Reeve, Philip - Mortal Engines - Informal Buddy Read starts 15th July 2019

[Moderators of NBRC, Challenger-in-Chief]

This topic is open to discuss Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve.






Synopsis:
"It was a dark, blustery afternoon in spring, and the city of London was chasing a small mining town across the dried-out bed of the old North Sea."

The great traction city London has been skulking in the hills to avoid the bigger, faster, hungrier cities loose in the Great Hunting Ground. But now, the sinister plans of Lord Mayor Mangus Crome can finally unfold.

Thaddeus Valentine, London's Head Historian and adored famous archaeologist, and his lovely daughter, Katherine, are down in The Gut when the young assassin with the black scarf strikes toward his heart, saved by the quick intervention of Tom, a lowly third-class apprentice. Racing after the fleeing girl, Tom suddenly glimpses her hideous face: scarred from forehead to jaw, nose a smashed stump, a single eye glaring back at him. "Look at what your Valentine did to me!" she screams. "Ask him! Ask him what he did to Hester Shaw!" And with that she jumps down the waste chute to her death. Minutes later Tom finds himself tumbling down the same chute and stranded in the Out-Country, a sea of mud scored by the huge caterpillar tracks of cities like the one now steaming off over the horizon.

In a stunning literary debut, Philip Reeve has created a painful dangerous unforgettable adventure story of surprises, set in a dark and utterly original world fueled by Municipal Darwinism -- and betrayal.

[Moderators of NBRC, Challenger-in-Chief]

Reserved

[Moderators of NBRC, Challenger-in-Chief]

Reserved

[Eldarwen]

I'm here :-)

[Tahmina]

Me too!!

[Tahmina]

I’m super excited to read this one it looks really good!

[Eldarwen]

It does!

I hadn't even heard about this series until the film hit the cinemas. Trailer looked awesome! So I decided that I really had to read this series :-)

[Tahmina]

Yeah me either and I watched the movie and was like I gotta read this. But the movie didn’t do so well and I’m not sure why!

[Vicky]

I’m in. I’ve been wanting to reread this for ages.

[Taya]

How do buddy reads work?

[Tahmina]

taya wrote: "How do buddy reads work?"

Ususally you will read at your own pace and just share your thoughts and predictions and comment on other people's as well.

[Tahmina]

Are we ready to start this?

[Eldarwen]

Sort of ;-)

There's 2 BOMs starting this week as well (16th and 17th) so I may be slow reading this as I'll juggle a few books while doing WaT.

[Tahmina]

ok no worries!

[Eldarwen]

Are you ready to start?

Since I'm on Europe time, I'm not going to be able to get many pages read for today anyway (it's getting late), but if you want to start today, then I'll put my current read on hold tomorrow and read this one for a bit instead so we can discuss :-)

[Tahmina]

No take ur time. I can start a bit later

[Eldarwen]

Cool, thanks!

I'm half-way through Magic Triumphs and as soon as I'm done with it (latest on Wednesday probably), I'll start this one :-)

[Sophie]

Can I join in on this buddy read? It would be a reread for me but I want to see how it compares to my first read 2 years ago, especially now that I've watched the movie :D

[Eldarwen]

Of course! Join away! :-)

I was thinking about starting the book tomorrow, unless you guys want to wait until the weekend?

[Sophie]

Tomorrow works for me :)

[Tahmina]

It works for me too.

[Eldarwen]

I started this today, slowly. Meaning, I've read the first chapter so far :-)

I really enjoyed the opening sentence, made me grin.

[Eldarwen]

I've also read chapter 2 last night and I quite like Tom so far. It's starting to look like he's a bit of an underdog type character who might have to rise to the occasion soonish.

The city aspect is really interesting though. I'm curious to find out what exactly happened to the world for it to become the way it now is.

[Sophie]

For the first sentence - I think I read somewhere that the author disputed that this was his inspiration - but it definitely reminded me of the opening line of George Orwell's 1984.

I agree with the curiosity about what happened to the world. It seems like there's some sort of ice age going on, given that there's a land bridge and talk of an Ice Waste.

Chapter 2: "Circular saws as big as Ferris wheels" makes me wonder if amusement park-type things exist on these moving cities. I've never been able to really picture the scale.

[Eldarwen]

Hmm, the scale is definitely a good question. I'm having issues with that as well (the movie trailer might help haha).

At the end of chapter 4 now. Ever so slowly moving forward ;-)
I didn't have a lot of reading time but I'm hoping to put a bit of a dent into it tonight. Once I actually sit down and read this, it goes pretty fast because the writing and setting pull me in.

[Eldarwen]

I'm at the end of chapter 7 now and I'm intrigued. The world setting is slowly starting to make sense on where everything is sort of positioned and I'm enjoying the gradual discovery of it all.

I'm not quite sure what to make of the characters yet but I'm intrigued by Valentine. Is he a villain by nature or nurture?

[Tahmina]

Eldarwen wrote: "I've also read chapter 2 last night and I quite like Tom so far. It's starting to look like he's a bit of an underdog type character who might have to rise to the occasion soonish.

The city aspect..."

ummmm .... i'm not the biggest fan of Tom. he seems super whiny. I'm hoping he gets better.

[Tahmina]

I like the world building in this. We get a real sense of what they are like. From the towns to the people but we also get a concept that gets introduced and then later one we get details on exactly what that is.

Lots of characters but I am not sure that we really know much about any of them except Tom and Kate. Both are interesting but I really want to see things through Hester POV. I think it would be more interesting to know things from her perspective.

Its interesting that this society has gone back to multiple Gods as a form of religion. Not that thats bad but I find it interesting that most YA novels will make some form of religion that suits the new reality and the author did the same here and made a religion and god for wandering towns.

The thing I like least about this author though is his description of the situations that people are in or trying to escape. None of it is descriptive enough. I don't get a good picture of what is happening in the action scenes. I honestly just think of the movie and think ok this is roughly where we are at.(view spoiler)[ The part where Valentine shoves Tom off into the drain is not described well. You get the sense that everyone sees Valentine push Tom off but no one actually does and its not explained how he hid from view. Was he just so far ahead that no one was able to see him or was he in front or behind something that obscured him from view? All it says was that he was a bit ahead of the policemen and that the young engineer was also there. Because I have seen the movie I know that no one but the engineer sees him throw Tom off.

And there's a part in the diner or bar when Tom and Hester are trying to escape with Anna Fang and the description is again just not there. No sense of how they escape and how they are able to get away. (hide spoiler)] If you have not seen the movie or read up to chapter 10 don't click on the spoiler tag!

Tom: I like that Tom is in tune with his emotion and how nice and sweet he his. And his eternal optimism. He seems to have had a pretty bad life but he still doesn't seems jaded which I really like. Even when keep getting further and further away from London he is constantly thinking about when he gets back he was sure everything would be explained and it would all be a misunderstanding!

Valentine: (view spoiler)[ I was a little bummed that I saw the movie because I already knew he was a horrible person. But reading about him in the beginning through Toms eyes I was like this guy is awesome!!! So the whole shoving him off the railing would have knocked my socks off if I didn't know already.

I'm not sure why he had to get rid of the picture of Hester and make sure no one else would see it. No one really knew about her so why hide it? (hide spoiler)]

Kate: (view spoiler)[She's an idiot. I do not like her. She seems so thickskulled. Her dad says the whole family is dead I made sure no one was alive and she's like I think my father is keeping a secret. I wonder what it is! And I was like ugghhhhhhhhhhhh!!!! she's the worst. (hide spoiler)]

Wrayland:(view spoiler)[I have no idea what this guy was acting like he had compassion or he really felt compassion for Tom and Hester. He was a horrible person and obviously had more than enough to get by but I couldn't figure out what he would get out of pretending that he cared. It made no sense.

Also how can they afford missiles!! (hide spoiler)]

Hester: (view spoiler)[Why was she not helping when they were in the Wrayland town. I understand that she was hurt but to not give any instructions?? or help or thoughts seems weird?? And she just randomly gives him all this personal information. (hide spoiler)]

[Tahmina]

Eldarwen wrote: "I'm at the end of chapter 7 now and I'm intrigued. The world setting is slowly starting to make sense on where everything is sort of positioned and I'm enjoying the gradual discovery of it all.

I'..."

I'm wondering about the world thing too. Like is it exactly like our world except that some parts are too cold or uninhabitable or does the land look completely different.

[Eldarwen]

Tahmina wrote: "I'm wondering about the world thing too. Like is it exactly like our world except that some parts are too cold or uninhabitable or does the land look completely different."

I can't remember in which chapter, but it was before 7, there was a mention of glaciers having moved (and most likely expanded) and lots of earth quakes having raked the earth's surface. So, I'm assuming that the idea of continents is still similar as now but that the landscape as such has changed quite a bit. For example, maybe there is less water between Scandinavia and Europe, if Scandinavia isn't completely covered in ice, that is.

But apparently there is still the canal between Britain and mainland Europe since London had to move over a bridge in order to get to the Hunting Grounds, which I assume is simply everything stretched from the canal to whatever Asia looks like, which is the territory of the Anti-Traction League.

[Eldarwen]

As for Wreyland: (view spoiler)[I'm pretty sure it's all an elaborate scheme. He probably does feel a little bit of compassion, or what passes for it, for Tom and Hester but I figure he is involved in something... Especially if he is going to sell people as slaves.

Regarding the missiles that suddenly come out of Speedwell... weeell, if you're playing the part of a lowly, poor town to gain the trust of people you find along the way so you can drug them and sell them off, it wouldn't do for those people to see that you actually have means and are just acting. Hiding weapons away makes sense from that point of view.

Of course, I may just be imagining things that aren't even true haha. (hide spoiler)]

Katherine: (view spoiler)[Haha, yes, her reaction to hearing her father say he had made sure the family was dead was very odd. My guess is that she just doesn't want to reconcile her loving and caring father with someone who is a killer. Maybe in her head that tidbit of information didn't take root because she purposefully ignored it because it doesn't fit with how she sees her father. But she does want to get off her butt and investigate, which seems promising for her character. (hide spoiler)]

Valentine:(view spoiler)[I haven't seen the movie but I saw the trailer, so I knew that Hester was going to attempt killing Valentine, which presumes a bad deed. Otherwise, yes!! Just throwing Tom over the railing would have come as a total shock after how nice he's been to the boy. And he really does come across as an awesome guy!

However, in light of what he does to Tom and the way his own daughter reacts to the news that he is a potential villain, it makes me think that he is very, very good at manipulating people to see him exactly the way he wants them to see him. And he knows just the right buttons to push to endear himself to everyone.

The conversation with Tom about his parents was a great example of that. He asked and said all the right things. (hide spoiler)]


Eta: I'm also finished with chapter 10 now, so don't read unless you've finished that chapter because there are some minor spoilers.

[Tahmina]

Eldarwen wrote: "Tahmina wrote: "I'm wondering about the world thing too. Like is it exactly like our world except that some parts are too cold or uninhabitable or does the land look completely different."

I can't..."

ok That makes sense. And I was assuming that as well because he doesn't really provide a map. But there is so little detail I wasn't completely sure about it.

[Tahmina]

Eldarwen wrote: "As for Wreyland: "

Wreyland(view spoiler)[No thats actually a really good Point. Cause if they see you are capable of all that you will be on your guard. If that really is the case that's really smart of them. (hide spoiler)]

Katherine:(view spoiler)[ .... I see what you are saying. But I feel like it might still cross you're mind. Or that you might think ok he's obviously caught up in something thats super horrible and he was most likely coerced into doing it. But to completely gloss over it just is not the best look! (hide spoiler)]

Valentine:(view spoiler)[Yes!! I gotta say what a great villain though! (hide spoiler)]

[Eldarwen]

Chapter 16 was disgusting and hilarious at the same time ;-)

(view spoiler)[The poo discussion haha. (hide spoiler)]

[Eldarwen]

I absolutely love that in chapter 33, is it?! I can't remember, the mention of brown, slightly odd-tasting snacks pops up hahaha.

What did you make of the ending of the book?

[Tahmina]

Ok finished up to chapter 20:

The constant fixation on Hester's looks is sooooo annoying. Especially when Tom is comparing her to Kate. Kate's not that bright stop comparing them.



And the line that made me laugh but also mad was "Tom stared at Hester's sleeping face. Somehow he has expected her to look better now that she had been washed and fed and her leg fixed, but of course she was as hideous as ever. "
whooooooooo says that!!! WHO!!!! And at the same time Tom will constantly wonder why is always hiding her face.

The imagery and descriptions of the cities, eating other cities and destroying landscapes, we get are very animalistic and barbaric. Its sort of distancing the cities from the people operating them. Almost making it okay for them to commit all the murder and destruction.

Tom -- A bit Whiny but is getting more likable and braver. (view spoiler)[I'm sooooo over his obsession with Valentine. You can't be that devasted over him because you literally talked to him for like two seconds!!! I get he was a hero but I just can't see how this is affecting him so much.

I hate it when he calls Hester self pitying. When he is glossing over the fact that her parents got murdered and she saw it and then was chased by the killer as well. And she was raised by psycho killer with no feelings .... And you're disfigured and no one will let you forget it! (hide spoiler)]

Hester:(view spoiler)[I love both movie and book version of Hester. But I liked Movie version better she was more calculating, smarter and ruthless. And I think you see her eventually softening to Tom more naturally.

It was weird that the first time Shrike almost died it seemed not to affect Hester at all. Someone who raised her but Tom who knows Valentine for a second is more affected by that. (hide spoiler)]

Shrike: (view spoiler)[ Shrike in the movie made me cry. Like tears cry and in this one he was also just as heartbreaking. He just wanted someone with him. And he seems to really love her despite supposedly not having any feelings. He genuinely wanted her as his daughter. And I think what makes it sadder is that she really wanted to join him. (hide spoiler)]

Kate: (view spoiler)[Going to Crome .... the guy you overheard your dad conspiring with and giving your dad orders -- can you seriously get dumber than that. And then she starts to act like a five year old which was not a good look. And every story and plot of weird behavior somehow involves her dad. But I think your point makes sense here. Because she seems not able to reconcile her dad (the version she knows) with the real him.

She and Tom seem to be the only two people in this book who genuinely care about people. Everyone else just lets things happen and kind of shrugs. I think we really see that in the Engineering apprentice prisoner thing. (hide spoiler)]

[Tahmina]

Eldarwen wrote: "Chapter 16 was disgusting and hilarious at the same time ;-)

[spoilers removed]"

OMG!!! Right!! And they're like its soooo weird people keep dying!!

[Tahmina]

Did you want to read the second book?

[Eldarwen]

Sure!

I didn't want to binge the series, so it didn't even occur to me to ask the question *at the time haha.

When would you like to read it?

[Tahmina]

I can read it whenever you wanna start?

[Eldarwen]

How about next week?

Around the 3rd?

[Tahmina]

ok sounds good! I'll request it in the buddy reads. :)

[Moderators of NBRC, Challenger-in-Chief]

Posted it here.

[Tahmina]

Thank You!