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3.7 AVERAGE
3.7 AVERAGE
Whoa, I did not expect that to be such a punch in the gut. Many, many feels. How can they fix this? One book to go...
This series is getting from bad to worse. And the characters are making it bad. The world itself seems very interesting and the story is decent but by the end of the book I really wished Hester and Tom would just die and let somebody else save the world.
Too me it seems like the author doesn't really know what to do with the characters and gives them no personal depth. All we read are their reactions that have as much emotion as a rock on the bottom of the sea. Everything happens so emptily. Hester kills mercilessly, and her only reasoning is she's Valentines daughter (which she picked up in previous book). The love Tom and Hester have from each other is so non-existent that the reader has to be told about it in every scene that they are in instead of ever been felt by the reader from their actions.
New characters are introduced but they aren't given any time to properly live for the reader to get any sense from them before they are killed or just set aside as a future plot device. Basically anytime the author doesn't need a character any more he really calmly kills him off just like that.
And sometimes the story just gets slopy. Example:
They get to Grimsby. Some Lost boys are dead. Freya:"Mr Kael, this place is leaking. It's half flooded, and the air smells stale." The air smells STALE?? There are numerous dead bodies rotting in puddles of water and blood for days maybe a week and the air only smells stale? How do all of them just ignore this? Because the author ignored this fact.
At the final "battle" time I literally forgot it was happening in the middle of the night. Everybody saw everything all the time. Yes it was a full moon but I forgot that until it was mentioned. Time is very relative in this book.
Too me it seems like the author doesn't really know what to do with the characters and gives them no personal depth. All we read are their reactions that have as much emotion as a rock on the bottom of the sea. Everything happens so emptily. Hester kills mercilessly, and her only reasoning is she's Valentines daughter (which she picked up in previous book). The love Tom and Hester have from each other is so non-existent that the reader has to be told about it in every scene that they are in instead of ever been felt by the reader from their actions.
New characters are introduced but they aren't given any time to properly live for the reader to get any sense from them before they are killed or just set aside as a future plot device. Basically anytime the author doesn't need a character any more he really calmly kills him off just like that.
And sometimes the story just gets slopy. Example:
They get to Grimsby. Some Lost boys are dead. Freya:"Mr Kael, this place is leaking. It's half flooded, and the air smells stale." The air smells STALE?? There are numerous dead bodies rotting in puddles of water and blood for days maybe a week and the air only smells stale? How do all of them just ignore this? Because the author ignored this fact.
At the final "battle" time I literally forgot it was happening in the middle of the night. Everybody saw everything all the time. Yes it was a full moon but I forgot that until it was mentioned. Time is very relative in this book.
Little too YA for my liking (at least it is a quick read) but really like the story and looking forward to seeing how it ends in book 4.
I WILL NEVER RECOMMEND THIS SERIES TO A CUSTOMER EVER AGAIN.
This was simultaneously the best and worst book of this series.
The last 20 pages were foul. And show a complete lack of regard for the possibility of women being able to feel more than one emotion at once, or women being able to make any choice that doesn’t revolve around men. Having a mother abandon her child (after 16 years) because she is jealous of the attention her husband pays it (oh and because once she covers up her ‘ugly’ face men start flirting with her again...)
Everything before these last 20 pages that didn’t include Hester was the best of the series so far. (Excluding the glamorfication of slavery and some casual racism)
Tom’s a git. If he doesn’t end up with Hester I’m going TO LOOSE IT!
Note I am reading this because I am a Children’s bookseller and I want to read what I am recommending. I am also reading this for an icon YA & Fantasy series Book Club
This was simultaneously the best and worst book of this series.
The last 20 pages were foul. And show a complete lack of regard for the possibility of women being able to feel more than one emotion at once, or women being able to make any choice that doesn’t revolve around men. Having a mother abandon her child (after 16 years) because she is jealous of the attention her husband pays it (oh and because once she covers up her ‘ugly’ face men start flirting with her again...)
Everything before these last 20 pages that didn’t include Hester was the best of the series so far. (Excluding the glamorfication of slavery and some casual racism)
Tom’s a git. If he doesn’t end up with Hester I’m going TO LOOSE IT!
Note I am reading this because I am a Children’s bookseller and I want to read what I am recommending. I am also reading this for an icon YA & Fantasy series Book Club
adventurous
funny
hopeful
fast-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
2/5 stars
SIGH. That's all I can say, really. SIGHHHH.
So, while the first book in this series got 5 stars, the second got 3 stars, and for book three I've decided to go with 2 stars and a DNF @ around 40%. I'm honestly not even sure I'll read the fourth book now.
I hate when a series goes downhill!
Basically, this book takes place sixteen years after the end of book two, and follows Hester and Tom's daughter Wren instead of Hester and Tom themselves (although they do come into it more later). One chapter in and I already had a bad taste in my mouth: Wren is obnoxious, bratty, makes bad decisions, and is not at all fun to read about, and Hester and Tom don't even seem like the same characters were all loved in Mortal Engines.
I tried to persevere, but it got to the point where I thoroughly disliked every single character (even when I liked them in other books) and didn't even want to read about them anymore. I may try again a couple months from now, because I do love the world the books are set in, but...we'll see.
All in all, I recommend you read Mortal Engines as standalone (totally possible) and just stop there.
SIGH. That's all I can say, really. SIGHHHH.
So, while the first book in this series got 5 stars, the second got 3 stars, and for book three I've decided to go with 2 stars and a DNF @ around 40%. I'm honestly not even sure I'll read the fourth book now.
I hate when a series goes downhill!
Basically, this book takes place sixteen years after the end of book two, and follows Hester and Tom's daughter Wren instead of Hester and Tom themselves (although they do come into it more later). One chapter in and I already had a bad taste in my mouth: Wren is obnoxious, bratty, makes bad decisions, and is not at all fun to read about, and Hester and Tom don't even seem like the same characters were all loved in Mortal Engines.
I tried to persevere, but it got to the point where I thoroughly disliked every single character (even when I liked them in other books) and didn't even want to read about them anymore. I may try again a couple months from now, because I do love the world the books are set in, but...we'll see.
All in all, I recommend you read Mortal Engines as standalone (totally possible) and just stop there.
I love that Hester is consistent. On to the finale!
Set 15 years after [b:Predator's Gold|48722|Predator's Gold (Mortal Engines Quartet #2)|Philip Reeve|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1390103686l/48722._SY75_.jpg|1065641], Tom and Hester now have a teenage daughter and are living in Anchorage-on-Vineland.
The book is more about their daughter Wren and what happens when their past starts catching up with them.
There's more action as the story goes from place to place, following Wren and her adventures, and then Tom and Hester as they get drawn into it as well.
The only thing that let this story down was the actual characters. Wren has been sheltered and is too naive, although she has her moments. Tom has turned into some timid (and equally naive) librarian, and Hester is just a murderous ball of anger. I never found myself connecting with any of them, or being particularly bothered whether any of them got out of whatever fix they found themselves in.
The book is more about their daughter Wren and what happens when their past starts catching up with them.
There's more action as the story goes from place to place, following Wren and her adventures, and then Tom and Hester as they get drawn into it as well.
The only thing that let this story down was the actual characters. Wren has been sheltered and is too naive, although she has her moments. Tom has turned into some timid (and equally naive) librarian, and Hester is just a murderous ball of anger. I never found myself connecting with any of them, or being particularly bothered whether any of them got out of whatever fix they found themselves in.
I really wanted this one to work for me considering how much I enjoyed Predator's Gold but something very specific didn't quite work for me. Set sixteen years after the last novel, Infernal Devices finds Hester and Tom as parents with a daughter, Wren, who tires of the idyllic life of Anchorage-in-Vineland and seeks adventure. Yet when the Lost Boys come calling and Wren is whisked away, a life of adventure is far from what she expected.
There is certainly nothing lost in the execution of the plot here. The story focuses on the acquisition of the mysterious Tin Book which seems to hold the key to an ancient power left behind from the 60 minute war. But, for me, is was my connection to the characters that was not as strong as the previous two stories. Old revivals of key players from the first stories, introductions to new ones and the vilification of Hester meant that I found a real disconnect with some of them - I wanted to build up a much stronger relationship with Oenone and felt very little to make me want to connect with Wren and the book felt like it was placing all the key ingredients for the finale rather than stand on its own as a novel.
I am sure it will all come together in the final book and I hope there is some redemption in Hester's character who, I felt, was overly intruded upon by the author.
There is certainly nothing lost in the execution of the plot here. The story focuses on the acquisition of the mysterious Tin Book which seems to hold the key to an ancient power left behind from the 60 minute war. But, for me, is was my connection to the characters that was not as strong as the previous two stories. Old revivals of key players from the first stories, introductions to new ones and the vilification of Hester meant that I found a real disconnect with some of them - I wanted to build up a much stronger relationship with Oenone and felt very little to make me want to connect with Wren and the book felt like it was placing all the key ingredients for the finale rather than stand on its own as a novel.
I am sure it will all come together in the final book and I hope there is some redemption in Hester's character who, I felt, was overly intruded upon by the author.