Mortal Engines

DNF at 35.7% (page 120)

Why, just why. I was so excited to read this because of Peter Jackson's new movie so I decided to give it a go before watching the movie. Big mistake. Here I am, 6 months after the theatre release and I still haven't watched it because I've been stuck at 35% of the book, not able to read past that point and finish it.

So what happened? This book was directed at a middle-grade audience, which is fine, don't get me wrong, but it was so incredibly juvenile, even for an MG. I read that the author had originally intended to publish his book in the adult fiction but that the publishers didn't want to accept it, so he had to “dumb it down” to have it published in kid's lit instead. That is absolutely heartbreaking because, in all honesty, this book would have been absolutely killer as an adult sci-fi/fantasy novel. The author's concept was very cool and original (all the cities move around on giant tractor wheels, eating each other up? Awesome.) but because it had to be simplified for kids, it was just plain painful, boring, and horrible to read.



On behalf of sci-fi fans, I want to extend a hearty thanks to Reeve's publishers for ruining a book that had great potential with an adult audience

This was one of my favorite series when I was younger and on a re-read, it holds up way better than I remember. The setting and idea is fantastic, the worldbuilding is shoddy yet kind of brilliant– the protagonists are unconventional and it just feels very unique. Feels like a YA version of Senlin Ascends at times.

The first line just sets things up perfectly, too:

“It was a dirk, 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.”

Closing lines:
"You aren't a hero, and I'm not beautiful, and we probably won't live happily ever after," she said. "But we're alive, and together, and we're going to be all right."

I didn't actively dislike this book, but I might well have done, as it's a pretty miserable story.The protagonist, Tom, has a lousy time for most of the story, and almost all of the characters we meet die during the course of it (do not volunteer to be a character in a book written by this author!).Nor do the few survivors get a really happy ending.The scenario is a world in which moving cities roam around, trying to capture and break each other up for parts. I read plenty of sf and fantasy, but this seems far-fetched to me. I don't think moving cities would be economical, the costs of moving them around would be excessive, and the people don't seem to have access to futuristic technology that might lower the costs.I was intrigued to encounter in this story the name Shrike, which I had seen before only in [b:Hyperion 77566 Hyperion (Hyperion Cantos, #1) Dan Simmons https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1405546838l/77566.SY75.jpg 1383900]. However, Wikipedia tells me it's been used in quite a variety of fiction, going back at least as far as a play in 1952; and it's also the name of an ordinary bird.

4,5/5⭐️
Super gaaf concept en echt heel uniek! Een bepaald stuk vond ik onnodig, maar voorderest super gaaf en spannend.

Ps: de film was ook heeeel goed

Buon inizio anche se la trama è un po' “chiamata”. Proseguirò con la serie.

Better tjen the movie, I Now know why the city is driving around.

I was not looking forward to this book. Somehow I had the idea it would be a story driven by plot and technology. I was wrong.

Mortal Engines is the tale of cities on the move. London is on wheels and it travels far, seeking to find and eat other cities. The world has apparently been crushed by some sort of awful debacle in the recent past, and there are guilds of professional engineers and historians who are in charge of the world and fuel the move of the cities.

I can't remember when I read a book with a more deeply flawed main character. Hester was cruelly disfigured by Valentine, her presumed father, who Valentine discovered while he was killing her mother. Hester has become cruel herself at times from the ill treatment she has received from others, yet underneath she has kindness and goodness that only people who care about her can uncover.

Fun!

This sure was a book I read. It felt kind of like playing Final Fantasy 3.

I picked up this book when I was around 14, and while I don't remember if I finished it at that age, I remember loving the first few chapters that I read. The premise of this book enthralled me so much that I have been thinking about it ever since. When I finally discovered the books were being released in new editions I decided it was a sign, and snapped them up.

This did not disappoint! The first book is a short tale, packed full of rich world building and a warm host of characters that really welcome you into the story. I devoured this book, despite worrying that I may have given it too much hype in my head over the years and it really did not disappoint. Not all books written for younger readers are enjoyable for me as I find some can be written with a pandering, over explanatory tone. This book avoids that tone entirely, and I loved it.

This is a fun imaginative book. I enjoyed it and grew to love the characters. I haven't seen the movie yet so I'm not sure how it compares.

Gho ja.

Infantile but fun.

3.5 Stars

The cool thing about this book is the idea of huge mobile cities on tracks lumbering around the countryside, devouring smaller or competing cities, along with the anti-traction league who believes the need for mobile cities is a thing of the past. The characters are a bit shallow, though likable enough. It's a fast-paced read and I think it'll do well as a movie with Peter Jackson at the helm. The writing style was just pretty bland to me, so I'm left with a bit of a decision as to whether I'll pick up the next in the series or not. Maybe my expectations were too high and I'm coming away disappointed?

The movie of this is coming out, so I felt like it was my duty to read it. We have a tradition with my sister when every December we just have to go to the cinema to watch some fun, fantasy-type movie, so I have to research the contenders. This was one of them and honestly, I am not sure we will be watching it. Not because it was horrible and the movie will be horrible as well, it just has this peculiar feeling when I have no idea what the meaning is.

Cities are unlike you and I know here. They all move, some like gigantic tanks, some float, some fly, it just happens after some sort of a huge catastrophe. Every place living a sedentary life is considered barbaric and just wrong. But how can such places get supplies? New things, mechanical parts, everything like that. Well, they hunt each other down, break the prey to pieces and use it all up.
Tom works in (on?) London as some lowly museum apprentice. Orphan, like so many YA protagonists, idolising the biggest adventurer an scavenger, Thaddeus Valentine, who is basically like super mega Indiana Jones.
Up until he meets the man, but a mysterious girl with a horribly scarred face attacks him and as Valentine protects himself by throwing the girl, Hester, off London he also does the same to Tom for some reason. So our hero will learn many things about the man he used to adore for his exploits.

I like the concepts here. They are weird enough, surprising and out there. With YA now it is kind of hard to find anything that's in any way out there and I freaking hate that. I don't want one more mega super teen girl saving the world while claiming to be soooo average as hot guys fight for her attention and everyone just thinks she shits gold.
The problem I have with it lies elsewhere.

It is so bloody miserable. I have no idea what the point is when everything is just bleak, grey, sad, dramatic, miserable, painful and fucking horrid for everyone. Nothing good ever happens. Nothing fun or cool or funny does. It's just this negativity everywhere and it makes all of the things feel endlessly angsty.
When I say this I don't mean to talk about the author or prose or anything. But this book just felt ugly. Like it was interesting I guess, but it was really an exercise in pure misery. I don't really like that. Not saying books need to be super sunshine happy land, but I'm not the type to read whole novels to somehow spectate and bask in the suffering of the characters. Pity for them doesn't make me feel entertained or good or virtuous, it just makes me freaking sad. After a point it feels embarrassing, like I am looking at it all like some sort of a sick spectacle.
Maybe it all sounds dramatic; this book is dark, but not darker than ASOIAF. You could find many, many darker books than this. Or more like books with darker elements. My issue wasn't the darkness of the worst moments; It was that other than those negative feelings it offered nothing. ASOIAF has many wonderful moments, jokes, people discovering things and doing amazing, heroic things. Here... nah.

I'm not sure if I want to read more of this. Not because it was a bad book, but because it only brings depressing thoughts and feelings, nothing else. That's something I don't necessarily need in my life. Reading to me is a fun hobby, something to love. This didn't give me feelings of wonder, more like dread.

Have a nice day and let me engineer myself some more fun moments!

A fast and fun read. Recommended for those looking for a good summer book. I loved the characters. I loved reading about their experiences and seeing the growth of each character. I like the different point of views and i thought he did a wonderful job with spotlighting each of the main characters.

Definitely looking forward to the movie!

4.5 *

Very good read. I love the idea of roaming cities devouring other cities for supplies in this future, steampunkish earth.

Reeve is certainly not afraid to kill off characters we develop affection for, leaving us with just Tom and Hester remaining for the next adventure.

I'm looking forward to reading book 2 in the series and learning more about the world of hungry cities.

Executive Summary: I thought this was OK, but not great. It has an interesting/unique premise with the moving/attack cities but I found it slow at times.

Full Review
This book wasn't on my radar, but with the upcoming movie Sword & Laser decided to read it. I might have read it on my own as I tend to prefer to read the book first before watching a movie but to be honest the trailer didn't really do much for me so I was in no hurry.

I did think the concept was interesting, but I tend to prefer character-driven stories more than just a cool idea. I didn't particularly take to Tom throughout the book, so that made things a little less compelling than it might have been otherwise.

In general I wasn't too interested in most of the characters. My favorite character was one of the supporting characters, Ms. Fang. I might have liked the book more if she had a larger role in the story.

I'm not a big Steampunk fan either, so that probably doesn't help. Airships are alright, but I prefer spaceships instead I guess.

Overall I thought this was a good, but not great book. It was certainly a quick read. I'm glad I read it, because now I'll definitely wait for rental to see the movie. I doubt I'll be continuing on with the series however.

I am not a fan of YA fiction, but after I saw the preview for the upcoming Jackson movie version, I decided I needed to check out the original. I was pleasantly surprised I did, and I even bought the second book in the series. (Thankfully all the books are stand-alone stories, as I can't stand having to read 3 to 4 books just to get the full story.)

Set in a future distant from our own on a post-apocalyptic Earth devastated by war, the young protagonist, Tom who is on the cusp of becoming a a man, discovers all that he believes in and idolizes, is a thin veneer of lies by adults who wish to keep himself and the rest of his beloved city-on-wheels, London, in the dark. An assassination attempt literally throws his world into chaos as he discovers, first-hand, pirates, slavers, the enemy of the state, and death at every turn.

What really shook my foundation of belief that YA books are “childish” was the death and destruction in the novel. Not only was there death, but there was violent death. Not overly descriptive, but told straight-forward enough and well enough that there was no question as to what was happening. This may be simply my own inexperience with YA novels, but it was refreshing in a way, and I will be reading the series in complete. Kudos to the author on such beautiful world and character creation.

Overall, I found the book silly. The concept of traction cities, while interesting, feels not completely thought out. How do cities grow? If they can't grow, where do the extra population go from cities that have been gobbled up? How do airships find a city if it's constantly moving? Where do they get their fuel? The plot and characters felt cookie-cutter, as well.

This is a fun adventure story set in a weird future in which cities such as London are mobile, rolling around the countryside and consuming smaller settlements in what is wonderfully called Municipal Darwinism . So you can read this on the level of crazy YA adventure, or you can read this as a very scathing pun-filled commentary on modern urban capitalism.

Oh, and it's got airship adventures. Airships are always good :-)

A solid 3.5 Stars. I was very much on the fence between the 3/4 rating, but decided to round down because, much as I loved the concept of the world, I never fell in love with the characters. Well, maybe the pirate; he kinda stole the show. But I never found myself really rooting for the main characters, and that left me feeling a bit disengage from the story.

Honestly, this book just wasn't for me. I read it for book club, but I pretty much knew from the premise I wasn't going to be into it. I'm not automatically against YA fiction, but the basic, flat characters, quick-developing relationships, and rapidly shifting tone and tense really exemplify a lot of the problems that develop when people write for that age range. The gender-swapping nature of badass Hester and milquetoast Tom is a nice touch, but mostly I hurried to finish so I could start something new.

I'm still giving it 3 stars because I think it could make an exceptional comic or anime. Visuals would immensely help this story, both giving it scale, making relationships believable, and playing the jokes as quick, visual Easter eggs rather than laborious references. I genuinely hope it gets picked up by Gainax, though probably not now that there's a film. I have no idea how a live action film will work, but my prediction is not great.

Quite enjoyable adventure.

Through this entire book, I kept thinking “this feels like Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets.” It's a completely different setting, and a different plot, but it had the same atmosphere. Rollicking action, fantastical premise, crazy setting, huge machines with entire worlds within them. I loved Valerian - it may not have been a critically great movie, and I don't think the leads had much chemistry, but the movie was just FUN. And that's how Mortal Engines is, too.

It's a crazy world, where cities have become mobile - think Howl's Moving Castle - and they chase each other across a barren world, devouring each other for resources in a social order they call Municipal Darwinism. Some cities, like London, are huge, with six main levels, not really counting the Gut, or the center of the machinery. Other towns are small, one or two levels crawling along trying to avoid the notice of the larger, faster cities. The peoples of the Traction Cities think people who live in statics (stationary cities, or, horror of horrors, right on the ground!) or people who are part of the Anti-Traction League, are crazy barbarians. And then there are the airship captains and crews, based out of the one floating city.

It is a crazy steampunk world, and Tom Natsworthy stumbles into a conspiracy plot by being in the wrong place at the wrong time. But as he travels with Hester across the wasteland, trying to survive their pursuers and avert catastrophe, he learns more about her, and more about how the world actually works.

I absolutely adore the last two sentences of the book, and I'm going to post those here because they aren't terribly spoilery. And they're fantastic.

“You aren't a hero, and I'm not beautiful, and we probably won't live happily ever after,” she said. “But we're alive, and together, and we're going to be all right.”