Book Chop: Mortal Engines

Title: Mortal Engines
Author: Phillip Reeve
Genre: Sci-fi/dystopia, YA
Verdict: Cool premise.

Dozens of centuries in the future, all cities are mobile. Larger cities "eat" smaller cities and absorb them to keep going. It's called Municipal Darwinism, and everyone practices it.

Okay, not everyone. There are Tractionists (moving cities) and Anti-Tractionists (stationary ones.) They're at war. The Anti-Tractionists are behind an impenetrable wall. The Tractionists are after a deadly weapon that can break through the wall and let them at an unlimited supply of immobile prey.

The main character is Thomas Natsworthy, an orphan historian apprentice. When his city, London, catches a dangerous stowaway who tries to kill someone important, Thomas witnesses the attempt and is cast out of the city to keep from talking about it. He eventually meets up with Hester Shaw (the stowaway) and learns the truth about London's intentions.

Their trek across a barren wasteland has them cross paths with smaller cities, dangerous pirates, airship crews, and resurrected half-robot men who are the ultimate soldiers. Thomas and Hester have to (begrudgingly) trust each other in order to survive and stop London from breaking into the Anti-Traction League.

The premise of the book was extremely interesting, and the tech was pretty cool too. It could have benefited greatly from some interior artwork, like Scott Westerfeld's LEVIATHAN trilogy. Spectacles like the ones contained in MORTAL ENGINES really need visuals.

Characterization felt a little flat to me (I never really cared about the characters, just the story) and by the end I was rushing to see how it all played out. The story had a definite end, with which I was satisfied. There are four books total in the series, and I'll probably read them down the road. A pretty good book. Unfortunately it's not available in audio format, but I think it's up in digital.

Pretty clean too, as far as language and sensuality, but plenty of violence and a rather high body count.