The Mortal Engines Saga: A Guide to the Traction Era
Philip Reeve's Mortal Engines Quartet and its companion prequels imagine a far-future Earth ravaged by a cataclysm known as the Sixty Minute War. In its wake, a new civilization has risen from the ruins, one built on the brutal philosophy of "Municipal Darwinism."
Great cities, now mounted on colossal engines and caterpillar tracks, roam the blasted landscape of the Great Hunting Ground, relentlessly chasing and consuming smaller towns for their resources and technology. This is the Traction Era.
At the heart of this world is a conflict between the mobile cities of the West and the static, traditionalist civilization of the Anti-Traction League in the East. The series is a masterful blend of steampunk adventure, political allegory, and poignant commentary on history, memory, and the cyclical nature of human violence. This guide charts the full history of the Traction Era, from its violent birth to its eventual, quiet end.
The Fever Crumb Prequel Trilogy
Set many centuries before the main quartet, this trilogy explores the forgotten origins of the Traction Era, the aftermath of the Sixty Minute War, and the creation of the Stalkers.
Fever CrumbPhilip Reeve (2009)
In the gaslit, superstitious city of London, centuries after the Ancient technology was destroyed, a young engineer named Fever Crumb is raised by the Order of Engineers, a rationalist sect preserving scraps of old knowledge. When a plot forces her out into the city, she becomes entangled in a scheme to build a colossal moving effigy of the city's founder. The book reveals the very first conceptual steps toward building a moving city and, most crucially, delves into the origins of the Stalkers: relentless, resurrected cyborg soldiers created from the dead, who were the ultimate weapons of the Ancients.
A Web of AirPhilip Reeve (2010)
Fever's journey takes her away from London to the remote, peaceful city of Mayda, which has remained isolated from the growing chaos of the mainland. There, she encounters a young man attempting to rediscover the lost technology of flight. The story is a fascinating exploration of rediscovery versus new invention, as the characters struggle to rebuild a world from its technological ashes. It highlights the schism between those who wish to move forward and those who fear repeating the mistakes of the Ancients.
Scrivener's MoonPhilip Reeve (2011)
The prequel trilogy concludes as London, now a primitive traction city, begins its slow, lumbering journey across the landscape. Fever Crumb finds herself caught between the city's warring factions and a nomadic army that threatens to destroy the nascent mobile society. The novel establishes the brutal ideology of Municipal Darwinism in its infancy and features the creation of the first true Stalker as we know them in the main series: a remorseless, powerful killing machine that will become a figure of terror for centuries.
The Mortal Engines Quartet
This is the main saga, set hundreds of years after the prequels in a world where Municipal Darwinism is the dominant, unquestioned way of life.
Mortal EnginesPhilip Reeve (2001)
The story begins aboard the great Traction City of London. Tom Natsworthy, a lowly Apprentice Historian, has his life turned upside down when he thwarts an assassination attempt on his idol, the Head Historian Thaddeus Valentine, by a scarred, vengeful girl named Hester Shaw. Thrown off the moving city for what he has seen, Tom must team up with the mysterious Hester to survive the brutal Out-Country. Their journey uncovers London's secret project: rebuilding MEDUSA, an apocalyptic energy weapon from the Sixty Minute War, which Valentine plans to use to destroy the great wall of the Anti-Traction League.
Predator's GoldPhilip Reeve (2003)
Two years later, Tom and Hester are scraping by as traders and aviators aboard their airship. They take on a passenger, the disgraced historian Pennyroyal, who claims to know the location of the Dead Continent of America. Their journey leads them to the magnificent ice city of Anchorage. The novel expands the world significantly, introducing the "Lost Boys" who salvage from the sky, and the fanatical "Huntsmen" of the Traktionstadt-Gesellschaft. It is a story about the corrosive nature of lies and the difficulty of escaping one's own history, as Tom and Hester's relationship is tested by secrets and jealousy.
Infernal DevicesPhilip Reeve (2005)
Sixteen years have passed. Tom and Hester have settled down in the now-static city of Anchorage-in-Vineland with their teenage daughter, Wren. Bored with a peaceful life, Wren becomes entangled with the Lost Boys and unwittingly steals a mysterious book, a theft that brings the forces of the Green Storm—a fanatical splinter group of the Anti-Traction League—down upon her family. The story deals with the consequences of the previous generation's actions and the re-awakening of old technologies, including the terrifying Stalker, Shrike, who is sent to hunt Hester down.
A Darkling PlainPhilip Reeve (2006)
The quartet's epic and somber conclusion. The world is on the brink of another global war, as the Green Storm's new leader wages a campaign of terror against the Traction Cities. The final secrets of the Sixty Minute War are revealed, including the true nature of the Stalkers and the super-weapon ODIN (Orbital Defence Initiative). Tom and Hester, now old and weary, must make one last journey to save their daughter and the world. The series ends not with a grand victory, but with a quiet, bittersweet conclusion about the end of an era and the hope for a new, gentler way of life.
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