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32 of 33 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
London the conqueror, April 2, 2004
With the Harry Potter craze currently in full swing, a lot of people are constantly looking for the "next" Harry Potter series. There are lots of contenders for the title; from the definite rip-off Charlie Bone series to the sly slightly evil Artemis Fowl. Personally, I've read a great deal of these and none really hit me as having the same moral core or elaborate well-constructed world that the Potter books conjure up. Until now, that is. With "Mortal Engines", the first in author Philip Reeve's "Hungry City Chronicles" we have the privilege of finally reading about a world that is just as creative, enjoyable, and exciting as anything J.K. Rowling could ever have imagined. It is the future, and the world is not as it was. After humanity almost destroyed itself entirely in what became known as the Sixty-Minute War, civilizations have taken it upon themselves to become mobile. Cities, townships, and even suburbs now move across the land, eating anything smaller than themselves. This system is referred to as Municipal Darwinism with the strong eating the weak. The city of London is a particularly vicious devourer of smaller villages and it is here that we meet Tom. A young Historian, Tom idolizes the famed Historian and explorer Thaddeus Valentine and his lovely daughter Katherine. When Tom narrowly keeps a severely deformed girl from assassinating Valentine, he finds himself wound up in a series of betrayals and adventures that may well lead to the end of civilization once more. The book is filled to the brim with interesting characters. There Grike, the last survivor of the old world who is more machine than man. Or Anna Fang, the red clad aviatrix that fights against the moving cities as an Anti-Tractionist. Or the pirate Chrystler Peavey that commands a posh pirate suburb and dreams of becoming a proper gentleman someday. You care for these characters, which makes it all the more painful when Reeve decides to kill them off. I've never read an author so ready to end the lives of his heroes with as much aplomb as Mr. Reeve, though I should've caught on when he killed off my favorite character almost exactly halfway through. Much like fellow British author Philip Pullman, Reeve has a knack for juggling multiple points of view and storylines without loosing his narrative thread. And like Pullman his story involves airships and a boy and girl on a quest to (in effect) save the world. Unlike Pullman, Reeve less interested in the how the characters' actions will affect the universe, and instead will affect their world. I was especially taken with the theme of obsession in this book. The evil Mayor Chrome, leader of London, is obsessed with making his town reign supreme over the rest of the world. Hester Shawn, deformed by the blade of Thaddeus Valentine, is obsessed with killing the man who murdered her parents. And Grike, the man machine that was one of the millions of walking dead soldiers participating in the Sixty-Minute War, is obsessed with a kind of love for Hester Shaw (though he spends much of his time in this book hunting her down to be killed). It might have been nice to spend a little more time getting to know what the characters' lives were like before this book ever took place. I ended up wanting to know a lot more about Tom and Hester's families and the lives they lead, but there didn't seem to be enough time to linger over such details. One objection to the American cover of "Mortal Engines". For the most part, the cover is very impressive, showing airships blowing up in front of the structure that is London. In the corner however are, who I can only assume is supposed to be, Tom and Hester. Tom is clutching a book, an odd choice since there is no point in the story where a book is important to his character. Hester, however, is completely wrong. The book describes her as have a huge gash down her face with a scar splitting her in two. Her nose is mashed in and she only has one eye. Now look at the cover. Apparently the cover artist decided that putting a deformed female would hurt "Mortal Engines"'s sales. So instead we've this cute little waif. Half her face is in shadow, yes, and there is the slightest hint of a scar on her forehead. But her nose is completely intact and she's smiling cheekily at the camera. Forgive me, but this is not the death obsessed horribly disfigured often crazed and violent Hester I came to love so much. Mr. Cover Artist, for shame. The book itself, however, is a delight. I can't recommend it enough. Go out, buy it, read it, and tell me that you didn't think it was the greatest addition to the teen literary futuristic canon to come down the pike since "The Giver". When people review books they often rely on that old phrase, "I didn't want it to end". Well I actually didn't. Amazing. It's a great book and a fantastic story.
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15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A New Brand of Fantasy for the 21st Century, November 24, 2003
In the years beyond the 30th century, after life as we know it is destroyed in the Sixty Minutes War, the world is divided into three: the Static communities, who live in farms and buildings firmly stationed on the earth, the aviators, who travel the Bird Roads in the sky, and the Traction Cities, the giant cities on engineered wheels who live by the Municipal Darwinism - the big cities devour the little cities for their resources. And the biggest Traction City of them all is London, on the move for larger hunting grounds and more resources. Living in London are two very different young people - Tom, a Third Class Apprentice in the History Guild, and Katherine, an upper class noble daughter of the famed archeologist Thaddeus Valentine, whom both of them adore for his bravery and exciting exploits. Yet after London destroys the small town of Salthook whilst the three of them are touring the Gut (the engineering belly of London), one of the refugees attacks Mr Valentine in a furious rage, and is only just stopped by Tom's intervention. Chasing her up the levels of the Gut, Tom corners her before a chute that leads to the desolate Out-Country, and is horrified beyond comprehension when Mr Valentine pushes the both of them down it. Now stranded in the Out-Country with the young lady named Hester Shaw, with the hideously disfigured face, Tom is pushed into a series of adventures including aviators, pirates, slave-traders and Static towns, during which he begins to realise: things do not exist as he has understood them. And all the while, they are being hunted by a tragic and fatal being known as Shrike... Meanwhile, back in London, Katherine is doing some investigating of her own concerning the disappearence of Tom and the assassin. Once her father leaves on a mission which purpose he conceals even from her, she begins to find pieces of the puzzle concerning an Ancient piece of Old-Tech that is somehow wrapped up in Hester Shaw and her father's unspoken past. Together with a witness to Tom's fall, a lowly worker named Bevis Pod, Katherine learns the truth about her father, and the catastrophic plans the Mayor of London has in store for the device known as the MEDUSA. The real enjoyment of this book comes from Philip Reeve's wonderful creation of an interesting and detailed (but without becoming too encyclopedic) world, set in a post-apocalyptic world where collosal cities trundle desolate plains, filled with relics of the Old World - the world as we know it today. Usually descriptions of machinery or other technicalities bore and confuse me, but Reeve writes with such clarity, that the city of London and its layered Tiers is brought to complete and convincing life. Likewise, the cultures found outside the cities are unique and interesting, and once Tom and Hester start out on their journey, its very likely one will be unable to resist exploring with them. Storywise, the plot is simple, but with just enough twists to keep one interested. All the characters, even villians that at first glance appear one-dimensional have hidden motives to their actions, and the conflict between them and the cultures that they represent is believable, and morally complex. Only the ending disappointed me somewhat - Reeve seemed determined to kill off as many of his characters as possible, leaving me a little immune to the tragedy of death, and the conclusion ends more on a note of despair than hope for the future, given the sheer amount of death and destruction that the survivors leave in their wake. Of all the major protagonists, the females end up being more interesting than the males, though in fact Tom is given the most attention. This is unfortunate, as I found myself disliking Tom for much of the story - he is a character like Lloyd Alexander's Taran in the Chronicles of Prydain, in that he dreams of glory, thinks highly of the wrong people, and holds tight to beliefs that the reader can see are false from the very beginning of the book. Unlike Taran however, it takes a long time for Tom to find self-realisation, and as such the reader feels on-going frustration for his ignorance and on-going commitment to make the wrong choices. However, he *does* eventually grow (albeit in a rather patchy manner), and through him Reeve addresses the important questions of life. Reeve's other hero, Bevin Pod is endearingly shy and uncertain of himself, showing immense bravery when he is aware of the horrors he would face in the Deep Gut should he be caught, and dotingly loyal to Katherine. It is the girls that I found more likeable - Hester Shaw, an imbittered, independant young woman whose hideous face is an ongoing pain for one who loves and appreciates beauty, and lives only to bring death to the one who inflicted this upon her. Katherine at first glance appears as a "poor little rich girl", but is intelligent, resourceful, and has a clear idea in her mind of the differences between right and wrong. "Mortal Engines" is ultimately a well-crafted book, along the lines of Phillip Pullman's "Northern Lights" and Garth Nix's "Sabriel/Lirael/Abhorsen" trilogy. If you liked the atmosphere and flavour of those two books, I strongly suggest "Mortal Engines" a go, and keep your eyes open for the sequel.
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15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A love song for underdogs, June 1, 2004
This is ostensibly a work for the young'uns, and probably best for mature elementary school kids. That said, I'm an adult willing to admit that I was looking for something to fill in the void left between Harry Potter installments. I'm not about to read the shameless rip-off Charlie Bone series, and the Artemis Fowl books just don't appeal. I gave this a shot instead, and it was a genuinely satisfying discovery.
The tone of the book is dark, and the setting close to the unfortunately-named 'steam punk' genre. It might be better to refer to this as a Steam Age adventure. The sort of technologies and societies one would expect from Jules Verne, with a modern sense of noir and maturity. Some kids will undoubtedly find it disturbing, with its occasionally graphic descriptions of violence and death. I'm of the opinion, however, that it's just the thing for people of all ages who resent books that talk down to readers-- you won't find any comedic sidekicks, fart jokes, bumbling villains, or irritating song 'n dance numbers here.
Instead, Reeve has spun a believable tale of growth, courage and love amid trying times, albeit in a far-fetched world. My complaints are minimal: there are a few oh-so-clever jokes that will obviously appeal only to those over 25 or so (e.g. the airship named 'My Shirona'), and the plot developments are sometimes a bit too convenient and underdeveloped. Which is to say that if anything, this book should have been longer in the telling.
Still, this is a book for young readers that I'm critiquing as an adult, so I'm more than happy to overlook such shortcomings. After all, I was so engrossed that I finished the book in two sittings, finding it difficult to set aside. I'll be expecting a lot from upcoming installments (happily, there's no immediately obvious setup for a sequel), and it's great to see that the latest trend in children's book publishing is fiction that doesn't treat them like nincompoops. Dynamic protagonists, conflicted villains, a fully-realized world, and a steadfast determination to avoid taking the easy way out all contribute to a book that really makes the grade for youngsters and adults alike.
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