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Mortal Engines (The Hungry City Chronicles, #1)
Mortal Engines (The Hungry City Chronicles, #1)
Philip Reeve | 2004 | Fiction & Poetry, Science Fiction/Fantasy
6
6.9 (8 Ratings)
Book Rating
Well, that was … unusual .. to say the least.

This was one of those stories that I'd been meaning to read for ages, but had never really got round to, and proved to (effectively) be a mash-up of Young Adult dystopian future with steampunk.

Steampunk, as a genre, is not one that I've really read all that much in - ab out the only other one that currently springs to mind is Jim Butcher's Cinder Spires series (all one book, so far!), but I tend to associate it more with an alternate past or present than the far future, which is when this one is set.

The main draw for me - and, I'm sure, many others - was the central concept of cities on wheels, cities that need to keep mobile and scavenge/attack each other in order to keep going - or, as it is described here by characters within, of 'Municipal Darwinism'.

While I found the writing and general plot a bit - how shall I say? - lacklustre? flat? I did enjoy the central premise of the story, and may come back to the world to see what else happens in future instalments.