Mortal Engines / Predators Gold
Philip Reeve
2002/2003 Scholastic SC 293/316pp
I am reviewing both these books together as really they are not meant/able to be read seperately. There is a third "Infernal Devices", but my library did not have it in at the time.
I borrowed these to check out as I have a long standing tradition of reading books aloud to my children - but beware, despite groovy covers and the Blue Peter Award for 'Book I Couldn't Put Down" 2003, I would recommend these only for mid teenagers and beyond.
They are set in a far far future, with an Earth ravaged by the Sixty Minute War and mobile cities that travel across the ruined landscape of Europe. They seem to be on great tank-like wheels and hunt smaller cities for food, fuel and slaves.
"it was natural that cities ate towns, just as the towns ate smaller towns, and smaller towns snapped up the miserable static settlements. That was Municipal Darwinism, as it was the way the workd had worked for a thousand years...."
In Chapter 1, Our hero Tom is cast adrift from his city London and from then on the adventures never stop. There are air pirates, cyborgs, 'old-tech', nasty weapons, nasty people, rescues, betrayals, love gained/lost/spurned/recaptured, imprisionments, torture, cool heroines with dark secrets, thiefs, mad people, bad people all mixed in with lots of witty one-liners and cultural references for the grown ups. But as I said, there really are some dark parts in these books - unpleasent deaths of major characters and lots of what I suppost are called 'grown up themes'. In a curious twist, we have no descriptions of nooky - although a major character is pregnant at the end of book 2 - but lots of detail of torture etc.
They are very well written and the world Mr Reeve has invented is fascinating, and are definately worth a read - just not for the little'uns.
2002/2003 Scholastic SC 293/316pp
"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."
"Freya woke early and lay for a while in the dark, felling her city shiver and sway beneath her as its powerful engines sent it skimming across the ice."
"Freya woke early and lay for a while in the dark, felling her city shiver and sway beneath her as its powerful engines sent it skimming across the ice."
I am reviewing both these books together as really they are not meant/able to be read seperately. There is a third "Infernal Devices", but my library did not have it in at the time.
I borrowed these to check out as I have a long standing tradition of reading books aloud to my children - but beware, despite groovy covers and the Blue Peter Award for 'Book I Couldn't Put Down" 2003, I would recommend these only for mid teenagers and beyond.
They are set in a far far future, with an Earth ravaged by the Sixty Minute War and mobile cities that travel across the ruined landscape of Europe. They seem to be on great tank-like wheels and hunt smaller cities for food, fuel and slaves.
"it was natural that cities ate towns, just as the towns ate smaller towns, and smaller towns snapped up the miserable static settlements. That was Municipal Darwinism, as it was the way the workd had worked for a thousand years...."
In Chapter 1, Our hero Tom is cast adrift from his city London and from then on the adventures never stop. There are air pirates, cyborgs, 'old-tech', nasty weapons, nasty people, rescues, betrayals, love gained/lost/spurned/recaptured, imprisionments, torture, cool heroines with dark secrets, thiefs, mad people, bad people all mixed in with lots of witty one-liners and cultural references for the grown ups. But as I said, there really are some dark parts in these books - unpleasent deaths of major characters and lots of what I suppost are called 'grown up themes'. In a curious twist, we have no descriptions of nooky - although a major character is pregnant at the end of book 2 - but lots of detail of torture etc.
They are very well written and the world Mr Reeve has invented is fascinating, and are definately worth a read - just not for the little'uns.
- posted by FuschiaReads @ 3:56 PM
Comments:
I guess there will be lots more of this by writers eyeing the bank balance of JKRowling.
Has to be good for young readers in the long run.
# posted by
BwcaBrownie : 12:15 PM
# posted by
Anonymous : 9:15 PM
# posted by
Anonymous : 10:54 PM
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