Mortal Engines: 1 (Mortal Engines Quartet)

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Mortal Engines is set in a post-apocalyptic world ravaged by the Sixty Minute War, which caused mass geological upheaval. To escape the instabilities, a Nomad leader called Nikola Quercus (known as god Nicholas Quirke by the time of the book) installed huge engines and wheels on London, and enabled it to dismantle (or eat) other cities for resources. The technology rapidly spread, and evolved into what is known as " Municipal Darwinism", and the emergence of " traction cities". Although the planet has since become stable, Municipal Darwinism has spread to most of the world except for Asia and parts of Africa, with the primary location of many traction cities being the Great Hunting Ground. bookthesp1 also recommended the Mortal Enginesprequels, including Fever Crumb, while @konallis said that they think Philip's Larklighttrilogy is 'superior' to Mortal Engines -definitely worth a look, then! Garth Nix, Philip Pullman and Ursula Le Guin Africa – Africa is split between the Sahara Desert, governed by Traction Cities, and the southern regions, run by Anti-Tractionists. Southern areas of the continent include the static cities of Zagwa and Tibetsi, and the highland area known as the Mountains of the Moon. An exciting, original, steampunk dystopia, Philip Reeve's Mortal Engines won the Gold Award at the Nestle Smarties Book Prize in 2002 and the Blue Peter Prize in 2003.

Mortal Engines Quartet Series by Philip Reeve - Goodreads

London is on the move again. The city has been lying low, skulking in the hills to avoid the bigger, faster, hungrier cities loose in the Great Hunting Ground. The great town moves off after its quarry as events within the walls begin to take a sinister turn... Plot [ ] Part One [ ] Ezard, John (28 September 2006). "Philip Reeve wins the Guardian children's fiction prize". Guardian Unlimited. London. Archived from the original on 23 January 2007 . Retrieved 21 December 2007. Which got us wondering, whats the big deal with these books anyway? So let’s t ake a look at the source material. There is no build up, no depth and no real statement or relation to the readers lives for them to have any impact. They are merely presented as bad things that someone should probably do something about. There are elements of fascism, slavery, classism, xenophobia, and other facets of society worth examining that Reeves uses as little more than window dressing. Even that could have been some sort of meta-commentary unto itself but the story is content with meaningless and often uninspired action sequences. Wren Natsworthy – Tom and Hester's daughter who is kidnapped from their home and as a result, finds herself experiencing the same sort of adventures as her parents.

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As well as its immensely powerful weaponry, ODIN appears to show signs of intelligence. When it is awakened, it queries its new position and briefly searches for its old masters, and notes the vast difference in geography since its last awakening. It can also zoom in to an individual's face on the Earth and, although the picture is grainy, it is still identifiable. It can change its orbit when directed to target all over the globe. This, as well as the Stalker minds found among Old-Tech (and Shrike), seems to prove that robots had, by the time of the Sixty Minute War, achieved sentience.

What to Read After Mortal Engines | BookTrust What to Read After Mortal Engines | BookTrust

One of the more subtle differences between the book and the film is the decision not to include London’s four governing guilds: the historians, the merchants, the navigators and the engineers. Key figures from many guilds are present in the film – including Lord Mayor Magnus Crome, who in the book is the head of the guild of engineers, and Thaddeus Valentine, who Crome appoints head historian – but no mention is made of the guilds themselves. The allusion here reflects on the character's true nature, a common occurrence in the naming scheme of Mortal Engines. Other examples are MEDUSA and ODIN. Tom and Hester escape by stealing a hot-air balloon and drift over the Hunting Ground. Hester reveals that when she was a child, her parents were killed by Valentine as they would not give up an Ancient machine. Valentine then injured her and believed that she was dead. Hester escaped, and Shrike took care of her for most of her childhood. Despite the fact that Shrike was not supposed to have feelings, he developed a fatherlike bond with her. Wanting to avenge her parents, Hester left Shrike despite his pleas for her to stay and travelled to London. Shrike followed her, reaching London first, but was captured by Crome and used to create more Stalkers for London.

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Hester is then kidnapped by a Green Storm informant and taken to Rogue's Roost, where the Green Storm have converted Anna Fang's body into a Stalker. Sathya, the Green Storm commander, hopes Hester's presence will restore Fang's memories, but the resurrected Fang does not recognise herself or Hester. Sathya reveals that Hester's father was Thaddeus Valentine. His plans to write a science fiction novel were laid in the late 1980s. [6] At that time, he has stated that he originally thought of the idea of traction cities when people where complaining about the growth of a city that threatened to engulf smaller towns. A loosely-related short story Urbivore, as well as Orbital Trash, written earlier served as a basis for the novel. It has several similarities and differences to the eventual settings of the story. Eighteen years after his second death, Shrike's remains were discovered by the Green Storm and he was rebuilt by Oenone Zero, who gave him to the Stalker Fang as a bodyguard. When Shrike overheard Oenone praying for the downfall of the Stalker Fang he wished to inform other Green Storm agents of her possible betrayal, but found she had reprogrammed him to be unable to harm or otherwise act against her.