Predator's Gold

Predator's Gold is the second book in Philip Reeve's children's fantasy series that started with the book Mortal Engines (dubbed the Hungry City Chronicles apparently, but I've never seen that written on the front of any Australian-edition of these books). Predator's Gold is also that rare thing... a sequel that surpasses the original.

Our heroes from Mortal Engines, the inquisitive and naive Tom and his protective girlfriend Hester (who's soul may be every bit as twisted and ruined as her face), have taken to the skies in their ship, The Jenny Hanniver, adventuring and trading across the world. They meet the famed adventuring historian Professor Pennyroyal, who buys his way onto their ship, and travel out together towards the Ice Wastes.

This is our world a couple of thousand years into the future. A lot has changed. North America has become known as the Dead Continent due to a nuclear war that laid waste to the entire landmass. Cities have become mobilised on traction belts and they devour one another for resources, a greedy way of life they call 'Municipal Darwinism'. There is a terrorist group known as The Green Storm, a fascistic splinter group of the Anti-Traction League, who seek to destroy all traction cities and those who trade with them. Throw into this a new group called The Lost Boys (ala Fagin's gang of thieving orphans from Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist), and you have the brave new world that we're presented with in Predator's Gold.

There are lots of characters and alliances and enemies and Reeve does an astounding job of giving them all enough room on the page to move without overdoing it. I never once felt lost with what was going on or who was who, and I loved almost every single character to the point that I didn't want to see any of them go - even the bad guys! Reeve also introduces several major characters here who become important to the following books in the'Hungry Cities Chronicles, and Hester continues to be one of the most original and interesting protagonists to ever feature in this kind of fiction.

What I love so much about this book in particular is that Reeve isn't afraid to do things to his characters that the reader doesn't expect. He doesn't quite 'betray' the reader exactly, but he doesn't adhere to the sorts of rules that make a lot of series-based fiction really boring and formulaic. If you liked Mortal Engines then you're going to love Predator's Gold, and you're going to be shocked too, and - if you're like me - there are going to be some very memorable images left imprinted on your brain after reading this instalment of the series.