Hester Shaw

Hester Shaw, later known as Hester Natsworthy, is the lead heroine of Philip Reeve's Mortal Engines Quartet.

Background and life
Hester Shaw, aged around fifteen at the beginning of the Quartet, is the daughter of Thaddeus Valentine and Pandora Shaw. She was raised by Shrike.

Hester is portrayed as having copper hair and gray eyes. She has a scar which cut her face from forehead to jaw, a wrenched mouth, a stump nose, and a single eye.

The character's surname comes from Shaugh Prior.

Role
In the first novel of the Mortal Engines Quartet (known in US as The Hungry City Chronicles), Mortal Engines, her botched assassination attempt on Thaddeus Valentine led to Tom Natsworthy and set off a chain of events that would change a course of history.

In other media
In the Mortal Engines student short film made in 2009, Alyssa Burnett plays Hester. One of her photos are mistakenly identified as a cosplay.

There is a 28mm figure based on Hester Shaw.

In Mortal Engines, the film adaptation of the first book, Hester is portrayed by twenty-eight-year-old Icelandic actress Hera Hilmar as an adult, while the young Hester is played by New Zealand child actress Poppy Macleod. Her scar is heavily toned down, and she is aged to her twenties. Hilmar described her character as challenging to play. Christian Rivers, the director of the film, addressed the fan criticism over Hester's scar, stating that audiences would be "put off the film" if it were more true to the books. The author acknowledged the difference. Other changes include: she lost her mother when she was eight and she fought Valentine aboard his airship.

Related pages
 Mortal Engines Quartet

References

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