Picking up roughly two years after Mortal Engines
ended, Reeve's second adventure, nearly as impressive as the first, continues to explore a future world in which cities navigate on wheels and prowl the surface of the earth, devouring other cities. Heroes Tom and Hester, who joined forces (and forged romantic ties) in the previous book, now live as traders aboard the airship they inherited from the great adventurer Anna Fang. Damage to the ship forces them to take refuge in the city of Anchorage. The city's matriarch, Freya, wants to steer the town back to America—which long ago was nicknamed "the Dead Continent" for the wasteland it had become. Meanwhile, the Green Storm, a radical environmental group, introduced in the previous book as groupies of Anna Fang, wants their airship. Complicating matters are a trio of burglars hiding within Anchorage; Dr. Popjoy makes another appearance, reviving Fang as a stalker much like Hester's beloved Grike in the first book; and Hester's impression of a blossoming love between Freya and Tom brings out her darkest inclinations (let's just say that the title is the name given for payment to one who betrays a city's whereabouts to a predatory entity). The stock character of Professor Pennyroyal (an author and world-traveling blowhard with endless tales of his brave exploits but no truth or skills to back them up) is the only disappointment in a novel that continues to invent original settings and characters, and to deepen the connections between those introduced previously. Fans of the first book will not be disappointed. Ages 12-up. (Sept.)
