Mortal Engines

Concept

The book is set in a post-apocalyptic world, ravaged by a "Sixty Minute War", which caused massive geological upheaval. To escape the earthquakes, volcanoes, and other instabilities, a Nomad leader called Nikola Quercus installed huge engines and wheels on London, and enabled it to dismantle other cities for resources. The technology rapidly spread, and evolved into what is known as "Municipal Darwinism". Although the planet has since become stable, Municipal Darwinism has spread to most of the world except for Asia and parts of Africa. Much technological and scientific knowledge was lost during the war. Because scientific progress has almost completely halted, "Old Tech" is highly prized and recovered by scavengers and archeologists. Europe, some of Asia, North Africa, Antarctica, and the Arctic are dominated by Traction Cities, whereas North America was so ravaged by the war that it is often identified as "the dead continent", and the rest of the world is the stronghold of the Anti-Traction League, which seeks to keep cities from moving and thus stop the intense consumption of the planet's remaining resources.

London

London is the principal Traction City in the novel, which has returned to a Victorian-era society. London's society is divided into four major and a number of minor Guilds. The Engineers are responsible for maintaining the machines necessary for the survival of London, many of which are found by the Guild of Historians. The Historians are in charge of collecting and preserving highly prized, often dangerous artifacts. The Navigators are responsible for steering and plotting the course of London. The Merchants are in charge of running London's economy. London is officially ruled by an elected Mayor. The Lord Mayor is Magnus Crome, who is also the head of the Guild of Engineers. Like most Traction Cities, London is built on a series of tiers. This encourages the system of social classes, with the wealthier nobles at the top of the city and the lower classes further down, closer to the noise and pollution of the city's massive engines. Atop the whole of London sits St Paul's Cathedral: the only building known to have survived the Sixty Minute War.

Explanation of the novel's title

The title is a quotation from Act III, Scene iii of William Shakespeare's play Othello ("Othello: And O you mortal engines whose rude throats / Th'immortal Jove's dread clamors counterfeit..." - Line 352). It refers to the fact that the society of Municipal Darwinism is not sustainable living and that the cities' engines are indeed mortal.

Plot

The book mortal engines starts with a traction town of London chasing and catching a town called Salt-Hook. Tom Natsworthy is in the "Gut" of London when this happens, along with the head of the Historians, Valentine, and his daughter, Katherine. One of Salthook's Citizens, Hester Shaw, tries to kil Valentine, but Tom inteferes and chases her. She reveals a huge scar on her face and claims Valentine dealt it, before dropping out of London through a chute. Tom tells Valentine everything she said, and Valentine promptly pushes him down after her. They recover outside of London, and after an argument start following its tracks to try and catch up. Katherine begins investigating events in London, along with Bevis Pod, who she befriends. They discover that the guild of engineers in London have managed to salvage an ancient weapon called MEDUSA, and reasembled it inside Saint Paul's Cathedral. The Cathedral transforms to reveal the weapon, which is then used to destroy a much larger city pursuing London. Meanwhile, Tom and Hester meet an airship pilot called Anna Fang, who takes them to the flying city of Air Haven. However, they are then attacked by a semi-robotic resurected human called Shrike, who was sent after them by London's engineers. Tom and Hester narrowly escape to another town, with Shrike in pursuit. They learn that Ana Fang was a member of the Anti-traction leauge, a group opposed to Traction cities. After many encounters they are confronted by Shrike again, who nearly kills Tom. Shrike, who had looked after Hester in the past before coming to London, explains that the engineers had agreed to resurect Hester as a similar semi-robotic being to him after he brings back her body. She agrees to this, however Tom intervenes by stabbing Shrike in the chest, shutting him down and saving her life.

Part Two

With MEDUSA finally launched, the mayor begins guiding London east towards the Anti Traction League. His intention is to use the weapon to destroy their defenses and devour all of their settlements. Katherine learns from Valentine that the weapon was originally found by Hester's mother, and that he had killed her to steal it for London. He also admits that Katherine was likely Hester's half sister. Disilusioned, and horrified by the destructive power of the weapon, Katherine and Bevis conspire to plant a bomb on Medusa to try and stop it from being used. Meanwhile, Ana Fang, having witnessed the first firing of Medusa, takes Tom and Hester to the Anti Traction League to warn them of London's plans. The League decides to use their airships to make a bombing run on London, much to Tom's dismay. Before they can, Valentine is revealed to have infiltrated the league disguised as a monk, and despite Tom recognising him and attempting to sound the alarm, he succeeds in crippling their entire fleet of airships. Valentine duels with and kills Ana Fang, before escaping in his own airship. Tom and Hester take Ana Fang's ship, and fly it back to London in the hope of stopping Valentine and MEDUSA themselves. Katherine and Bevis are caught in their attempt to bomb MEDUSA, but the historians guild come to their aid, battling with the Engineers. Tom and Hester arrive, and the latter attempts to fight her way to Valentine in order to avenge her mother, but is captured. Tom is attacked by Valentine's personal airship above London and shoots it down. Bevis is killed, but Katherine reaches Saint Pauls Cathedral with her bomb. Inside, she sees Hester brought before Valentine. When he attempts to kill her, Katherine jumps in the way and is fatally wounded. She falls onto a keyboard, interupting the firing sequence of MEDUSA, and causing it to malfunction. Valentine and Hester, briefly putting aside their differences, try to take Katherine to Tom to get help, but she dies before they can. Hester leaves with Tom in the airship, while Valentine chooses to stay behind in London. MEDUSA finally misfires, obliterating most of the city. Hester tries to comfort a grief stricken Tom as they fly away in the airship, apparently the only survivors of the incident.

Development

Philip Reeve has stated that his plans to write a science fiction novel were laid in the late 1980s.

The original drafts were intended to be an adult novel, but after several rejections Scholastic said they might be interested in Mortal Engines as a children's story. In the refactoring the story was simplified, removing several characters and much content Reeve thought would not be interesting to children (city politics).

The Mortal Engines world was originally written as an alternate universe set in the early 1900s, but Reeve says this turned out to require just too much explaining as how and where history could have diverged.

Movie adaptation

In December 2009, it was stated that the New Zealand filmmaker Peter Jackson intended to make a movie based on Mortal Engines. On 25th October 2016, Peter Jackson announced that WingNut Films has started work on producing a feature film to be directed by Christian Rivers. The script has been written by Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens. The movie will be financed by MRC and Universal, and shooting will get underway in March 2017 in New Zealand. Producers Zane Weiner and Amanda Walker, who both worked on The Hobbit, will be spearheading the NZ based team, along with Deborah Forte in the US. The film is scheduled to be released on December 14, 2018. Robert Sheehan and Ronan Raftery will appear in the film, as Tom Natsworthy and Bevis Pod, respectively. In February 2017, it was announced that Hera Hilmar will appear in the film as Hester Shaw.