The Blurb

Tamzin Pook is a fighter in the Amusement Arcade. And what she does best is killing Revenants.

All she knows is survival, having arrived in the Arcade as a small child. She pushes away her memories, her hopes, and her fears, and she emerges into the arena to battle the Revenants--dead brains nestled in armored engine bodies. She doesn't dare to hope or wish for anything more than to survive another day.

Meanwhile, the wheeled city of Thorbury has been taken over by a rebel faction who killed its leaders and commandeered the city. It's only hope is a teacher named Miss Torpenhow who's determined to find the Mayor's good-for-nothing son and force him to take back what's rightfully his. But to get to him, she'll need to find someone who's skilled at fighting Revenants.

With a daring abduction, Miss Torpenhow and Tamzin Pook's destinies are entwined, and so begin their adventures together...

Introduction

I am a long time Mortal Engines and Phillip Reeve fan, although I didn't encounter his books until my late 20s. I have since listened to the audio books for the whole Mortal Engines series, twice. Funny enough, I had just completed a recent second time listen through when his new book, Thunder City, came out. Excellent timing on my part. Barnaby Edwards narrates the book, he was the original narrator of the previous Mortal Engine books and is incredible.

Thunder City is set around 100 years before the events of the original Mortal Engine books and there are no crossover characters. It is set in the same world where Municipal Darwinism is the way of life and wondrous Traction Cities, Towns, Suburbs and Villages roam the Earth in their never ending quest for their next good meal (a sentiment I can identify with).

Side note - if you have only heard of Mortal Engines as a result of the awful and horrific film adaptation please banish that from your mind. Fans of the series just pretend that disaster never happened.

What I Loved

Worldbuilding

Reeves is a master craftsman when it comes to worldbuilding. For the uninitiated, these books are set in a far distant earth future where a long past nuclear war destroyed the civilization that we know today. From the ashes of this catastrophe rose the quasi religion of "Municipal Darwinism" in which cities from all over the globe uprooted and mounted themselves on wheels / caterpillar tracks / giant floating rafts , ice skates and various other means of transportation. Only the strongest and fastest survive with big cities chasing down and devouring towns and greedy towns preying on suburbs etc. Flashes of the old world prevail in the familiar place names and tales from the before times. This world is drawn so clearly for me and is both fantastical and tangible.

The characters

The main character is Tamsin Pook, she is intelligent, serious, brave and her origin story of orphan turned arena fighter is basic but effective. She is rubbish with people and spends a lot of time over thinking things, but she is great in a crisis and as the story progresses you see the wonderful effect that friendship and trust has on her.

Arguably another main character is Miss "Hilly" Torpenhow who, after a quiet life as a school teacher, decides that it is up to her to save her beloved city of Thorbury. She packs up her carpet bag of belongings (I envision a Marry Poppins style bag here), sews her life savings into her hemline and takes to the skies to set the world to rights. Hilly is a very proper 50 something lady who doesn't let anything or anyone get in the way of her plans to save Thorbury. She loves a pot of tea and the chance to give an impromptu lecture on geography / history as the situation requires. She is marvelous.

There is, of course, a whole cast of interesting characters to get to know and as always Reeve is great at giving each of them the perfect name to set the tone of who they are.

The Prose

The writing is stellar, Reeve really paints the most beautiful scenes but isn't flowery in his delivery. Even though the story covers some difficult and scary ground the tension is relieved by excellent comic timing and a prevalent sense of the fantastical.

The little people

One of the key themes seemed to be the idea that it is possible to fight back against tyranny no matter how small you think your life is or how inconsequential you might view yourself as. When enough little people band together they can effect change. I like this message.

What fell flat

Undercooked villain

The main villain of the book is Gabriel Strega, the man who orchestrates the takeover of Thorbury. He is a dragged up by his bootstraps street kid turned visionary architect hell bent on turning Thorbury into the apex predator city of its age. You get a glimpse into his background which, intriguingly, involves Miss Torpenhow, but he still feels underdeveloped and ultimately not big or bad enough.

Slow to start, but the end came too quick

It took a while for things to get going and at first it all felt a bit too low stakes and not gripping enough, however, it was totally worth hanging in there. As soon as Tamsin and Miss Torpenhow met things started to move and the pace picked up.

The middle section of the book was my favourite, things were starting to happen and we met lots of interesting characters. There was lots going on and many obstacles for the heroes and heroines to overcome before they could try and save Thorbury. I thought that the ending was a little weak, just in that it happened too fast and a little too neatly. Everything was resolved but I wasn't fully satisfied with how they got there.

Not as gritty as the originals

Bearing in mind that these books are written for young adults, I still think this is a fair comment. The original Mortal Engines books with Tom and Hester were fantastical but also, at times, violent and emotionally brutal. The characters made tough and grisly choices in order to survive the horror of the world around them. The Thunder City characters faced real danger, however, I wasn't worried for the main cast, there was significant plot armor and the stakes just generally felt lower. This might be due to the fact that the book is set 100ish years before the main series in a time where the traction cities are still finding their feet (wheels). Perhaps it was a conscious choice that this story took place in slightly more innocent times without the possible world ending consequences and battles of the main series.

Conclusion

I highly recommend this book and in particular the audio version. Please don't be put off by the YA tag, this is a great story set in an amazing place and there is no hint of the usual girl meets boy crappy teen angst which YA usually serves up.

No doubt I will listen to the entire series a few more times in the future (hopefully with my sprog when she is old enough) and I will definitely be including Thunder City.