nother from the Mortal Engines series, a thicker book that finds Tom Natsworthy and his daughter Wren (and, indirectly and via different paths, estranged wife Hester) returning to the place it all began, the ruined London, laying in its debris field after its attempt to fire its Medusa weapon backfired (literally) so massively in book one of the series.

We have the orphaned Lost Boy Fishcake hauling along the remnants of Anna Fang, once freedom fighter for the Anti-tractionists and now a murderous puppet (in the form of a six-foot tall automation that lawn-mowers people with its finger-scythes). And we have Theo, one-time Kamikaze Tumblebomb pilot and now Wren’s hot boyfriend, trudging east after the Green Storm’s front collapses before the massed city attack.

It’s really interesting to see who shows up in this novel set decades after the original, most of them older, most of them tired or injured, all gravitating to the city that started it all off. But even more interesting is the scene from the eyes of Stalker Grike as he partially shuts down in a cave, to watch out the mouth as the world changes through its flicker of years.

So great book. Apparently the fifth in the series deals with Anna the bot some more. Once I kill off a couple of books that have been snapping their covers at me, I’ll give it a read, too.

>>>AND IF YOU AREN’T INTO MOBILE CITIES, TRY MY TWO HISTORICAL NOVELS ABOUT THE GREAT STATIC CITY OF TYPE IN ANCIENT TIMES. FOLLOW THIS LINK!<<<