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1.5

I put off rating this for a bit, mulling it over but, in the end, I just didn't like it. I wish I could rave about it like most of the other reviews but, alas, it's just not to be.

It's not without any charm - which is what the little extra half star is for. I liked Anna Fang, for instance, and Pomeroy definitely grew on me, though it would've been nice if maybe (view spoiler)[it seemed like someone spent more than 5 seconds mourning Tom (hide spoiler)] - but, in a way, that's part of the problem - all the interesting characters are secondary and minor, only appearing here and there, and the main characters are all kind of annoying.

Tom and Katherine, especially, are annoyingly naive for most of the book, and both come across as closer to 10-12 than the 15+ they are meant to be. Hester, at least, seems closer to actually being a teenager, hardened though she is.

Also, I was just never able to fully buy into the whole concept of the traction cities roaming the wilds and eating each other. I guess it's a metaphor for warfare and all, as the cities would destroy smaller cities and take all its resources, but the whole thing just seemed kind of silly to me.

It was also unclear, to me, whether the cities were meant to be alive. I mean, I can dig biotech and all, and if the cities were something like, say, Moya from Farscape, I could get behind that and understand more them acting like animals.

But while it sort of talked like the cities were alive, when you see the workings of things it seems all tech and no biology, so it's not the cities, really, that are attacking and eating as much as the cities are like giant tanks.

Also, when they attack a city they take on the survivors and put them to work. But, surely, this is just going to use more resources and it already seemed pretty full of people. The book does mention that, once-upon-a-time, larger cities would spawn predator suburbs, but since resources are scarce now, that doesn't really happen.

Speaking of limited resources - there are an amazing number of places and people that Tom and Hester run into for the Wastelands, or whatever, to be so empty and barren...

And, with everyone and everything moving around all the time, how is it that everyone seems to know where everything else is? Like, everyone knows that London is on the move - but how can you even have a system of "predator cities" if everyone sort of seems to know about everyone else's movements?

So, yeah...

Oh - and because I know it's bound to happen: 1) Yes, I know it's a kid's book. No, I don't think that's an excuse. 2) Yes, I'm sure I'm "over-thinking" things because gods forfend world building actually make sense.


Anyway -

I could deal with the world stuff not making a whole lot of sense. I mean, it wouldn't be the first time in a book like this I just sort of shrugged it off and went with it for the sake of the story.

But I just wasn't interested in the story. I never connected with any of the characters, except for moments with Hester. And I mostly found the story boring. I mean, it took me, like, 5 days to read a less than 300 pg book. That's unheard of. But I found myself hardcore procrastinating. The thought of picking the book back up just made me sort of groan, and I'd checked goodreads or Facebook again for the umpteenth time instead of reading. To me, that's become a pretty good indication about where a book falls in my rating scale - so this book could get 2, at tops.


But, then, the other issue I had was just the earnestness of it.

See, I've read Larklight: A Rousing Tale of Dauntless Pluck in the Farthest Reaches of Space by the same author, and I've really enjoyed that series - at least the two I've read. But the tone of the two series couldn't be more different. Both are sort of adventure books, but Larklight is sort of tongue-in-cheek where Mortal Engines is intensely earnest.

Not that I was expecting Mortal Engines to be quite the same as Larklight, but I wasn't expecting this bit of , and I developed a serious case of .

It kinda made me think of Boneshaker, actually - some mildly interesting world stuff that doesn't make much sense when examined, but is cool on the surface, but populated with so much crap that, by the end, I just wanted the hurting to stop...


(written 8/11/13. Edited for typos 10/26/16)