Now that it's over, I can sum up my feelings about Leviathan. Actually, I like a lot of the individual elements. The evil Barnabas is rather interesting. If I thought he was really evil, perhaps it wouldn't be, but since it's obvious that he's under the influence of the Leviathans, it's not only intriguing to watch him as this cold, calculating, evil leader, but to wonder if he'll be able to break away from it and get back to normal. Julia's reactions to him during this time add to that interest.
The main theme of the box, the breathing and the succession of children is rather exciting, too. I never minded the children as almost everyone else seems to! True, Jeb actually killed some people shortly after his appearance, but aside from that I think even Alexander and certainly Michael seemed more menacing in their manner.
The trying to find Quentin's portrait, especially since it was all Julia and some of the other side stories provided interesting diversions.
I guess it's in the middle that things get messed up. Aside from those early killings, Jeb turns into a wimp. He seems to cower and be afraid all the time. HE'S THE MONSTER!!! And, they kept coming up with a new "only thing that can kill him"!! As I mentioned before, Bruno's attempted coup makes no sense. It's not one of the followers trying to take over from the leader - Jeb is THE LEVIATHAN - the other's can't replace him. As with the Adam story, I think once Nicholas gets involved the whole story changes and goes downhill. While I enjoy Nicholas' scenes with a lot of the others, especially Angelique, he just messes up the Leviathan story. Again, I suppose we can believe that this whole thing was his idea, but the way it was originally presented with Oberon and Haza, it just doesn't seem to make sense for it to suddenly be Nicholas behind it all.
What I never understood was why they needed Barnabas to bring the box to "our present" time. They were there in 1796 (or whatever), had been waiting for centuries for a rebirth of their kind, so why didn't they just do it in 1796?!!!
The whole ghost and hanging man part seemed a rather silly intrusion, and when it turns out to be Peter Bradford and then the revelation about Vicki, it really ruins everything.
However, even with all those negatives, there are lots of exciting scenes making up those parts of the story, so if I break it down into parts, I really do like a lot of the elements. Somehow, the whole just seems to be icky. If I think of Leviathan, that's my reaction - ick!!! And, my mother and aunt never liked it either.
That might be one of the reasons I like parallel time. It seems so light and pink and pretty after the dark Leviathan!
The original mystery of this beautiful room appearing and disappearing, the barrier preventing one from entering or being seen or heard, seeing the "same" people so different, etc. It was such a mystery at first. I hadn't realized that Julia mentioned the parallel time theory so soon. I thought it was after Elliot was involved that he told the theory.
Then, as I said, the room is beautiful, Angelique is beautiful, the following of the Rebecca story is fun, Barnabas being involved with them and some of the later developments (particularly one very dramatic and scary scene that I won't even list as a spoiler) are very interesting. While I wasn't as thrilled with the Jekyll-Hyde story, it was all right and at times good.
So, my overall feeling for PT was that it was a lot of fun, and aside from some of the highlight stories (1795, most of 1897, some of the present things - arrival of Barnabas, etc.) it's my favorite.
