Book review: Mortal Engines.
Feb. 13th, 2008 05:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jadesfireI've just closed this book and come to the computer, because it's a long time since a book had me in tears at the end, and I want to catch the feelings while they're still there.
[I tried to keep plot spoilers to a minimum, because I would definitely recommend this book, but I do mention some vague plot points]
I mostly picked up this book because I was interested to find out what 'steampunk' was, if I liked it and if I wanted to write it. It had also been one of the books I could have reviewed as part of my MA children's studies module, so I was intrigued to find out more.
At first, I was distinctly underwhelmed, not by the world, but by the story. Mortal Engines is set in a post-apocalyptic future, where cities have been mobile, hunting the continents of the world like predators, while the few who believe that 'Municipal Darwinism' is wrong live behind a Shield wall which protects them from the cities that would eat their static towns if they could. Life in the cities is strictly regulated, and it is when Tom Natsworthy, an apprentice Historian, is sent down into the guts of the city to see if there is anything of interest in London's latest kill, that the adventure begins.
With that kind of premise, I was prepared to be impressed, but I felt the characters got off to a very slow start. They were either annoying or too enigmatic to really like, and they kept moving too quickly for me to really get to know them. However, by about a third of the way through, the story simply takes off, with Tom and Hester, a horribly scarred girl who becomes his travelling companion, meeting pirates, monsters, rogue cities, air ships, spies and everything in between. Meanwhile in the city, Katherine, the daughter of one of London's greatest heroes, discovers the canker at the heart of the plot, and sets out to put things right.
As the story moves on, I found myself completely in love with the characters. Tom is stupid, blinded by his loyalty to London, and really doesn't understand why he keeps doing the things he does. Hester is hurting so badly that it leaps off the page, and her friendship with Tom is handly sensitively and sensibly. Katherine is just as blind as Tom, but is headstrong and brave when it's needed. The adults are closer to stereotypes than the children, with the brave spy, the evil villain, and the man in need of redemption strongly in evidence. However, this is very much how the children perceive them, and the writing is subtle enough to suggest that all we are seeing is one side of these characters inhabiting a complicated world.
And the world is amazing. I could spend hours talking about the tiered cities, the wonderful puns for names, the use of Airsperanto as a universal language for the pilots of airships, and the glorious descriptions of the cities and landscape. But I'll settle for saying that it felt real, as though I could walk into the book and into Tom's London.
Most importantly for me, I wouldn't have said this book has a happy ending, but it has the right ending. I won't spoil it for you, but I will say that if reading it/giving it to anyone under about 13, you might want to read it first. Some of the violence is quite graphic - never glamourised, just the opposite, but very graphic. And there are no kittens and roses at the end. This is a distopian world, or rather, it's a world where human beings are just as flawed and complicated as in ours. Not everything goes right and not everything goes wrong. They're just people, doing their best.
And I'm pleased to say that I've just found out this is the first of a series of books, so I can immerse myself in it all over again. Definitely worth it.
In other story news, voting is now open at![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
tw_fandom_award. There are some great stories up for awards, and I'm just off to plough my way through the entries before voting, hoping to discover some unread gems. Hope everyone else will do the same!
[I tried to keep plot spoilers to a minimum, because I would definitely recommend this book, but I do mention some vague plot points]
I mostly picked up this book because I was interested to find out what 'steampunk' was, if I liked it and if I wanted to write it. It had also been one of the books I could have reviewed as part of my MA children's studies module, so I was intrigued to find out more.
At first, I was distinctly underwhelmed, not by the world, but by the story. Mortal Engines is set in a post-apocalyptic future, where cities have been mobile, hunting the continents of the world like predators, while the few who believe that 'Municipal Darwinism' is wrong live behind a Shield wall which protects them from the cities that would eat their static towns if they could. Life in the cities is strictly regulated, and it is when Tom Natsworthy, an apprentice Historian, is sent down into the guts of the city to see if there is anything of interest in London's latest kill, that the adventure begins.
With that kind of premise, I was prepared to be impressed, but I felt the characters got off to a very slow start. They were either annoying or too enigmatic to really like, and they kept moving too quickly for me to really get to know them. However, by about a third of the way through, the story simply takes off, with Tom and Hester, a horribly scarred girl who becomes his travelling companion, meeting pirates, monsters, rogue cities, air ships, spies and everything in between. Meanwhile in the city, Katherine, the daughter of one of London's greatest heroes, discovers the canker at the heart of the plot, and sets out to put things right.
As the story moves on, I found myself completely in love with the characters. Tom is stupid, blinded by his loyalty to London, and really doesn't understand why he keeps doing the things he does. Hester is hurting so badly that it leaps off the page, and her friendship with Tom is handly sensitively and sensibly. Katherine is just as blind as Tom, but is headstrong and brave when it's needed. The adults are closer to stereotypes than the children, with the brave spy, the evil villain, and the man in need of redemption strongly in evidence. However, this is very much how the children perceive them, and the writing is subtle enough to suggest that all we are seeing is one side of these characters inhabiting a complicated world.
And the world is amazing. I could spend hours talking about the tiered cities, the wonderful puns for names, the use of Airsperanto as a universal language for the pilots of airships, and the glorious descriptions of the cities and landscape. But I'll settle for saying that it felt real, as though I could walk into the book and into Tom's London.
Most importantly for me, I wouldn't have said this book has a happy ending, but it has the right ending. I won't spoil it for you, but I will say that if reading it/giving it to anyone under about 13, you might want to read it first. Some of the violence is quite graphic - never glamourised, just the opposite, but very graphic. And there are no kittens and roses at the end. This is a distopian world, or rather, it's a world where human beings are just as flawed and complicated as in ours. Not everything goes right and not everything goes wrong. They're just people, doing their best.
And I'm pleased to say that I've just found out this is the first of a series of books, so I can immerse myself in it all over again. Definitely worth it.
In other story news, voting is now open at
tw_fandom_award. There are some great stories up for awards, and I'm just off to plough my way through the entries before voting, hoping to discover some unread gems. Hope everyone else will do the same!