Mortal Engines: Amazon.co.uk: Philip Reeve, David Frankland: Books

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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

57 Reviews

5 star:		(46)
4 star:		(8)
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Average Customer Review

4.7 out of 5 stars (57 customer reviews)

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21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve, reviewed by J. Reader, Beaworthy, 21 Jul 2006

By	J. Reader "JDR" (Beaworthy, North Devon United Kingdom) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I read this book as part of reference material and wouldn't otherwise have considered it. How glad I am to have been pointed in its direction. Easily one of the best books I've ever read (and I've read many) and one that leaves you wondering about the future of its surviving characters.
There isn't a single word which doesn't add to the atmosphere, tension and emotion of the unfolding story. Every character evokes some response from the reader and the physical, social and psychological desperation of the towns is effectively conveyed through Reeve's appropriate, but not excessive, description; in fact, in some cases his brevity adds to the stark and bereft circumstance.
Listed as a children's book this is a prime example of the higher standard demanded by children from modern literature. Any adult would take something away from this story. It's brilliantly written and ultimately demonstrates the disappointment that the young so frequently experience when adults fail them; their resilience is empowering to readers.
This is a great book, not one to be rushed though because there's so much to enjoy.

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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Exquisite, 22 April 2004

By	nic (Egypt) - See all my reviews

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.

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21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Slightly mixed bag, but the ending makes up for everything, 31 Oct 2002

By	HLT (Wales, United Kingdom) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

The best things about Mortal Engines were the first couple of chapters, and the final third (or so) of the book.

Here's the opening sentence:

"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."

If that doesn't get your imagination going, I don't know what will :-)

The book is set in a far-future age of traction cities that roll around a barren landscape, with the strong preying on the weak (capturing their inhabitants and recycling their parts). Gradually, prey is running out...

There's also an area of static cities, which make up the Anti-Traction League, which is in constant rivalry with the traction cities.

The feel is quasi-Victorian: technology has slipped back a long way since our own time, and there's a sense of polished brass and steam-gauges about everything. They use airships and crackly radio-beacons, and fight with swords as well as guns and rockets. Pieces of old technology like computers and robotics are revered and coveted. The atmosphere reminded me (in some ways) of Lyra's world in Philip Pulman's His Dark Materials trilogy.

You can probably tell that I was impressed, overall, but there are two reasons this isn't getting 5 stars from me:

1. I didn't feel engaged with the characters until very late in the book. The viewpoint jumps from person to person too much. For example, if the hero (Tom) is talking to someone who's upset, we're treated to a direct description of that person's emotions and reasons, rather than seeing it through Tom's eyes. That kept distancing me from the main characters, though obviously not everyone is affected by that sort of thing in the same way.

2. Towards the end, Reeve tries to build tension by switching the story to present-tense a few times (it's mostly told in the past tense). The thing is, there was plenty of tension building up anyway - it was really exciting! - and the tense changes kept distracting me and making me think "why did he do that?".

Then again, as someone with a deep interest in fiction, perhaps I'm more analytical than the intended audience for this.

On the positive side, there was a nicely developed romance thread, excellent minor characters - including an anti-hero called Valentine and an aviatrix called Miss Fang - and (with a startlingly high body-count that includes a few characters you might expect to survive) Philip Reeve avoided the sugary ending that I expected while leaving the way open for a sequel.

All in all, this is worthy of consdideration by anyone who enjoys slightly dark childrens' adventure fiction - like Philip Pulman's His Dark Materials or Sally Lockhart books, and I can't say fairer than that.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Mortal Engines - A steampunk Masterpiece
This is a biased review...I love The Mortal Engines Quartet!

The story moves along at a terrific pace, The characters, good, bad and grey are superbly written and you... Read more

Published 2 months ago by Mr. M. Young

2.0 out of 5 stars A Spanner In The Works
I read this book because it was a text listed in a Children's Literature course the Open University have just recently added to their syllabus, and it is the first book in a... Read more

Published 3 months ago by L. Tait

4.0 out of 5 stars brilliant steam punk
This book is a very good steampunk narrative, that can be enjoyed by young people and adults alike.
Other reviewers have explained the argument, which is common enough: a... Read more

Published 3 months ago by RAMON

5.0 out of 5 stars Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve
I bought this book by accident, mistaking it for a book for adults. However, i'm glad i made the mistake, as it was a fabulous read. Read more

Published 6 months ago by Page-Turner'

4.0 out of 5 stars Adventure for Older Teens
This is a tense, exciting fantasy style thriller for older readers set in the far future. London is a travelling city, set on tracks since the 'sixty minute war' destroyed much... Read more

Published 6 months ago by Mrs. K. A. Wheatley

5.0 out of 5 stars Not to be missed
In the future people live in moving cities called Traction Cities that roam across a landscape still scarred from the effects of the Sixty Minute War that devastated life as we... Read more

Published 7 months ago by quippe

5.0 out of 5 stars Perfect.
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5.0 out of 5 stars Very enjoyable
I read this book to my daughter a few years ago, and we both enjoyed it. She went on to read the rest of the series on her own, but last year I read this one to my son, who is 11... Read more

Published 10 months ago by Mrs. S. R. Wray

2.0 out of 5 stars Didn't like it!
This book is terrible! My friend and I both agree, it is boring! EVERYBODY DIES!

I like a book that has characters that actually LIVE, in this book loads of them die... Read more

Published 13 months ago by M. Habisreutinger

5.0 out of 5 stars What a surprise!
I was presented with this book by a pupil of mine, as a reader for his weekly evening lesson. I read a couple of chapters each week and he would re-read the last few paragraphs... Read more

Published 13 months ago by P. Brodie

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