Mortal Engines – Book

Posted by on October 28th,2006

Mortal Engines

Well, my eyes were truly opened today! I had been advised of an absolutely wonderful looking book (I will make a seperate post about it, but my mail program is down right now so I cannot give credit yet) and went down to my local WH Smith (stationers and bookshop) to see if I might aquire a copy of it. But lo! What I found astonished me – in the ‘young adult’ and ‘kids’ book section was a veritable avelaunche of Steampunk books for the younger, more adventure driven reader!

While I didn’t find the book in question (I will continue to look) I did find the book above and several others – but this is the one I purchased today. Mortal Engines, by Philip Reeve is a multiple prize winning book, and the first in a series like it – this one occupies a strange Post-Apocalyptic Steampunk genre where the world was ravaged by war and in the aftermath, whole cities became mobile engines roving across a damaged landscape, hunting smaller settlements like architectural carnivores. The book starts in London, a hulking yet tired mechanical contraption that scours the land for prey. The engineers try to keep the cogs turning and the navigators show the way. We start in the Museum, where skeletons of long extinct creatures hang like mobiles from the ceiling, swaying with the rhythmic motion of the city.

And this is just one of many books! A silent revolution has been right under my nose. Expect more information on these Steampunk young person books – hopefully filled with adventure in the skies!