“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.”
…And from that opening sentence on, I was hooked.
In the distant future, in the aftermath of the Sixty Minute War which put paid to the world as we know it, a system called Municipal Darwinism arose. Evolving out of the need to dodge the volcanoes and earthquakes that rocked the earth following the war, mechanical cities now wheel across the land, preying on and devouring one another in their fight for survival.
Apprentice Tom lives in London, learning the Historian trade and idolising local archaeologist hero and close friend of the Mayor, Thaddeus Valentine. Until he stops an attempt on Valentine’s life and, alongside the would-be assassin, is flung off into the Out-Country and left behind. And so starts a rollicking adventure that I devoured almost as fast as London did small mining towns, as Tom starts to learn that you should never meet your heroes, that the best things in life don’t always come in the prettiest of packages, and that the system he’s grown up in may not be as awesome as he was taught.
While this one may be aimed at a slightly (ahem) younger audience than moi, thanks to some great ideas, good world-building, memorable characters (the best of which being the ladies) and a surprising emotional punch come the end, I’m eager to dive into the rest of the series.
Philip Reeve is amazing! I strongly recommend his Larklight books as well, which are much sillier but equally well written. Apparently Peter Jackson’s next project is an adaptation of Mortal Engines!
Let’s hope he doesn’t get too self-indulgent as that could be awesome!
Right? My first thought was “Ooh, that could be awesome,” immediately followed by “unless he somehow turns three books into nine movies.”