[books 2008] More Philip Reeve
Aug. 22nd, 2008 10:55 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
inulro43. Infernal Devices by Philip Reeve
Part 3 of the Mortal Engines quartet. I think this is my favourite book of the series so far. It takes place 16 years after the end of Predator's Gold and focuses on the adventures of Wren, the daughter of Tom and Hester (the main characters from the first two books) - Tom and Hester had grown up by the end of the second book, and in a series aimed at young adults, I suppose having a young protagonist is a necessity.
Wren runs away (or gets kidnapped - difficult call) from the static settlement that her parents founded, and joins the Lost Boys, a gang of thieves who travel in underwater "limpets", attach themselves to the moving cities and steal everything they can get their hands on. They are led and brainwashed by "Uncle", who keeps them under surveillance at all times. There's a war on, and the Anti-Traction League have legions of undead Stalkers fighting for them. The action all ends up on a floating city called Brighton, which is a hilarious pastiche of the real Brighton.
For both previous books I'd commented that the body count is high but the content is far less dark than, say, Philip Pullman, but this volume gets pretty dark. The Lost Boys are in the second book as well, but the level of control that "Uncle" has over them, which is really creepy, is more obvious here.
Part 3 of the Mortal Engines quartet. I think this is my favourite book of the series so far. It takes place 16 years after the end of Predator's Gold and focuses on the adventures of Wren, the daughter of Tom and Hester (the main characters from the first two books) - Tom and Hester had grown up by the end of the second book, and in a series aimed at young adults, I suppose having a young protagonist is a necessity.
Wren runs away (or gets kidnapped - difficult call) from the static settlement that her parents founded, and joins the Lost Boys, a gang of thieves who travel in underwater "limpets", attach themselves to the moving cities and steal everything they can get their hands on. They are led and brainwashed by "Uncle", who keeps them under surveillance at all times. There's a war on, and the Anti-Traction League have legions of undead Stalkers fighting for them. The action all ends up on a floating city called Brighton, which is a hilarious pastiche of the real Brighton.
For both previous books I'd commented that the body count is high but the content is far less dark than, say, Philip Pullman, but this volume gets pretty dark. The Lost Boys are in the second book as well, but the level of control that "Uncle" has over them, which is really creepy, is more obvious here.
