger and the deadly Herkules (Clanker Ship).
In the aftermath, Dr. Barlow reveals information about a fabricated ship in England that was sold to the Ottoman Empire but then taken back (even though it was paid in full) by Winston Churchill, thus creating rivalry among the British and the Ottomans. The novel closes with the Leviathan continuing its flight towards Constantinople with Alek watching the mysterious eggs that will hatch into some unknown fabricated species.
Dat long summary. -
I was thinking plot could be based off of either the fallen angel novel Hush Hush, or Fifty Shades of Grey.
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Hush Hush would be better, seeing as I'm not allowed to read the other book. :/
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Yeah...the other book is...very...inappropriate.
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So I've heard. :/
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I'm reading it on my computer right now actually
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Cool.
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:)
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So, about the soap?
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