Audiobook Review – Mortal Engines (The Hungry City Chronicles, Book 1) by Philip Reeves, narrated by Barnaby Edwards (4/5 stars)

Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Steampunk
Length: 8 hours and 57 minutes (320 pages)
Publisher: Scholastic Audio
Release Date: November 1, 2003
ASIN: B076Q132R1
Stand Alone or Series: 1st book in the Hungry City Chronicles
Source: Audiobook from Audible.com
Rating: 4/5 stars

“Welcome to the astounding world of Predator Cities!

Emerging from its hiding place in the hills, the great Traction City is chasing a terrified little town across the wastelands. Soon, London will feed.

In the attack, Tom Natsworthy is flung from the speeding city with a murderous scar-faced girl. They must run for their lives through the wreckage – and face a terrifying new weapon that threatens the future of the world.”

This is the first book in the Hungry City Chronicles, there are four books in this series. I was really excited to read this book; I thought it was something I was going to absolutely love. It ended up being okay but wasn’t as engaging as I had hoped.

I listened to this on audiobook and the narration was well done. Edwards does a great job with having distinct voices for each character and with portraying emotion. It’s a book I would recommend listening to if you like audiobooks.

Part of my issue with this book was all the jumping around between characters; this made it so I never really engaged with any of the characters that well. When I finally really started getting into the story it jumped somewhere else.

The idea of cities that eat each other for resources is incredibly creative but I had some trouble suspending my disbelief about how this all worked. This was just a concept that was hard for me to process and really envision.

The characters were all so-so for me. They were kind of interesting but not all that engaging.

Overall this was an okay read but I don’t plan on continuing the series. I just wasn’t that engaged in the story or the characters. The idea behind this alternate world is interesting but hard to find believable. I’ll be seeking out other steampunk series to read in the future.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
– Mount TBR Reading Challenge
– Audiobook Reading Challenge
– You Read How Many Books? Reading Challenge
– Flights of Fantasy Reading Challenge
– Steampunk Reading Challenge
– YA Reading Challenge