A Return to a Beloved World
I wasn't really sure what I was expecting when I began my read of Fever Crumb. What book could live up to the brilliance of the Mortal Engines quadrilogy?
What tale could capture the magic of that world with a completely new set of characters, set hundreds of years before the Traction Era we know? Does Philip Reeve still have the Midas touch?
Well, he must have, because Fever Crumb spawned two further sequels, so let's see how he went, eh?
PLOT SPOILERS FOLLOW
A New Heroine for a Bygone Age
Fever Crumb is the tale of its namesake, a young woman raised by the Order of Engineers, a cold, rational, and emotionless sect dedicated to logic above all. Found abandoned as a baby in a basket, it would seem too obvious to suggest that Fever is some kind of Moses for the still-grounded city of London.
The story is set against the backdrop of a London still reeling from the recent overthrow of the Scriven, a genetically engineered race of rulers whose cold, sterile perfection dominated the city for years.
In this paranoid and unstable society, Fever is tasked to help an archaeologist, Kit Solent, discover the secrets of his dig.
Ghosts of the Past and Future
That name, Kit Solent. When I read that, my heart sank a little, as I thought I knew who that gentleman eventually becomes: Shrike. This made me wonder just where the hell this story was going to take us, and what would become of Solent's delightful children, Ruan and Fern?
Thankfully, the discovery of the legendary Stalker's actual origin is a different, more wonderful and tragic moment entirely. As a consequence of revealing the creation of the man who becomes Shrike, this particular story arc is the only real direct connection to the original novels. It works quite well, meaning the story of Fever Crumb can be told without any consequence to the original stories.
Reeve actually packs a lot of detail into the first 50 pages of this novel. While it's a new world within the old world, its place feels quite natural in the scheme of things.
The more I read of this book, the more I feel it's come into its own story about Fever and the history of her family that she is slowly discovering.
The fact it's set at the dawn of the Traction Era has little influence on the immediate plot, but it is deeply satisfying to be 'in on' the history that leads to London becoming the monstrous predator city we know. We see the very first, clumsy experiments with mobile settlements and witness the political machinations that will eventually put the city on wheels.
The Final Verdict
A slow middle section, which gives the main characters a chance to get their bearings and set up plot points, gives way to a strong ending where all the threads of the story come together quite nicely, something which Reeve does masterfully across the entire series.
Reeve's inventive use of the English language, where he uses the term 'blogger' as a swear word, was a lot of fun. All the usual puns and references to our modern world are there, which all add up to classic Reeve.
I do feel that if this is the first Mortal Engines novel you read, you might not be as thrilled with the tale as you would if you had not read about Tom and Hester's adventures prior. Given that Reeve has said the books should be read in the order he wrote them, this makes a lot of sense.
I am greatly looking forward to the sequel, A Web of Air.
Order Fever Crumb from Book Depository or Amazon.
A drawing of Bagman Creech, a character from the novel:
Wavey Godshawk by the same artist:
One more, cgdoodler is on a roll! Here's Doctor Crumb, Fever's Father:
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