REVIEW: Mortal Engines (#1) - Philip Reeve

Title: Mortal Engines (#1)
Author: Philip Reeve
Series: Mortal Engines Quartet
Publisher: Scholastic
Format: Paperback
Pages: 320 Pages
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Goodreads Blurb

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.

Thoughts

I picked this book up for the 24in48 readathon, and I just ended up breezing through it. I found this to be such an easy read, and the world building was just fantastic. You would expect the world building to be so complicated as the premise of the book makes you assume that, but it was so easy to follow.

I loved Hester, I thought she was a great character, she has been through so much, and she is still after revenge.
My favourite character was Anna Fang, she was just brilliant, such a kick-ass female, I will admit I wasn't the biggest fan of Tom, I found him to be such a weak character, he was upstaged by Hester and Anna.

I loved the pacing, you are brought right in at London chasing after another town/ hamlet, so you're straight into the action, and it doesn't let up, there are no bits of this story that I found to be slow going.

Overall, I really loved this book and can't wait to read the next in the series.