Mortal Engines Quartet

Series · 7 books · 2001-2024

By Chris Priestley, Philip Reeve

Books in series

#0.5

Night Flights

2018

Return to the world of Mortal Engines in this new book of short stories about the rebellious young aviatrix, Anna Fang, illustrated by Ian McQue. A key character in the Mortal Engines book and upcoming film produced by Peter Jackson (December 2018), this is your chance to learn more of Anna's thrilling past. Night Flights includes Traction City, Philip Reeve's 2011 World Book Day Book. In a dangerous future world where gigantic, motorized cities attack and devour each other, London hunts where no other predator dares. But Anna Fang—pilot, adventurer, spy—isn't afraid. The three stories show gripping, moving, exciting moments in Anna Fang's life: her childhood as a slave aboard the moving city Arkangel, a showdown against a robotic Stalker that is terrifyingly out of control, and her free life as an intelligence agent for the Anti-Traction league ...

Mortal Engines

2001

"It was a dark, blustery afternoon in spring, and the city of London was chasing a small mining town across the dried-out bed of the old North Sea." The great traction city London has been skulking in the hills to avoid the bigger, faster, hungrier cities loose in the Great Hunting Ground. But now, the sinister plans of Lord Mayor Mangus Crome can finally unfold. Thaddeus Valentine, London's Head Historian and adored famous archaeologist, and his lovely daughter, Katherine, are down in The Gut when the young assassin with the black scarf strikes toward his heart, saved by the quick intervention of Tom, a lowly third-class apprentice. Racing after the fleeing girl, Tom suddenly glimpses her hideous face: scarred from forehead to jaw, nose a smashed stump, a single eye glaring back at him. "Look at what your Valentine did to me!" she screams. "Ask him! Ask him what he did to Hester Shaw!" And with that she jumps down the waste chute to her death. Minutes later Tom finds himself tumbling down the same chute and stranded in the Out-Country, a sea of mud scored by the huge caterpillar tracks of cities like the one now steaming off over the horizon. In a stunning literary debut, Philip Reeve has created a painful dangerous unforgettable adventure story of surprises, set in a dark and utterly original world fueled by Municipal Darwinism—and betrayal.

Predator's Gold

2003

In this breathtaking sequel to his award-winning Mortal Engines, Reeve plunges readers into a ruthless and terrifyingly believable world where cities eat each other, betrayal is as common as ice, and loyalty offers the only chance for survival.

Infernal Devices

2005

The third thrilling book in the stunning Predator Cities series! The mighty engines of Anchorage have been rusted and dead for years. The derelict city no longer roams the Ice Wastes, but has settled on the edge of the land that was once America. Tom Natsworthy and Hester Shaw are happy in the safety of a static settlement, but their daughter, Wren, is desperate for adventure. When a dangerously charming submarine pirate offers her a chance to escape, Wren doesn't think twice about leaving her home and her parents behind. But the pirate wants something in return - Wren must steal the mysterious Tin Book. To do so will ignite a conflict that could tear the whole world apart.

A Darkling Plain

2006

The fourth and final book in Philip Reeve's Mortal Engines Quartet. The great Traction City of London now lies in ruins. Once, not so long ago, it hunted other cities across the vast wastes of a devastated land. Now it is a poisonous, lifeless wreck - until Tom Natsworthy and his daughter, Wren, uncover the secret hidden in its dark heart. It's a secret that could bring an end to the war once and for all. But as Tom and Wren risk their lives, time is running out. Far away, a dangerous child with a deadly secret of his own is making a journey that may lead to the destruction of the entire human race.

Thunder City

2024

An edge-of-your seat adventure set in the iconic world of Mortal Engines! Tamzin Pook is a fighter in the Amusement Arcade. And what she does best is killing Revenants. All she knows is survival, having arrived in the Arcade as a small child. She pushes away her memories, her hopes, and her fears, and she emerges into the arena to battle the Revenants—dead brains nestled in armored engine bodies. She doesn't dare to hope or wish for anything more than to survive another day. Meanwhile, the wheeled city of Motoropolis has been taken over by a rebel faction who killed its leaders and commandeered the city. Its only hope is a teacher named Miss Torpenhow who's determined to find the Mayor's good-for-nothing son and force him to take back what's rightfully his. But to get to him, she'll need to find someone who's skilled at fighting Revenants. With a daring abduction, Miss Torpenhow and Tamzin Pook's destinies are entwined, and so begin their adventures together... This stand-alone Mortal Engines novel follows an unlikely crew of fighters-turned Tamzin Pook, Hilly Torpenhow, mayor-to-be Max Angmering, and washed-up mercenary Oddington Doom. Together, they must find a way to outwit the assassins that are determined to drag Tamzin back to the arcade, and try to take back Motoropolis. Readers, hold onto your seats-it's going to be a wild ride.

#11

Traction City / Tales of Terror

2011

"The Teacher's Tales of Terror" (Bloomsbury Children's Books) - Chris Priestley has readers on the edge of their seats in this trio of terrifying stories as a teacher and his pupils share three spine-chilling tales. But, of course, with a very surprising ending that resounds like a slamming door on a quiet night! "Traction City" (Scholastic Children's Books) - In a dangerous future world where gigantic, traction-powered cities attack and devour each other, London hunts where no other predator dares. Hidden in its vast superstructure is a murderous creature that severs the right hands of its victims. A rebellious young aviatrix and a secretive scavenger boy are about to come face to face with a robotic Stalker that is terrifyingly out of control.

Authors

Chris Priestley

Author · 24 books

His father was in the army and so he moved around a lot as a child and lived in Wales. He was an avid reader of American comics as a child, and when he was eight or nine, and living in Gibraltar, he won a prize in a newspaper story-writing competition. He decided then “that my ambition was to write and illustrate my own book”. He spent his teens in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, before moving to Manchester, London and then Norfolk. He now lives in Cambridge with his wife and son where he writes, draws, paints, dreams and doodles (not necessarily in that order). Chris worked as an illustrator and cartoonist for twenty years, working mainly for magazines & newspapers (these include The Times, The Guardian, The Independent, The Economist and the Wall Street Journal) before becoming a writer. He currently has a weekly strip cartoon called 'Payne's Grey' in the New Statesman. Chris has been a published author since 2000. He has written several books for children & young-adults, both fiction and non-fiction, and has been nominated for many awards including the Edgar Awards, the UKLA Children's Book Award and the Carnegie Medal. In recent years he has predominantly been writing horror. Ever since he was a teenager Chris has loved unsettling and creepy stories, with fond memories of buying comics like 'Strange Tales' and 'House of Mystery', watching classic BBC TV adaptations of M R James ghost stories every Christmas and reading assorted weirdness by everyone from Edgar Allen Poe to Ray Bradbury. He hopes Uncle Montague's Tales of Terror will haunt his readers in the way those writers have haunted him.

Philip Reeve

Author · 38 books

Philip Reeve was born and raised in Brighton, where he worked in a bookshop for a number of years while also co-writing, producing and directing a number of no-budget theatre projects. Philip then began illustrating and has since provided cartoons for around forty children's books, including the best-selling Horrible Histories, Murderous Maths and Dead Famous series. Railhead, published by Oxford University Press, will be published in the UK in October 2015 Pugs of the Frozen North, written with Sarah McIntyre, is out now.