Infernal Devices (The Hungry City Chronicles) - Hardcover

Reeve, Philip

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0060826355 ISBN 13: 9780060826352

Publisher: HarperTeen, 2006

Synopsis

Nearly twenty years after the city of Anchorage settled down on the shores of the Dead Continent of America, Tom and Hester are leading quiet, peaceful lives. Their wild adventures happened so long ago that they seem like little more than stories told to children -- children such as their own daughter, Wren, who is so exquisitely bored that she'd welcome any sort of excitement. . . .

So when a trio of Lost Boys asks her to steal the mysterious and deadly Tin Book of Anchorage, Wren is only too happy to help. But the theft goes wrong, and the Lost Boys steal Wren, too, leaving Tom and Hester no choice: They must abandon their peaceful life and rescue their daughter. Their search will reunite them with enemies they thought they'd left behind forever, will ask of them sacrifices that no parent can make, and will cost one of them everything that matters most.

About this title

About the Author:

Philip Reevewas born in Brighton, England. Inspired by the Asterix and Tintin books he loved as a boy, he became a cartoonist and, many years later, the illustrator of several highly successful children's book series in the United Kingdom. He has been writing since he was five, but mortal engines, the first book in the Hungry City Chronicles, was his first published novel. He has since followed that with Predator's Gold, Infernal Devices, and the Victorian space opera Larklight. Mr. Reeve lives on Dartmoor with his wife, Sarah, and their son, Samuel.

From School Library Journal:

Grade 8 Up–Mortal Engines (HarperCollins, 2003) hit the scene like a lightning bolt, with its strikingly original vision of large traction cities moving across a post-apocalyptic landscape, gobbling up smaller municipalities and dismantling them for spare parts. Infernal Devices, the third book in the series, picks up the action almost 20 years after Predator's Gold (HarperCollins, 2004). Tom and Hester have settled in safe Anchorage-in-Vineland with their teenage daughter. Wren, however, thinks that Anchorage is a tad too remote and longs to have adventures like her parents. Opportunity presents itself when a mysterious submarine carrying a group of Lost Boys arrives in Vineland and their leader recruits Wren to steal a mysterious Tin Book. She is kidnapped and sold as a slave. While Tom and Hester set out to rescue her, others, including former adversary Anna Fang, resurrected as the evil robot Stalker Fang, also try to get the book. Reeve keeps the multiple plots moving with surprises, tragedy, and multiple betrayals, and while at first the pacing seems a bit off as the action moves from one group to the next, things speed up by the second half of the book. The final showdown that brings the various threads of plot and all the major characters together is breathtaking. The open-ended conclusion more than begs for an immediate sequel.–Tim Wadham, Maricopa County Library District, Phoenix, AZ
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About this edition

• Publisher: HarperTeen
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0060826355
• ISBN 13: 9780060826352
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 368