Mortal Engines

Mortal Engines is set several millennia in the future in a time called the "Traction Era".The world was ripped apart after something called the "Sixty Minute War" which was some sort of nuclear war. All settlements are moving but they do more than that, villages are eaten by towns, towns are eaten by larger towns and the larger towns are eaten by cities. The main character, Tom, is a third class apprentice for the Historians of London, and his life is about to change completely. Onee day, after London has made it's first catch in decades he has to go on gut duty to find any Historical artifacts from the eaten town, for example "Old Tech" meaning our technology because as far as I can tell all our technology was lost after the "Sixty Minute War",And his supervisor is his hero Valentine, the head historian of London who is said to have been on many adventures and found many wonderful things.When they are looking for artifacts they run into some people who lived on the town and one of them attempts to stab Valentine, She only fails because Tom stops her just in time. She flees and Tom chases her through the gut and in the end she faces him and Tom finds out her name is Hester Shaw, and then she jumps off London into the "Out Country" (which is the dried up bed of the North Sea. When Valentine catches up and learns that Tom knows who the girl was he pushes him off too. But Neither Tom nor Hester die and the book is about them trying to get back to London and Tom helping Hester with her problems. Meanwhile the Mayor of London has big plans, very big, which in an ancient "Sixty Minute War" weapon called MEDUSA and the last static settlements on earth. It is an absolute MUST READ and is impossible to find boring due to the fast plot development. I would recommend it to ages 10 and think it is one of the most ingenius story lines ever.

By Kit Livsey