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wildwoodreader 's review for:
Infernal Devices
by Philip Reeve
Here is a snippet of my review:
3 Stars
Sixteen years have passed since Anchorage became a static city and life has been peaceful away from the war of the traction towns. Tom and Hester, now married, raised their daughter Wren in their quiet home. For years, Wren has heard about her parents' adventures and has been wanting to escape her boring life to go on adventures of her own. Her chance comes when Gargle, one of the Lost Boys, though now a grown man, shows up in Anchorage-in-Vineland, seeking for the so-called Tin Book, a book that is said to hold the key to a sleeping weapon from before the Sixty-Minute-War.
In an attempt to escape from her home, Wren agrees to steal the Tin Book from Freya's library, in exchange for Gargle and his crew taking her with them. She successfully swipes the object but things go south during the exchange when Hester follows her daughter down to the dock and ends up shooting both Gargle and the girl he was with, Remora. The third member of his crew, a boy named Fishcake, takes Wren hostage in order to save his own life and kidnaps her aboard his limpet, the Autolycus. Now Hester and Tom have to go after their daughter to save her.
The first thing I want to say about Infernal Devices is that I enjoyed it much more than I enjoyed Predator's Gold, mainly because there were less annoying cringe moments, and because the plot mainly drove itself. Now, don't get me wrong, there were still some things about the story and the characters that made me cringe but I was able to get over them much quicker compared to the previous book. The overall plot held a lot of surprises that I didn't see coming and it was really cool to see all of these events in motion.
Now, one thing that I did find annoying was that most of the characters don't seem to have changed much since the second book, which is a bummer given sixteen full years have passed. Hester even seems annoyingly the same as she was all those years before. She still obsesses over her looks and she's still afraid Tom might leave her at any given moment, even though they've been married for over ten years now. It just felt very unnatural. So much can change in sixteen years and yet she's still the exact same insecure little girl she was when she was a teenager. I found it quite disappointing, and shallow.
Tom hasn't changed much, either, though I will say that fatherhood has added more layers to his personality. You can tell how much he loves his daughter and that he would do anything to protect her, no matter what the cost. I respect that. Oh, and if you thought he and Hester have better romantic chemistry by now, don't get your hopes up. I've come to the conclusion that developing romantic relationships isn't Reeve's strongsuit (although I really liked the relationship between Katherine and Bevis in the first book).
Freya is the only character I actually genuinely like now, because she is the one who evolved the most. This once pitiful, spoiled girl has become a generous and kind grown woman who is incredibly loyal to her people. I would honestly read an entire series about her sitting in her library reading or working in her garden. What can I say, I love characters who go through massive character development.
Now to Wren. I will say that Wren warmed up to me over the course of the book and at the end of it she wasn't quite as annoying as she was in the beginning. That being said, she is a very stereotypical teenager who longs for more in her life, who's embarrassed of her parents, mainly her mother, and who makes a lot of stupid decisions. It's really not rocket science. She's a teenager, we get it. Unfortunately, she doesn't have a lot of depth. I'm not saying she's stupid (one or two of her ventures were actually quite smart) but she's also not the sharpest tool in the shed. There is so little fabric to her character that I don't even really know what more I can say about her. I hope she grows and matures in the last book, A Darkling Plain, which I'm currently reading.
The world is still very cool, we got to meet new places and learn more about the culture within the story. The first half of the book was very slow, in my opinion, and it didn't really get rolling until the second half.
This is the end of my spoiler-free review. If you would like to read more of my in-depth thoughts about this book, visit my full review on my blog.
INFERNAL DEVICES FULL REVIEW
3 Stars
Sixteen years have passed since Anchorage became a static city and life has been peaceful away from the war of the traction towns. Tom and Hester, now married, raised their daughter Wren in their quiet home. For years, Wren has heard about her parents' adventures and has been wanting to escape her boring life to go on adventures of her own. Her chance comes when Gargle, one of the Lost Boys, though now a grown man, shows up in Anchorage-in-Vineland, seeking for the so-called Tin Book, a book that is said to hold the key to a sleeping weapon from before the Sixty-Minute-War.
In an attempt to escape from her home, Wren agrees to steal the Tin Book from Freya's library, in exchange for Gargle and his crew taking her with them. She successfully swipes the object but things go south during the exchange when Hester follows her daughter down to the dock and ends up shooting both Gargle and the girl he was with, Remora. The third member of his crew, a boy named Fishcake, takes Wren hostage in order to save his own life and kidnaps her aboard his limpet, the Autolycus. Now Hester and Tom have to go after their daughter to save her.
The first thing I want to say about Infernal Devices is that I enjoyed it much more than I enjoyed Predator's Gold, mainly because there were less annoying cringe moments, and because the plot mainly drove itself. Now, don't get me wrong, there were still some things about the story and the characters that made me cringe but I was able to get over them much quicker compared to the previous book. The overall plot held a lot of surprises that I didn't see coming and it was really cool to see all of these events in motion.
Now, one thing that I did find annoying was that most of the characters don't seem to have changed much since the second book, which is a bummer given sixteen full years have passed. Hester even seems annoyingly the same as she was all those years before. She still obsesses over her looks and she's still afraid Tom might leave her at any given moment, even though they've been married for over ten years now. It just felt very unnatural. So much can change in sixteen years and yet she's still the exact same insecure little girl she was when she was a teenager. I found it quite disappointing, and shallow.
Tom hasn't changed much, either, though I will say that fatherhood has added more layers to his personality. You can tell how much he loves his daughter and that he would do anything to protect her, no matter what the cost. I respect that. Oh, and if you thought he and Hester have better romantic chemistry by now, don't get your hopes up. I've come to the conclusion that developing romantic relationships isn't Reeve's strongsuit (although I really liked the relationship between Katherine and Bevis in the first book).
Freya is the only character I actually genuinely like now, because she is the one who evolved the most. This once pitiful, spoiled girl has become a generous and kind grown woman who is incredibly loyal to her people. I would honestly read an entire series about her sitting in her library reading or working in her garden. What can I say, I love characters who go through massive character development.
Now to Wren. I will say that Wren warmed up to me over the course of the book and at the end of it she wasn't quite as annoying as she was in the beginning. That being said, she is a very stereotypical teenager who longs for more in her life, who's embarrassed of her parents, mainly her mother, and who makes a lot of stupid decisions. It's really not rocket science. She's a teenager, we get it. Unfortunately, she doesn't have a lot of depth. I'm not saying she's stupid (one or two of her ventures were actually quite smart) but she's also not the sharpest tool in the shed. There is so little fabric to her character that I don't even really know what more I can say about her. I hope she grows and matures in the last book, A Darkling Plain, which I'm currently reading.
The world is still very cool, we got to meet new places and learn more about the culture within the story. The first half of the book was very slow, in my opinion, and it didn't really get rolling until the second half.
This is the end of my spoiler-free review. If you would like to read more of my in-depth thoughts about this book, visit my full review on my blog.
INFERNAL DEVICES FULL REVIEW