Infernal Devices (Mortal Engines, Book 3)

I really enjoyed the first 2 books in the series. They were imaginative, clever and had good characters. This one was a bit of a letdown.Minor spoilers ahead.This book picks up about 16 years later with Wren, the daughter of the previous main characters Hester and Tom. Wren is a rather annoying, typical teen, suffering typical teen angst about her parents and boys. It makes for some dull reading until the plot finally gets moving. She doesn't evolve much as a character or become particularly likable. You don't really care what happens to her.Hester is suddenly a very violent, murderous person and it doesn't quite gel with her character in the previous books. She murders a number of people in brutal ways and seems to enjoy it. This is treated very casually by the author, which I found disturbing for a book aimed at juveniles. His approach to sex is completely chaste, but he doesn't hesitate to depict murder and violent, bloody death. The book ends on a series of cliffhangers, with characters being put in some unlikely and rather forced situations. I still plan to read the next book and hope it is better than this one.

Philip Reeve is a good author but I do feel as if the main characters we follow in this world are more like chess pieces then "real." Yet somehow I do care for the character which makes it all the more frustrating for what this could've been.. an all time favorite series.I am only frustrated because outside of certain parts this book like much of the series is fun and exciting. Its like watching an thrilling visually captivating movie with great side characters but with the stars of it overacting in parts or being completely off on others. Then you get to the end and find your self blown away. The biggest flaw in the series is that there is a real lack of logical growth in the characters between the first two books and through this one. There also feels to be a sever lack of depth in the characters. I. This third book Tom, who has been with Hester for years hardly thinks of her except when needed. He seems much the same as he did in the beginning of book one. Hester who is a mother would seemed to have been a terminator mamma bear protecting her child seems shallower and self absorbed than is right. It gives her the feeling of being a puppet.So far this book followed in the steps of the previous two in having idiot plotting in place to push the story where the author wants it to go. The main protagonist is Wren daughter of Tom and Hester who is supposed to be 15 but acts younger or more like what an older person thinks a 15 year old is like. If not for having purchased all the books in one go I might have set aside the book for later after the first few chapters. Basically a supposedly smart character does something stupid and obviously I'll advised for no other reason than she is a spoilt, young, and foolish little brat who thinks she knows best. Despite the interesting audio version it felt like listening to nails on a chalkboard during this portion of the story.I really wished the author found a way to create action in this amazing world without using the same trick so to speak. There should have been growth in the characters and depth in them. Hester felt to most well rounded, if not a bit unhinged, character in the series but the character seemed to have been flashed frozen in a single state.I also feel as if the author was writing either for a genre or and audience/age group that he is not comfortable with. It made the story off putting at times while very very engaging at others.This story is pg13. Not sure as to what is the best audience for it. Though each book has YA ages it's not written something akin to that style. It's set up to be a fun steampunkish dystopian action adventure but feels like Forest Gump meets Mad Max at times with the characters being in the right place by sheer hapenstance lol.Ahhhhhh still I will likely read more fro.this author because at the very least he has some incredible endings that make the stories feel with the read....now the 4th book where I believe I will be heartbroken but find the author has made the entire series a rereadable one...i hope.

I'm not sure my 3 star rating is entirely fair. The series is interesting and the books all fairly well written. However, Reece has populated his world with hard to like characters. Hester Shaw, who wasn't so bad, and even understandably surly in the first novel, has become entirely detestable by the third novel. She isn't an intriguing anti-hero like a Mad Max. She is just an awful selfish person. The one character who seemed really admirable, Anna Fang has been turned into an unlikable monster. All these unpleasant people make it hard to even want to read the books.

These books are good reads. Good enough that I finished the series. They are based on an interesting post apocalyptic premise that kept me interested. I give them 4 out of 5 stars simply because there are logistical inconsistencies that are hard to swallow. Huge metropolitan style cities that are constantly on the move yet they never have any shortage of tea. No real explanation of where all of the food comes from. No real explanation on where the fuel comes from to keep them moving. But, as long as you are willing to suspend a certain amount of logic they are very good books that keep you turning the pages. The characters are interesting and they keep you caring about them even if some are not particularly well developed. As a bit of a spoiler, then end of the last book was written as if the author was tired and just wanted to wrap things up in a hurry.

The continuing arc of Hester and Tom reaches some inevitable conclusions because of who they each are. Their daughter Wren becomes a bonified hero in this book. One scary enemy is defeated and another emerges. This book is full of adventure, love, and sadness.

Lots going on in this book. The main character's are about 20 years older than the last book so it gives their world time to develop a whole new storyline of events to explain for the current state of things. The story is very good and very entertaining, but it's hard to say much more than that without dropping a lot of spoilers and I hate to do that. I will say its still pretty impossible to see all the twists and turns of the story coming so it makes it hard to put down. Reeves is an excellent writer.

I don't know.I was super excited to read the third book but frankly,the characters have changed so much. Tom and Hester are grown up,married,with a child, and they're just no longer the same at all. This one is much darker, a bit more violent and a little disappointing because unlike the last two,there's no happy ending with Tom and Hester flying off in the Jenny Hanniver into the bright sunset. Perhaps the final book will be a little happier and less dark?

“Infernal Devices” is Philip Reeves third outing for his Mortal Engines/Predator Cities universe. The plot flows thick and fast in the manner of a breath-taking-Steampunk-sci-fi-action-movie-script. We have fast forwarded some sixteen years to the city of Anchorage where Hester and Tom live with their rebellious teenage daughter. The girl, Wren, seems to have inherited her mother dangerous love for risk and takes an opportunity when the Lost Boys come calling for a favour. Not a wise move since the Lost Boys have all kinds of problems of their own: they are being hunted into extinction. The plot brings in some familiar characters plus a set of new ones, most of whom remain in the cartoon cut-out end of the spectrum that is teen-fiction; character development would get in the way of the action.There is one exception. Those who read the second book will have detected a dark twist in Hester’s character. She spent the first book hell-bent on revenge yet this was over-powered with the romance between her and Tom. The second book reveals her hidden talent for being utterly ruthless and for killing people who get in her way. By the third book Hester is fully torn between the somewhat dull demands of family-life and her lust for gory action. Some (including myself) have claimed the saga is a Steampunk Star Wars. Certainly Hester is on a journey that will tear her from her family and take her to a terrible dark place. Her upbringing with the Stalker Shrike may well explain a lot yet Reeve is giving nothing away despite Shrikes re-entry into the story-line.If you like fast-paced and horribley implausible action adventure epics then this is growing into the sort of saga movie lovers will embrace. (Reeves seems to enjoy massaging the comparison between his Jenny Haniver airship and the Millennium Falcon.) If you like something that is as novel and as stunning as (Brendan Fraser-era) “The Mummy” meets “Pirates of the Caribbean” then you will love this. It is THAT sort of movie script - all poured into a novel. Of course a more adult audience will find this “post-apocalypse” somewhat light-weight. Occasional descriptions of the Traction Cities calls to mind Hugh Howey’s “Wool” trilogy yet it soft pedals the in-depth dystopian vision. Somewhere inside mortal Engines there is a grown up, more demanding, version of this universe waiting to be written.

16 years after the events in PREDATOR'S GOLD, Tom and Hester live with their daughter, Wren, in Anchorage, which has now settled in Vineland. Tom is content and dotes on his daughter, but Wren argues constantly with Hester and both women are bored with Anchorage's safe, humdrum existence.Wren's chance for adventure comes when Gargle arrives with a crew of Lost Boys and asks her to steal the Tin Book, an artefact from The Sixty Minute War. Wren agrees but when things turn sour she's kidnapped by Fishcake, one of Gargle's men. Hester and Tom go after them, joined by Freya and Caul but find that the world has changed while they were away - under the Stalker Fang, the Green Storm has inflicted heavy losses on the Traction Cities and forced them into a retreat using stalker technology.Hester and Tom's search takes them to Brighton, a floating Traction City, where they discover that Wren and Fishcake have been sold into slavery, and the city's mayor, Pennyroyal, is a successful author, retelling the adventures of PREDATOR'S GOLD with himself as the hero. Meanwhile, Dr Zero, the Stalker Fang's personal physician, has found and resurrected Shrike, and her plans for him that will change everything ...Much of what is so great about the previous books is repeated in this one. The story is tightly plotted, Reeve maintains his ruthless approach to his characters, and there are neat nods to the events in the previous books. What's not so great is Wren. She's a bit of a ninny - naive, wilful and not nearly as smart as she thinks she is. Ordinarily this wouldn't be a problem but Reeve uses her as a plot device more than as a character of her own right and she pales in comparison to Hester, who remains emotionally conflicted, ruthless and fascinating. Reeve gives Wren a romance angle with Theo, a failed Green Storm suicide pilot, but there's not enough of that on the page for it to hold the attention. Also missing is the background for Wren's conflict with her mother - Reeve indicates that it's about a boy, which is oddly superficial for the depth of antagonism between them.Fortunately, the conclusion more than makes up for the niggles. Heartbreaking and horrific, it closes the story but does so in a way that will definitely leave you desperate for more.

I've thoroughly enjoyed reading these books, totally bizarre storyline, but so hooked on Hester & Tom and all the other characters , utterly hooked, I've really enjoyed all the adventures in this bonkers world.Well worth a read.

Thoroughly enjoyed this book, like the first two. Suspenseful and well created plot lines. Now I have to move on to the next because I just know Anna Fang and Shrike will be heavily involved.

I don't know about the teen fiction category...I am in my 60s and I love these books!! A worthy series.