Thunder City by Philip Reeve
Mar. 23rd, 2025 11:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
quippeThe Blurb On The Back:
Tamzin Pook is a fighter in the Amusement Arcade, where she does battle with Revenants - reanimated brains within armoured engine bodies - and is never sure whether she’ll survive another day.
In the wheeled city of Thorbury, a rebel faction has brutally seized control and it will take someone skilled at fighting Revenants to save the day … Enter Tamzin.
Along with an oddball gang of mercenaries and a teacher named Miss Torpenhow, she must outwit a pair of assassins to secure a peaceful future.
57-year-old Miss Torpenhow is the tutor to Helen Angmering, the daughter of Thorbury’s Mayor Angmering. Thorbury is a comfortably traditional Traction City and as a keen amateur historian Miss Torpenhow is keen to share her knowledge of those traditions with Helen, even though no one has any expectations of Helen amounting to anything more than the wife of a wealthy member of a fine family. Miss Torpenhow taught Helen’s older brother Max, who is now studying in the great Traction City of Paris until he can come back and eventually take over as Mayor from his father.
But everything changes when Thorbury eats a small town that turns out to be home to Gabriel Strega, a former member of Thorbury’s Planning Department who was expelled from Thornbury for promoting ideas contrary to those of Municipal Darwinism. Strega has teamed up with the Boethius Brigade (a ruthless gang of nomadic mercenaries who work with seven Revenants) and they murder the Mayor and subjugate the people as Strega works to put in place his own, ruthless interpretation on Municipal Darwinism to take Thorbury into the big leagues of Traction Cities.
Determined to free her town, Miss Torpenhow asks some friends to hide Helen while she brings back Max in the hope that he can rally the people behind him. But when she learns that Strega has agents in Paris who have conspired with the authorities to lock Max within the notorious Oubliette, which is guarded by a fearsome creature, she realises that she’s going to need specialist help to break him out.
Tamzin Pook remembers nothing of her childhood. She has spent her life as a slave and fights in the Amusement Arcade at Margate against the Revenant creations of her owner, Mortmain. There Tamzin is famous, if not popular, and is known for her knack of identifying a Revenant’s weakness but she’s aware that there is no escape from the Amusement Arcade - the best she can hope for is that Mortmain will allow her to become a trainer - and she has never thought of anything beyond that. Until the day Mortmain brings a journalist to meet her, who turns out to be Miss Topenhow who has a plan to free her.
Together they work to put together a group who can free Thorbury from Strega and the Boethius Brigade. But Mortmain is determined to get Tamzin back and has sent two very dangerous assassins who will do whatever it takes to stop them …
Philip Reeve’s standalone adventure set in his MORTAL ENGINES universe for readers aged 12+ is a thrilling story of friendship, belonging and what it means to be a hero. Although Tamzin and Miss Torpenhow are the main characters, this is very much an ensemble piece that explores the geography of the Traction Cities’ world at a breakneck pace. Although this is a standalone story, there is scope here for a sequel, which I would definitely read.
I picked this up because I’d really enjoyed his MORTAL ENGINES QUARTET and was keen to read more set in that universe. This book does not disappoint.
Reeve is a very clever writer. He’s capable of sketching out characters with very little work. Tamzin is a loner whose sole focus has been on survival, which has made her largely empty inside (other than residual guilt at having failed to prevent the death of another fighter in the Arcade). Miss Torpenhow is a woman in late middle age whose dream of being a historian was thwarted by the sexism of the Guild and who has devoted her life to teaching Thorbury’s next generations and who feels guilt at having elevated Gabriel Strega from the town’s lower ranks by encouraging his love of reading. Miss Torpenhow is convinced that if she can get Max Angmering back to Thorbury then he can rouse the population behind him but Max himself is aware of his deficiencies and is not sure that he can be the person his town needs him to be. I thoroughly enjoyed the way Reeve brings these characters together and then adds a ragtag bunch to help them, which I won’t spoil.
Also great is the way Reeve explores more of the world that he’s created, from an Anti Tractionist stronghold to a German spa town. I particularly enjoyed a submarine run on behalf of Anti Tractionists, which has a couple of spy octopuses and I would happily read more of their adventures. The antagonists are chilling - especially the assassins Coldharbour and Lint - and if I have any criticism of the book then it’s that I wish that the book had been longer so we could have seen more of them and of Strega. Similarly I think that Helen’s story is a little short changed by the book’s length, especially given what happens to her character.
That said I loved the touches of humour and warmth in the book, whether it’s a budding romance between Max and a submariner or between Miss Torpenhow and the elderly mercury Oddington Doom. I also adore the names that Reeve comes up with - my favourite being the delightful Skip Recap - and the way he re-imagines Margate and Paris into his Traction City world.
Although this is billed as a standalone novel, the book does leave it open for a sequel and if Reeve does write one then I would definitely check it out.
The Verdict:
Philip Reeve’s standalone adventure set in his MORTAL ENGINES universe for readers aged 12+ is a thrilling story of friendship, belonging and what it means to be a hero. Although Tamzin and Miss Torpenhow are the main characters, this is very much an ensemble piece that explores the geography of the Traction Cities’ world at a breakneck pace. Although this is a standalone story, there is scope here for a sequel, which I would definitely read.
THUNDER CITY was released in the United Kingdom on 26 September 2024. Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.
Tamzin Pook is a fighter in the Amusement Arcade, where she does battle with Revenants - reanimated brains within armoured engine bodies - and is never sure whether she’ll survive another day.
In the wheeled city of Thorbury, a rebel faction has brutally seized control and it will take someone skilled at fighting Revenants to save the day … Enter Tamzin.
Along with an oddball gang of mercenaries and a teacher named Miss Torpenhow, she must outwit a pair of assassins to secure a peaceful future.
57-year-old Miss Torpenhow is the tutor to Helen Angmering, the daughter of Thorbury’s Mayor Angmering. Thorbury is a comfortably traditional Traction City and as a keen amateur historian Miss Torpenhow is keen to share her knowledge of those traditions with Helen, even though no one has any expectations of Helen amounting to anything more than the wife of a wealthy member of a fine family. Miss Torpenhow taught Helen’s older brother Max, who is now studying in the great Traction City of Paris until he can come back and eventually take over as Mayor from his father.
But everything changes when Thorbury eats a small town that turns out to be home to Gabriel Strega, a former member of Thorbury’s Planning Department who was expelled from Thornbury for promoting ideas contrary to those of Municipal Darwinism. Strega has teamed up with the Boethius Brigade (a ruthless gang of nomadic mercenaries who work with seven Revenants) and they murder the Mayor and subjugate the people as Strega works to put in place his own, ruthless interpretation on Municipal Darwinism to take Thorbury into the big leagues of Traction Cities.
Determined to free her town, Miss Torpenhow asks some friends to hide Helen while she brings back Max in the hope that he can rally the people behind him. But when she learns that Strega has agents in Paris who have conspired with the authorities to lock Max within the notorious Oubliette, which is guarded by a fearsome creature, she realises that she’s going to need specialist help to break him out.
Tamzin Pook remembers nothing of her childhood. She has spent her life as a slave and fights in the Amusement Arcade at Margate against the Revenant creations of her owner, Mortmain. There Tamzin is famous, if not popular, and is known for her knack of identifying a Revenant’s weakness but she’s aware that there is no escape from the Amusement Arcade - the best she can hope for is that Mortmain will allow her to become a trainer - and she has never thought of anything beyond that. Until the day Mortmain brings a journalist to meet her, who turns out to be Miss Topenhow who has a plan to free her.
Together they work to put together a group who can free Thorbury from Strega and the Boethius Brigade. But Mortmain is determined to get Tamzin back and has sent two very dangerous assassins who will do whatever it takes to stop them …
Philip Reeve’s standalone adventure set in his MORTAL ENGINES universe for readers aged 12+ is a thrilling story of friendship, belonging and what it means to be a hero. Although Tamzin and Miss Torpenhow are the main characters, this is very much an ensemble piece that explores the geography of the Traction Cities’ world at a breakneck pace. Although this is a standalone story, there is scope here for a sequel, which I would definitely read.
I picked this up because I’d really enjoyed his MORTAL ENGINES QUARTET and was keen to read more set in that universe. This book does not disappoint.
Reeve is a very clever writer. He’s capable of sketching out characters with very little work. Tamzin is a loner whose sole focus has been on survival, which has made her largely empty inside (other than residual guilt at having failed to prevent the death of another fighter in the Arcade). Miss Torpenhow is a woman in late middle age whose dream of being a historian was thwarted by the sexism of the Guild and who has devoted her life to teaching Thorbury’s next generations and who feels guilt at having elevated Gabriel Strega from the town’s lower ranks by encouraging his love of reading. Miss Torpenhow is convinced that if she can get Max Angmering back to Thorbury then he can rouse the population behind him but Max himself is aware of his deficiencies and is not sure that he can be the person his town needs him to be. I thoroughly enjoyed the way Reeve brings these characters together and then adds a ragtag bunch to help them, which I won’t spoil.
Also great is the way Reeve explores more of the world that he’s created, from an Anti Tractionist stronghold to a German spa town. I particularly enjoyed a submarine run on behalf of Anti Tractionists, which has a couple of spy octopuses and I would happily read more of their adventures. The antagonists are chilling - especially the assassins Coldharbour and Lint - and if I have any criticism of the book then it’s that I wish that the book had been longer so we could have seen more of them and of Strega. Similarly I think that Helen’s story is a little short changed by the book’s length, especially given what happens to her character.
That said I loved the touches of humour and warmth in the book, whether it’s a budding romance between Max and a submariner or between Miss Torpenhow and the elderly mercury Oddington Doom. I also adore the names that Reeve comes up with - my favourite being the delightful Skip Recap - and the way he re-imagines Margate and Paris into his Traction City world.
Although this is billed as a standalone novel, the book does leave it open for a sequel and if Reeve does write one then I would definitely check it out.
The Verdict:
Philip Reeve’s standalone adventure set in his MORTAL ENGINES universe for readers aged 12+ is a thrilling story of friendship, belonging and what it means to be a hero. Although Tamzin and Miss Torpenhow are the main characters, this is very much an ensemble piece that explores the geography of the Traction Cities’ world at a breakneck pace. Although this is a standalone story, there is scope here for a sequel, which I would definitely read.
THUNDER CITY was released in the United Kingdom on 26 September 2024. Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.
