- Paperback: 304 pages
- Publisher: Point; New edition edition (20 Sep 2002)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0439982227
- ISBN-13: 978-0439979436
- ASIN: 0439979439
- Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 12.8 x 2.4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (80 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 8,030 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Mortal Engines (Mortal Engines Quartet)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
Tom and Hester have been thrown together. Truly-thrown out of a city on wheels that's left them stranded and starving in the middle of nowhere while it hares off after its prey. Hester is desperate for revenge, and Tom is only desperate to get back on board his beloved London. This is a stunning literary debut from Philip Reeve. A novel that defies easy categorisation, it is a gripping adventure story set in an inspired fantasy world, where moving cities trawl the globe. Peopled with convincing and utterly likeable characters, this story is a magical and unique read.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
25 of 25 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This book grabbed me with its opening sentence, as good books will, and it had me gripped right to the end. It's a wonderful story wonderfully told, packed with clever conceits and vividly depicted characters and set in a fascinating and imperfect future which recalls Victorian England in some ways and Mad Max in others. Readers who have enjoyed Philip Pullman's fiction are likely to fall for Mortal Engines hard and fast. Not only are the characters thoroughly beguiling, not only is the plot fast-paced and twisty, but there are *layers* here - just as the moving cities are built of layer upon layer. Reeve is also a wordsmith of no mean skill - there are phrases that leap off the page and force a person to pause and re-read and savour. Lovely.
Appropriate for readers aged 11ish upwards, I'd say, who are prepared to read something with more moral ambiguity than Harry Potter.
17 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
In this unique and innovative novel, set a thousand years in the future, the surface of Earth has been corrupted beyond all recognition, and cities have been forced to mount themselves in order to catch ‘prey’ (smaller, weaker cities), which they digest, after a fashion, to help them survive. Tom Natsworthy, a young apprentice in London’s Guild of Engineers, yearns to go on adventures of the sort that his idol Thaddeus Valentine goes on all the time. However when a young disfigured assassin, Hester Shaw, tries to kill Valentine, Tom’s world is really turned on its head. He is forced to live on the ‘Bare Earth’, an idea totally alien to him, and he comes to learn more about his hero than he would have wanted. Though this may seem formulaic, Reeve injects a very welcome style of arch and knowing humour, to prevent any cloying sentimentality from creeping in. There are references to our culture today, however they are obscured by time; for example people in Mortal Engines believe that Mickey and Pluto are the animal-headed gods of America, much in the same way that we think of Anubis and Horus as gods of Egypt!
In Mortal Engines, Philip Reeve has created something startlingly original. The universe of ‘Municipal Darwinism’ seems fully formed within Reeve’s head, and its realisation is brilliant. For examples the concept of ‘Anti-Tractionism’ seems totally real within this universe, as do all the prejudices felt towards it by those who live on Traction Towns. Reeve has even created new terms e.g. ‘urbivore’, ‘scavenger suburb’ and ‘static settlement’ (what we would know today as normal houses). This is all played through with a brilliantly dry sense of humour (e.g. Tunbridge ‘Wheels’, as opposed to ‘Wells’), and turn of phrase akin to that of Terry Pratchett or Douglas Adams. Certainly the innovation is of the same standard. It would be quite easy for me to rave all day about the idiosyncrasies and invention that abounds in Mortal Engines, however that would ruin the delight and relish that can be taken in reading this exceptional work for the first time.
15 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is a thumping good read. It's got everything that you need: High adventure, romance, revenge. For god's sake, it's even got Pirates!
Like so many of the other reviewers, I stubled upon this, without meaning to. I had been given book tokens, and was left with a pound to spend. The lovely man in the shop suggested this, and his selection was far superior to my own.
The writing is brilliant (if you like that sort of thing) with exactly the right word slipped in without you noticing so that the visuals are spectacular.
And the story leads you on it's not so merry dance through the crazy upside down world that Reeve has invented, sucking you in so that you hang on every plot twist and cliff hanger.
I am going to get the next one tomorrow. If you don't already have this, then go and get it.
Now!
Like so many of the other reviewers, I stubled upon this, without meaning to. I had been given book tokens, and was left with a pound to spend. The lovely man in the shop suggested this, and his selection was far superior to my own.
The writing is brilliant (if you like that sort of thing) with exactly the right word slipped in without you noticing so that the visuals are spectacular.
And the story leads you on it's not so merry dance through the crazy upside down world that Reeve has invented, sucking you in so that you hang on every plot twist and cliff hanger.
I am going to get the next one tomorrow. If you don't already have this, then go and get it.
Now!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Brilliantly imagined
Mortal Engines is both an inspiringly unique read, while it also reminded me of one of my favourite PS games: Final Fantasy VII. Read more
Published 12 days ago by Laura
Vary good and unique story
Its three thousand years in the future and the world was changed after a sixty minute (nuclear war). Read more
Published 4 months ago by Traffic
Sensational!
Thinking it was originally a non-fiction book by Charles Dickens about Victorian machines, it took me a while to finally read this, but when on holiday in Italy with nothing to... Read more
Published 5 months ago by .
Gripping, dark and original
I would happily class this series among the best of children's literature. It falls into the category of many other greats in that it carries on through the years with no... Read more
Published 6 months ago by Linconclusive
Original Steampunk Novel
Excellent steampunk novel aimed at a YA/teenage audience.
This took me longer to read than it should but I blame the fact I went out three nights in a row so I couldn't... Read more
This took me longer to read than it should but I blame the fact I went out three nights in a row so I couldn't... Read more
Published 6 months ago by Angela
Mortal Engines
An ingenious premise after a world catastrophe, with a complex cast of characters who engage the reader.Thought provoking and readable.
Published 7 months ago by scriv
Good Memories
I read the paperback version of this a few years ago and loved it.
It had a different cover and hadn't won the Carnegie yet but was still a great read. Read more
It had a different cover and hadn't won the Carnegie yet but was still a great read. Read more
Published 10 months ago by O. Jones
Review of Mortal Engines
In a post-apocalyptic world, Engineers have ascended to the top of society by mobilising whole towns and cities on traction belts and wheels. Read more
Published 10 months ago by Noor Jahangir
Review of "Mortal Engines" by Philip Reeve
One of my favourite things about being an English teacher is that I get to host my two writing clubs: Scribblers and Ink. Read more
Published 12 months ago by Scattered Laura
Outstanding and original science fiction adventure
Good, solid science fiction, in the guise of a teenage adventure book.
You are dropped immediately into the action, and many things are only loosely explained (like the ninety... Read more
You are dropped immediately into the action, and many things are only loosely explained (like the ninety... Read more
Published 12 months ago by Mr. M. Jones
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