num_pages: 326
description: "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.
language: English
title: Mortal Engines
titlecomplete: Mortal Engines (Mortal Engines, #1)
characters: Anna Fang, Hester Shaw, Tom Natsworthy, Bevis Pod, Katherine Valentine
genres: Adventure, Fantasy, Dystopia, Steampunk, Young Adult, Post Apocalyptic, Science Fiction Fantasy, Audiobook, Fiction, Science Fiction
ratings_count: 62900
series: Mortal Engines Quartet
awards: awardedAt: -62167190400000
name: Whitbread Award
category: Children's Book, awardedAt: 1136102400000
name: Rhode Island Teen Book Award, awardedAt: 1009872000000
name: Nestlé Smarties Book Prize
category: 9-11 years, awardedAt: 1136102400000
name: Lincoln Award, awardedAt: 1041408000000
name: North East Teenage Book Award, awardedAt: 1167638400000
name: Seiun Award 星雲賞
category: Best Translated Long Form
publisher: Harper Collins US UK