Mortal Engines by Joe Davies

Hi my name's Joe. Well, i suppose that's kinda obvious from the title! Anyway, as you can see from the top, my mum (i'm Tilly's bro) doesn't want sci-fi stuff. Well, she's gonna kill me but this book is sci-fi!!!

It's about a third rate museum curator's apprentice called Tom in the far, far, far future. Every land is barren except for a few little patches. Tom lives in London which can now move as it is built on traction wheels, like many other cities in the world. The planet has been pressured into Municipal Darwinism. This means that the bigger cities eat smaller cities. By eat I mean they salvage the metal and museums and such that there might be in the city/town/villiage.

Anyway, one day a mysterious girl comes to town and everything takes a sinister twist. Tom finds out things about his life that surprise and sicken him. He faces near death experiences, conspiracy theories and secrets that shake the very fibre of his being.

It is an amazing book and i am reading the second book in the four part series. Philip Reeve (the author) is an amazing writer and creates characters you can really relate to.

My question to stimulate discussion is: is Mortal Engines better than Northern Lights (Golden Compass)?

NEXT WEEK: I do a review on Skulduggery Pleasant.