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elllie's review against another edition
5.0
Fantastic read! I saw this book on a Mock Printz Award list, which is how I ended up reading it. This is probably one of the best books I've read in a while. It's dystopian/science fiction but isn't trying to follow any of the current YA trends. The story is well-crafted and fast-moving, good for 7th grade and up, boys or girls. Definitely a Hunger Games/Maze Runner/Graceling read-alike. I just love books with really, really strong female characters, which Fever definitely is.
In the far-distant future, fourteen-year-old Fever Crumb was found as a baby and is raised by the perfectly logical Engineers, even though she's a girl (it is well-known that women just aren't reasonable, so they're never allowed to join the Engineers, but they figure that since Fever is just a baby when she is found, she can be raised to be logical). Specially requested for an assignment, Fever leaves Dr. Crumb, her life-long Engineer guardian, and ventures into London where she tries to help Dr. Kit Solent make a discovery that could change the world they live in forever.
One of my favorite part about this book were the glimpses of humor. The author perfectly included modern things as ancient technology and culture that readers are sure to recognize (my favorite was the religious procession for an ancient prophet, where the people were chanting "Hari, Hari! Hari Potter!"). It's easy to over-do this, but I think Reeve did it perfectly.
In the far-distant future, fourteen-year-old Fever Crumb was found as a baby and is raised by the perfectly logical Engineers, even though she's a girl (it is well-known that women just aren't reasonable, so they're never allowed to join the Engineers, but they figure that since Fever is just a baby when she is found, she can be raised to be logical). Specially requested for an assignment, Fever leaves Dr. Crumb, her life-long Engineer guardian, and ventures into London where she tries to help Dr. Kit Solent make a discovery that could change the world they live in forever.
One of my favorite part about this book were the glimpses of humor. The author perfectly included modern things as ancient technology and culture that readers are sure to recognize (my favorite was the religious procession for an ancient prophet, where the people were chanting "Hari, Hari! Hari Potter!"). It's easy to over-do this, but I think Reeve did it perfectly.
readitcourt's review against another edition
3.0
This is a fun tween steampunk book. The world that it is set in has a definite Victorian vibe but is actually in the distant future where people have forgotten how to create much of the technology we have today. Electric lights are uncommon and our technology is regarded almost as magic. This is a prequel series to the Mortal Engines but I definitely enjoyed it despite having never read those books.
kiramekihoshi's review against another edition
(Didn't finish.) I liked the prospect, especially Fever's love of all things rational and her explanations of why things are irrational, but the writing bored me. This would be a good book (or series, as it were) for a child 6-12-ish.
kazcat's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
inspiring
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
j0taro's review against another edition
4.0
Why are the protagonists in children's books so much more well-written than adult books?
arielkirst's review against another edition
4.0
Really engaging story. Excellent narration. Dark, intriguing, fun, great characters. Can't wait to read the next in the series.
dr_matthew_lloyd's review against another edition
4.0
Fever Crumb lives inside a giant head, inside a static settlement called London some time after a civilizational collapse. She is a member of the Order of Engineers, the only girl, who work to understand the old technology and preserve rational thought against an onslaught of gods and other wishy-washy thinking. But inside Fever's head there are memories that aren't hers, and she is somehow connected to hidden plans for London's future that will change her entire world...
Prequels are always a bit weird, although I think Fever Crumb succeeds largely by being far enough back in the past, although an indistinct distance, that there could be dramatic changes between this story and the later ones. As such, I think virtually every element of the story-as-prequel works, bar perhaps one.I'm not so keen that Kit Solent ends up being Shrike, not so much because it's a bit too neat to have Shrike created at this time, but because there's just not enough to Kit Solent for me to feel that Shrike's peculiarities as a Stalker make sense based on his personality. Is it that most other Stalkers were created from devoted warriors who didn't have or didn't care as much about their kids? .
It doesn't really surprise me, though, that I hardly remembered anything about this story before re-reading compared to the Mortal Engines Quartet. It's good fun in much the same way, but the setting and the characters don't pop as much for me, which is a key part of the Quartet. I am, however, keen to continue on with the series and see where Fever goes from here.
Prequels are always a bit weird, although I think Fever Crumb succeeds largely by being far enough back in the past, although an indistinct distance, that there could be dramatic changes between this story and the later ones. As such, I think virtually every element of the story-as-prequel works, bar perhaps one.
It doesn't really surprise me, though, that I hardly remembered anything about this story before re-reading compared to the Mortal Engines Quartet. It's good fun in much the same way, but the setting and the characters don't pop as much for me, which is a key part of the Quartet. I am, however, keen to continue on with the series and see where Fever goes from here.
octodippity's review against another edition
4.0
i definitely expected it to be more like red riding hood, givan the fancy pretty cover and all, but its not at all. i still really enjoyed the stoery, it was new and different.
flosmith's review against another edition
2.0
I think this one would have been better as a regular book and not an audio book.