Set far into the future during a time called the Traction Era (T.E.), Thunder City by Philip Reeve will enchant readers who are fascinated by video games or by the prospect of technomancers reanimating dead warriors. Reeve’s novel features a plethora of characters who share a common thread: They all connect to Miss Lavinia Torpenhow, a rescuer and history instructor known as Miss T.
When the town of Thorbury is taken hostage by Gabriel Strega and its mayor murdered by the Architect, a dreadfully brilliant young man with an inquiring mind, Miss T must find a way to bring Max Angmering back to Thorbury from Paris. As the rightful heir after his father is killed, Max will supplant the Architect, the interloper’s nick name, and restore the wheeled-town’s reputation. Once she has Max’s sister Helen securely stowed in a safe house, Miss T sets off for Paris.
When Miss T learns that Max has been imprisoned and is guarded by a revenant, she flies to Margate to solicit the aid of Tamzin Pook, a revenant expert. Guided by the rhythm of the fight and moving like a dancer, the wiry Tamzin may be a shy, solitary, prickly sort of person, but she is the longest surviving player in Dr. Mortmain’s Amusement Arcade. Marked with scars and stains and scorch marks, the arcade arena is where slaves are forced to battle revenants. Many lose their lives in these games designed by Mortmain, who is the inventor of beasts and the Master of Amusements. His star fighter, Tamzin studies patterns and finds a weakness in the Revenant Engine’s operating system and then hacks apart its vitals. Despite its being illegal to construct them, these humanoid robots or Mortal Engines are fairly commonplace among the shadier sort. Even though Tamzin is a slave, the arena is the only life she knows, so she resists Miss T’s rescue. But Miss T is not one to accept no for an answer, so she kidnaps Tamzin, and the pair return to Paris.
The plot of Reeve’s story revolves around the rescue of Max and the group’s convoluted and complicated efforts to put together an army to return to Thorbury to toss out Strega. In this city-eat-city world, what ensues is not only riddled with action and adventure but with ample humor. Reeve’s talent lies in his creation of characters and his commodious imagination as he invents a Cephalopod Civilization with Thomas and Abela as a pair of octopuses that can communicate with humans as well as an Anti-Tractionist submarine crew aboard the Haile Maryam.
Ultimately, the story shares a strong and somewhat nontraditional definition of family.
- Donna