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• And now Tom and Hester are all grown up, and living blissfully on Anchorage. But the Lost Boys come back to try and steal the Tin Book, Hester's daughter Wren gets drawn in looking for adventure, and they are about to find themselves in the middle of world affairs again...

  4.00 out of 5

  atreic

• This is the third book in the Mortal Engines series. For a third effort -- its not bad. The characters of Tom Natsworthy and Hester Shaw (now Natsworthy) are further developed through the storyline's plot. Adding to this particular set of front-line characters are Wren Natsworthy (their daughter), Theo Ngoni, Doctor Zero and Fishcake - one of the Lost Boys. The plot moves along at a very good pace -- providing lots of storylines that appear to fade into an ending -- only to be resurrected at the very end of the book. I'm not going to draw on the plot - leaving that as a surprise for the reader -- but the character development is excellent, the plot development is superb, and the descriptives of the world bring one's imagination to life. Well worth one's time to read - and I'm quite happy to have it as part of my own library.

  4.00 out of 5

  TommyElf

• Pretty good third instalment in the Mortal Engines series. Everybody has grown up between books, which is a bit of a shock at first but it is well handled and typical of the style of the series to show that not everybody can be satisfied with a 'happily ever after'. Hester is even more mixed up than she was as a teenager and seems to have spent most of the intervening years falling out with her daughter Wren and honing her aim by hunting all the nearby wildlife. We still love her though. There's plenty of action, invention and new and old characters to enjoy. Reeve's little not so subtle satirical witticisms pepper the narrative like badly thrown grenades. e.g. "And wasn't that the great P.P. Bellman, author of the atheistic pop-up books for the trendy toddler." Top it all off with a spectacular finale and several next book teasers and you get a very enjoyable ride.

  3.50 out of 5

  Finxy

• This is the third installment in a science fiction series (The Hungry City Chronicles) of which I have read no other books. It felt very sequelish: the heroes of the previous books have settled down and had a daughter who grows up with tales of their adventures back in the day. Said daughter then runs away and revisits old villains from said adventures. Despite the rather cliche set-up, it's a reasonably fast-paced book with fairly interesting characters. If I sound a little tepid, there's a reason. I couldn't really get into this book. But it may be due to my ignorance of the setting. I don't know what anti-tractionists believe, or what the Green Storm is trying to accomplish, or the significance of Stalker Grike. I also don't have any context for Hester Shaw's past sins, so such revelations meant nothing to me. The only real lasting impression I got of this book was how violent it is. People - even children - die graphically left and right. It was a little shocking to find in a book aimed at young adults. One thing I'll say for this book, however: the author knows how to keep his audience. While the main plot issue is resolved at the end, all kinds of loose ends and vague cliffhangers remain. I am curious what happens to Hester and Tom and Wren and Fishcake. However, I am not a very patient reader; I'll wait until the entire series is released before revisiting it, this time from the beginning.

  3.00 out of 5

  melydia

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