Mortal Engines (Mortal Engines, #1)

by Philip Reeve

Tom and Hester have been thrown together, literally thrown out of a city that's left them stranded and starving in the middle of nowhere while it hares off after its prey. Hester is desperate for revenge, Tom is desperate to get back on board his beloved London. This is an adventure story set in a fantasy world where moving cities trawl the globe.

• ISBN10: 0439993458
• ISBN13: 9780439993456
• Publish Date: 16 November 2001 (first published 1 January 2000)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 26 February 2010
• Publish Country: GB
• Imprint: Scholastic
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 304
• Language: English

Reviews

[Nessa Luna]

Actual rating: 4,5 stars.

[Cocktails and Books]

I'm bummed to do this, but I'm going to DNF this for right now. I so badly want to love the story, but can't seem to get into it. Hoping a break allows for me to fall into this story.

Interesting premise to this dystopian story; towns eating towns for survival. It was a fast paced book with a lot of adventure and action. I enjoyed reading it but didn't find myself attached enough to seek out the second book that follows. Thankfully, it's written in a way where it can be a stand alone story without the need to read another book to know how it ends.

[nannah]

SPOILER ALERT!



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Mortal Engines was a very enjoyable book. It took me a bit to get into the story, but it held my interest till the end.

I did have a slight problem with the matter of tense, though. It jumped back and forth from present to past tense, and although it was nicely separated by breaks, the whole concept of them seemed without a purpose. An exception is placing Grike's POV in present tense, as opposed to the past tense that most of the book is placed in, and this is because Grike is such a singular character, human and yet not human. It worked for me. But later on, other characters' POVs suddenly switched to present tense as well, without reason (at least it seemed to me to be without reason; I may just be oblivious). Rather than creating a special effect, the switching tense distracted me from the action and the immediacy of the story.

Also distracting was the use of "you." As in, "You wouldn't guess it, but . . . ." It really took me out. As with the repetition of words. I believe there was one passage that went something like "As the burning ship fell, people burning inside . . ."

It also seemed as though some of the drama and intense parts were very unnecessary . . . mainly just there to create drama and intensity. My main problem with this is the death of Bevis, who was a wonderful character (whom I wish was fleshed out more; more often than not, Reeve plants his characterization in people's perception of the character, instead of the audience getting to experience his quirks/flaws/personality themselves. But anyways, this review is getting lengthy as is, I'll drop this point for now). Why did Bevis have to die? I'm not sure I understand the purpose, other than to create needless drama that didn't change anything in the plot or any characters' decisions. It could be an easy out to kill him rather than find an ending for him after Katherine's death (which was VERY important and pivotal, and one I enjoyed . . . in a very non-sadistic way, of course).

Okay, I'm returning to characterization just briefly. Reeve's infatuation with writing about someone's beauty rubbed me the wrong way. I thought it was just Tom's flaw at first, him wondering if the assassin was beautiful as he was chasing her, his huge reaction towards Katherine's beauty, his equally large reaction to Hester's ugliness, and so forth. But this continued with other characters, and it bothered me after a while.

I realize I'm being very critical, because overall this book was very enjoyable to read and I'm going to run to the library tomorrow to check out the second. Reeve writing is overall nothing spectacular, but he does have some very glittering passages that tore into my heart. Especially the last bit. It helped me overall understand the story and it made it complete. It might actually be my favorite ending line I've ever read of any book:
"You aren't a hero, and I'm not beautiful, and we probably won't live happily ever after," she said. "But we're alive, and together, and we're going to be all right."

Beauty and perfection right there, at least to me. He had GLORIOUS passages like this that just made me shiver.

[rakesandrogues]

I heard about the Mortal Engines quartet while working on Fever Crumb during my internship. I devoured Fever Crumb. I thought it was clever and addicting, and it gave me an appreciation for science fiction. I did start out reading the prequel series (Fever Crumb) but I couldn't get enough. As much as I wanted to read the books in order, I could not resist the allure of Mortal Engines. Sure, the characters are entirely different, but I wanted to learn more about this futuristic world that Reeve had created.

When I first opened the book, I did have my doubts. Was I going to enjoy this book as much as I enjoyed reading Fever Crumb? To answer that, I did. Immediately, Reeve set a fast pace that made me want to keep flipping the pages. While reading, I get sucked into his world and time flies by without me noticing. I love reading descriptions about "Old Tech" and archaeological finds of modern things that we use currently. I think he brilliantly describes them like the foreign things that they will become in the future, like the way we admire a fossil. The concept of Municipal Darwinisim? Genius. It's still a difficult concept for me to grasp, however. I can't imagine how our world could be turned into a place where it's a town eat town society. I don't think it's likely to ever happen, but when I'm reading I get convinced otherwise. I loved reading about London society and the separation of the classes. The characters really come to life, and I found myself rooting for them in the face of peril. Though a bad guy, Shrike was my favorite character. I was fascinated by the Stalkers. I think I kind of developed a soft spot for him.

There's never a dull moment in this book. Whether it's Tom and Hester's adventures or Kate's investigations, I just wanted to keep reading on. I can't wait to get my hands on the rest of the quartet. Honestly, I cannot wait for Scholastic to repackage this for the US market. It's still probably going to take a while for this to happen, but I assure you that this is one of the rare books that I will dash at the store to get. For now, maybe I'll nab a copy at the Book Depository. Too tempting, indeed.