The much-anticipated conclusion to Scott Westerfeld's epic Leviathan trilogy releases next week with Goliath, but our friends at Simon & Schuster Canada have arranged for us to reveal an exclusive sneak peek: one of the illustrations by Keith Thompson.

THAT MEANS SPOILERS!

The following artwork and description has info about a scene from Chapter 15 of Goliath, so don't look if you want everything to be a surprise.

Here's what Scott has to say about "Firefight in the Air":
"In Chapter 15 of Goliath, there's a scene where Deryn is trying to get from the rookery (where the strafing hawks and messenger birds are kept) to one of the engine pods, which is on fire. She has to slide down a cable connecting the two. At the same time, a German Zeppelin is passing by below, shooting rockets up at the stricken engine pod. It's a rather tense situation and, as you can see, Keith decided to draw the whole thing looking almost straight down. This is the first time he's drawn the spiny ventral fin of the airbeast, which is one of the weirder parts of the Leviathan. So 'Firefight in the Air' turned into one of the most vertiginous, and scary, images in the book!"

Here's Keith's amazing vertiginous image: