How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
"What if they don't leave?" Alek said. "What if they can't?"
"Then they won't last long," Volger said flatly. "There's nothing to eat on the glacier, no shelter, no fuel for a fire. Just ice." (22.19-20)
Ugh, this makes us think of Jack London and other folks who basically wrote about how nature will kill us all. Thanks, Volger.
Quote #8
"They weren't laid, but made in a laboratory. When you create a new beastie, they have to stew for a while. The life threads are in there, building the beasties out of egg muck."
Alek looked down with distaste. "It all sounds very ungodly."
Dylan laughed. "The same thing happened when your ma carried you. Every living creature's got life threads, a whole instruction set in every cell of your body." (26.48-50)
Life: wonderful and amazing… and gross, the way Deryn describes it. "Egg muck," really? You're trying to win the dude over with the idea of "egg muck"? We'll never eat an omelet again.
Quote #9
The head boffin stepped forward.
"The Alps were once the bedrock of an ancient sea," he said. "But now these peaks are the highest in Europe, not fit for man or beast. If you look around, you'll see no insects, plants, or small prey for our flocks."
[…]
Dr. Busk's gaze swept across the glacier. "And in this awful place, nature herself is empty." (27.31-32, 39)
Way to go, nature, being all barren and such. What Dr. Busk is saying is that the Leviathan can't heal itself—it's meant to thrive as part of an ecosystem, which is all around it, not just on board. It can't thrive if it can't access the parts of the greater ecosystem that it needs. In other words, not the best place for a crash landing.