Thunder City

In the distant future, mobile cities roam a devastated, hostile landscape, often absorbing one another for resources. When the comparatively benign city of Thorbury is taken over by ambitious Gabriel Strega, who intends to transform Thorbury into the first “apex predator of the brutal new age,” adult tutor Miss Lavinia Torpenhow embarks on a quest to save her home. To help her rescue the son of Thorbury’s late mayor, Max Angmering, from protective custody in Paris, she recruits young Tamzin Pook, a gladiatorial champion from the raft town of Margate. With both Strega’s agents and Tamzin’s former captor hot on their heels, the unlikely band of would-be heroes—and some unexpected allies—travel by land, sea, and air, struggling to survive long enough to fulfill their quest. Reeve (Utterly Dark and the Tides of Time) sets this steampunk adventure a century prior to the events of the Mortal Engines series. Skillfully balancing tongue-in-cheek plotlines with brutal postapocalyptic action and juxtaposing teatime and charming banter with deadly combat and cyborg zombies, Reeve presents a world of airships, wheeled metropolises, and weaponized suburbia as a memorable epic with a rich emotional undercurrent. Major characters read as white. Ages 12–up. Agent: Philippa Milnes-Smith, Soho Agency. (Nov.)