Mortal Engines - Mortal Engines Quartet 1 (Paperback)

It was a dark, blustery afternoon in spring, and the city of London was chasing an old mining town across the dried-up bed of the old North Sea.

So begins Mortal Engines, launching Philip Reeve's brilliantly-imagined steampunk creation, the world of the Traction Era, where mobile cities fight for survival in a post-apocalyptic future.

Set thousands of years in the future, in the aftermath of the Sixty Minute War which destroyed the civilisation of the 21st century the Mortal Engines series is a modern masterpiece, blending science-fiction, adventure and wonderful strangeness.

Airships storm the skies whilst deep in the oceans submarines lie waiting for prey. In this dangerous landscape the cities and their anti-tractionist enemies race to capture the remnants of perilous technologies to put to use. 

The first instalment introduces young apprentice Tom Natsworthy and the murderous Hester Shaw, flung from the fast-moving city of London into heart-stopping adventures in the wastelands of the Great Hunting Ground.