Infernal Devices - Philip Reeve

Read: November 2007

Sixteen years have passed since Professor Pennyroyal shot Tom Natsworthy and escaped Anchorage in the Jenny Hanniver, leaving Hester pregnant and unsure whether Tom would live, or even whether Anchorage would survive the night. In that time much has happened.

Under the leadership of Stalker Fang the Green Storm has taken over the Anti-Traction League and is now waging a bitter and bloody war against Traction Cities across the world. Spurred on by the destructive and never ending war, technological development has boomed: the secret of heavier than air travel has been discovered, the Green Storm has learned how to turn dead birds into Stalker birds, and now everyone is searching for the Tin Book which could hold the secret to a weapon even more powerful than MEDUSA.

But life has been less eventful in Anchorage, now safely static on the shores of the dead continent. Tom and Hester’s daughter Wren is fifteen and growing bored with the lack of action. Her future appears to consist of teaching young children marrying one of her friends, and never seeing life outside what was once America. So when three lost boys led by Gargle appear in Anchorage in search of the Tin Book, Wren is only too willing to offer her services on one condition: they take her with them. But soon she has been kidnapped and held as slave to Professor Pennyroyal, (now mayor of Brighton) and the adventure she dreamed of is turning rapidly into a nightmare.

And with Hester and Tom hell bent on rescuing their daughter, everyone is beginning to remember just how cold and vindictive Hester can be.

Infernal Devices increases the scope of Philip Reeve’s Mortal Engines quartet tremendously. With the plot moving towards the war between Traction Cities and the Green Storm it takes on some modern political issues, particularly terrorism and environmentalism and this gives it another level on which to work. But it is not overly serious and is also probably the funniest of the lot. Philip Reeve has a dark humour which often finds its targets within modern popular culture. In many ways he is liberated by setting the plot so far in the future as farcical examples of modern culture are legitimate targets both for myth and legend. So we have characters called Walmart, airships with names such as the ‘Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Machiney’, and even Christian theology has become fused with T.S. Eliot’s poem Four Quartet. Philip Reeve is a thoroughly ingenious author and his playful use of language and culture makes Infernal Devices a real reading pleasure.

In fact, Infernal Devices is virtually floorless. The characterisation is as sharp and detailed as ever, with Hester particularly displaying many of her worst qualities! It is these alongside her fierce loyalty and devotion to Tom which make her one of the most rounded and fascinating characters in children’s literature today. And this is no less a blood bath than the others, no sensibilities are spared in Philip Reeve’s exceptionally full future world. If you have not already started reading this incomparable series then you really must do so soon. You are missing out.


7.5 out of 10

Fever Crumb - Philip Reeve

Read: March 2009

Fever Crumb in one tweet sized chunk:

An exciting addition to the Mortal Engines canon, with an unexpected and fabulous treat for anyone who loved the Stalker Shrike.

Named after the condition her mother suffered when she was pregnant, Fever is the only girl ever to be admitted to the Guild of Engineers, having been found and adopted by Dr. Crumb when she was just a little baby. Now fourteen, she shaves her head daily, values reason above all else, and has never ventured further than the streets around the Enginerium. But when a former Engineer named Kit Solent asks her to assist him in excavating a new site on the outskirts of London, Fever moves out of the safety of her home and finds that everything she has believed about her life is built on fabrication. And so, whilst fleeing from the clutches of Skinners who wish to kill her and dealing with the strange memories taking over her brain, she must uncover the truth about her past before it is too late.

Set many generations before Mortal Engines, Fever Crumb provides an enticing pre-history to the adventures of Hester and Tom. London is a normal stationary city, wracked with internal division and only days away from war. An armoured fortresses advances from the North, bringing hysteria to the streets of London and reviving old hatreds thought long resolved. But unbeknownst to everyone, hidden in a tunnel deep underground is a machine which will transform the world forever. If only someone can work out how to unlock it.

Fever Crumb is a welcome addition to the Mortal Engines canon. It is filled with many of the same qualities which made the other books such a joy. There is the playful mythologizing of our everyday life which sees ‘Cheesers Crice’ become an old Cockney God, St. Kylie now an area of London, and an old vacuum cleaner mistaken for a dangerous weapon. Philip Reeve has a wicked sense of humour; his books are some of the funniest I have ever read. And they are complex too. Once more he is able to create delightfully morally ambiguous characters you like and dislike all in the same breath. There are ‘baddies’ who are almost likeable, ‘goodies’ you can’t help but revile, and most of the others lie somewhere in between. London is populated with these rogues, Dickensian in feel, surrounding by steampunk technology and crumbling, damp streets. It is familiar, and yet generations away from the sky travelling, city hunting world of Mortal Engines.

Well aware of its Mortal Engines legacy, Fever Crumb plays games with what its readers know is going to happen later on. There is one point where Dr. Crumb sneers at the idea of ‘municipal Darwinism,’ completely disregarding the idea of an entire city being put on wheels. It is a glorious destruction of the basis of the later books. At other times these links are made just a touch too obvious, but that is probably a result of the fact that Fever Crumb is aimed at a slightly younger audience than the rest of the series. The print is bigger, the plot slightly quicker. It is a nice easy read, and just what I needed.

With a surprise treat in store for all fans of the series, Fever Crumb is an enjoyable read, sure to be well received when it by fans and critics when it is published in May.

7 out of 10