Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve

London is a city on wheels - a future city like you've never known before. In the terrible aftermath of the Sixty Minute War, cities which survived the apocalypse became predators, chasing and feeding on smaller towns. Now London is hunting down its prey, getting ready to feed. But as the chase begins, Tom uncovers a secret - a secret full of deadly consequences. Soon he is plunged into a world of unkillable enemies, threatened by a weapon that will tear his life apart... Winner of the Nestle Gold Award and the Blue Peter Book of the Year Award, this is a book to devour again and again.

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 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.

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 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 :-)