Sign in/joinLanguage: English [ others ]
Over forty million books on members' bookshelves.
Hide this

Results from Google Books

Click on a thumbnail to go to Google Books.

Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve
Loading...

Mortal Engines

by Philip Reeve

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingConversations
656236,050 (4.13)28
Loading...
won't like will probably not like will probably like will like will love

Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book.

English (22)  Dutch (1)  All languages (23)
Showing 1-5 of 22 (next | show all)
The great Traction City lumbers after a small town, eager to strip its prey of all assets and move on. Resources on the Great Hunting Ground that once was Europe are so limited that mobile cities must consume one another to survive, a practice known as Municipal Darwinism.
Tom, an apprentice in the Guild of Historians, saves his hero, Head Historian Thaddeus Valentine, from a murder attempt by the mysterious Hester Shaw -- only to find himself thrown from the city and stranded with Hester in the Out Country. As they struggle to follow the tracks of the city, the sinister plans of London's leaders begin to unfold. It is weird that "Tom" was a name that was in a book about flying machines. ( )
DF1A_ChristieR | Mar 23, 2009 |  
it's ok, but a little too future science fiction hokey.I think too many main characters get killed at the end,too........... ( )
hamelinn | Jan 22, 2009 |  
This is an innovative and well-written young adult book, set in an original alternate future where there is no electronic technology and the world is based on mechanical instruments and machines. The reader is led to believe that this is our world after a cataclysmic war or event. A wonderfully original civilisation has evolved where vast, mechanical traction cities prowl the land and static settlements are rare and endangered. The future's here and the future's mobile. The world is based on the priniciples of Municipal Darwinism - throughout the Hunting Grounds, larger predatory cities prowl, swallowing up unwary smaller conurbations, cheered on by their population from viewing decks as their great jaws entrap and dismantle their unfortunate prey.

All is not tranquil and compliant in this world, however. The all-reaching tenets of Municipal Darwinism are not welcomed with open arms and the revolutionary Anti-Traction League, from their base in the static cities of the East, wage a war of underground resistance and subterfuge, fighting to destroy the evil exemplified by the traction cities. It is in front of this backdrop that the reader is taken on a great adventure, filled with action and treachery, as Tom Natsworthy, a young apprentice historian from the great traction city of London and the scarred and damaged Hester Shaw, a city-less loner on a quest for revenge, are thrown together by circumstance and necessity.

This is a great book. Reeve quickly draws the reader into a world of intrigue, of revolutionary plots and diabolical schemes, of treachery, adventure and bravery. He skilfully creates a world that is both familiar and alien, futuristic yet archaic. You will be disturbed by the eerie stalkers, the Resurrected Men. You will be inspired by the magic of Airhaven. It is an evocative novel, like Indiana Jones in another age, with archaeological finds pieces of our modern world. Reeve mixes cultures in a way that is reminiscent of Blade Runner or William Gibson. The traction cities are living characters themselves.

What sets this apart, to a degree, from other young adult books is not just this vibrant world but the fact that Hester Shaw is more of an anti-heroine. She is self-serving, without empathy, controlling to the point of treachery and utterly dishonest as long as it achieves her goal. She is a damaged child and her history makes her quite ruthless.

I would certainly recommend the whole series (this is the first of four books) for younger readers and adults who haven't lost the ability to be absorbed by the magic of an almost tangible future world, strange and beautiful, alien and exciting, a world that captures the imagination. It's the kind of book I would have loved to have had read aloud to me as a child and that would have absorbed me as a teenager. ( )
klarusu | Jan 12, 2009 | 2 vote
A fast-paced adventure that reads like it was based on some long-lost Miyazaki anime movie script. Surprisingly gory for kids, but highly recommended 'steampunk' set in an age of municipal darwinism! ( )
iftyzaidi | Jan 6, 2009 |  
Science fiction story of a future in which cities are mobile and gobbel each other up like carnivorous animals. Veyr original story and a real page-turner to boot. Marvelous read. ( )
Gary10 | Oct 12, 2008 |  
Showing 1-5 of 22 (next | show all)
0.025 seconds to build listing
no reviews | add a review
You must log in to edit Common Knowledge data.
For more help see the Common Knowledge help page.
Series (with order)
Canonical Title
Original publication date
People/Characters
Important places
Important events
Awards and honors
Epigraph
Dedication
For Sarah
First words
It was a dark, blustery afternoon in spring, and the city of London was chasing a small mining town across the dried-out bed of the old North Sea.
Quotations
Last words
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
Disambiguation notice
Publisher's editors
Blurbers
Book description

Amazon.com Book Description (ISBN 0439979439, Paperback)

It was a dark, blustery afternoon in spring, and the city of London was chasing a small mining town across the dried-out bed of the old North Sea ...

The great traction city london is on the move again. It has been lying low, skulking in the hills to avoid the bigger, faster, hungrier cities loose in the Great Hunting Ground. But now, as its great mountain of metal lumbers along in hot pursuit of its quarry, the sinister plans it has harbored for years can finally start to unfold behind its soaring walls ...

Thaddeus Valentine, London's Head Historian and most famous archaeologist, and his daughter, Katherine, are down in The Gut when the young assassin with the black scarf strikes. Only the quick intervention of Tom, a lowly third-class apprentice, prevents Valentine from being stabbed in the heart. Madly racing after the fleeing girl, Tom suddenly glimpses her hideous face: scarred from forehead to jaw, nose a smashed stump, a single eye glaring back at him. "Look at what your Valentine did to me!" she screams. "Ask him! Ask him what he did to Hester Shaw!" And with that she jumps down the waste chute to her death. Minutes later Tom finds himself tumbling down the same chute and stranded in the Out-Country, a sea of mud scored by the huge caterpillar tracks of cities like the one now steaming off over the horizon.

In a stunning literary debut, Philip Reeve has created an unforgettable adventure story set in a dark and utterly original world fueled by Municipal Darwinism -- and betrayal.

(retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:58:24 -0400)

(see all 2 descriptions)

The first test round has been closed. Visit the Open Shelves Classification group for details.

Popular covers

 

Help/FAQs | About | Privacy/Terms | Blog | Contact | LibraryThing.com | APIs | WikiThing | Common Knowledge | 41,223,978 books!