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A review by ignescentsky
Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
You need a lot of suspension of disbelief to enjoy this book, but that wasn’t a problem for me.
The story is in a post apocalyptic steampunk setting with mobile cities that eat each other and airships. The book follows ~3 main characters: Hester, Tom, Katherine, and another character to a much lesser extent.
The side characters are also well fleshed out and it feels like entire other books could be written just about them. (I wanted to see more of Khora and Anna Fang!)
While I enjoyed the story and characters, the language can be painfully dated (read racist, perhaps a little sexist?)
By this I mean that there is a weird dissonance between the way the book treats its characters and the way they are introduced/described. This is mostly an issue for Hester Shaw and Anna Fang.
The worst offender here is Anna Fang, who although otherwise seems to be a humanized and a well-written character, when she is introduced the description notes that she has “almond shaped eyes” and an “exotic” accent, yikes!
Certainly some of this might be explained as Tom’s initial fear/prejudice against outsiders, which is part of his character arc. But for a book published in 2001? Really? It should be something made a bit more clear and done more tactfully unless you’re going to really deconstruct the issue.
Similarly, Hester Shaw, who has significant scarring on her face, is described as “hideous” (hopefully this is Tom’s perspective and not that of the author/audience but the author does not make this super clear.) I do feel that this is deconstructed a bit more, and Hester herself as a character is humanized and well-written. My main issue is that Hester’s self worth seems to track with/depends on Tom’s opinions and how “beautiful” she is perceived as being. I don’t remember the next books well enough to remember but I think maybe her sense of self worth is dealt with later?
Also Shrike, a corpse reanimated as a killer robot, is described as having tubes and wires coming out of his head “like dreadlocks.” I’m going to let that speak for itself.
This book makes the movie that much sadder, because the movie fixed some of the book’s issues but made some so much worse (most notably Hester, look up fan art and then look up how she was portrayed in the movie, but also it really screwed up message, plot, and pacing).
The story is in a post apocalyptic steampunk setting with mobile cities that eat each other and airships. The book follows ~3 main characters: Hester, Tom, Katherine, and another character to a much lesser extent.
The side characters are also well fleshed out and it feels like entire other books could be written just about them. (I wanted to see more of Khora and Anna Fang!)
While I enjoyed the story and characters, the language can be painfully dated (read racist, perhaps a little sexist?)
By this I mean that there is a weird dissonance between the way the book treats its characters and the way they are introduced/described. This is mostly an issue for Hester Shaw and Anna Fang.
The worst offender here is Anna Fang, who although otherwise seems to be a humanized and a well-written character, when she is introduced the description notes that she has “almond shaped eyes” and an “exotic” accent, yikes!
Certainly some of this might be explained as Tom’s initial fear/prejudice against outsiders, which is part of his character arc. But for a book published in 2001? Really? It should be something made a bit more clear and done more tactfully unless you’re going to really deconstruct the issue.
Similarly, Hester Shaw, who has significant scarring on her face, is described as “hideous” (hopefully this is Tom’s perspective and not that of the author/audience but the author does not make this super clear.) I do feel that this is deconstructed a bit more, and Hester herself as a character is humanized and well-written. My main issue is that Hester’s self worth seems to track with/depends on Tom’s opinions and how “beautiful” she is perceived as being. I don’t remember the next books well enough to remember but I think maybe her sense of self worth is dealt with later?
Also Shrike, a corpse reanimated as a killer robot, is described as having tubes and wires coming out of his head “like dreadlocks.” I’m going to let that speak for itself.
This book makes the movie that much sadder, because the movie fixed some of the book’s issues but made some so much worse (most notably Hester, look up fan art and then look up how she was portrayed in the movie, but also it really screwed up message, plot, and pacing).
Content Warnings
Moderate: Racism, Slavery, Xenophobia, and Murder
Minor: Self harm, Sexism, and Classism