Infernal Devices (Reeve)
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| Author | Philip Reeve |
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| Cover artist | David Frankland |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Series | Hungry City Chronicles |
| Genre(s) | Steampunk, Science fiction, Young adult novel |
| Publisher | Scholastic Press |
| Released | 2005 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover & Paperback) |
| Pages | 336 pages |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-439-96393-1 |
| Preceded by | Predator's Gold |
| Followed by | A Darkling Plain |
Infernal Devices is the third of four books in Philip Reeve's children's series, the Hungry City Chronicles.
Contents |
[edit] Setting
[edit] Anchorage
The story continues sixteen years after the events of Predator's Gold. The peaceful city of Anchorage is now a static settlement called "Anchorage in Vineland" on an island in the Dead Continent. During those peaceful years, Tom and Hester have raised a teenage daughter named Wren Natsworthy.
[edit] Green Storm
Under the Stalker Fang, formerly the famous Anti-Tractionist hero Anna Fang, the Green Storm has been waging war against the Traction Cities for fourteen years. At first, the Storm seemed to be winning the war against the moving cities. However, the cities began to fight back, and alliances were formed between several cities, including the Traktionstadtsgesellschaft, an alliance of German speaking cities.
The Green Storm has legions of soldiers and Stalkers, fighter airships called "Murasaki Fox Spirits" and "Zhang Chen Hawkmoths", which are vast air destroyers and carriers. Apparently, the Stalker Fang regards her military forces expendable, which makes her unpopular among many other leaders of the Storm. This is evident by the use of "Tumblers" - one-manned craft used to ram Traction Cities in kamikaze missions. The Green Storm also has an elite branch of its military called the "Resurrection Corps", who are responsible for resurrecting dead bodies into Stalkers for the war effort.
[edit] Plot summary
The story begins sixteen years after the events of Predator's Gold, in the grounded Ice City of Anchorage, now "Anchorage-In-Vineland". Wren Natsworthy, the child of Tom Natsworthy and Hester Shaw is bored with her life in the sleepy static of Anchorage in Vineland, and jumps at the chance to join the Lost Boys, who have turned up on the island in search of a mysterious Rasmussen family artefact named the "Tin Book", which is a copy of a document from the Sixty Minute War, found by the original founders of the New Anchorage on an old American Empire nuclear submarine. The Tin Book, bearing the insignia of the President of the United States of America, contains the activation codes for the final remaining orbital weapons platform left over from the Sixty Minute War, potentially with firepower far greater than that of "MEDUSA", the energy weapon that destroyed the traction city of London in Mortal Engines. The Lost Boys persuade Wren to give them the Tin Book, and to join them on their journeys around the world. Wren agrees since she is bored by life on the peaceful static. However, tragedy strikes when Hester Shaw opens fire on the limpet (vehicles used by the Lost Boys) which is taking her away, killing two Lost Boys, and effectively ruining Wren's chances of returning home. Wren is taken to Grimsby, but the limpet's crew is diverted en route by a transmission from the raft resort of Brighton intended to lure limpets to the city, to be sold as slaves. Wren manipulates her way to being sold as a slave to Nimrod Pennyroyal, now Mayor of Brighton. Tom and Hester set sail with Caul in the Screw Worm to Grimsby to save Wren, unaware that she has been diverted to Brighton. Caul, upon returning to Grimsby, just bombed by Brighton's depth charges, defects once more to the lost boys. However, Uncle is killed when Caul tries to let Hester and Tom escape, and so Caul and Freya take the remaining Lost Boys not killed by the depth charges back to Anchorage on a spare cargo submarine, while Tom and Hester head to Brighton.
At Brighton, Tom is captured as a slave, and Hester sets the slaves in the city free to create a distraction so she can free him, resulting in pandemonium. Meanwhile, the Green Storm attacks the city, in search of the Tin Book. Stalker Fang succeeds in obtaining the Tin Book, and memorises the codes. However, shortly afterwards she is attacked by the once again resurrected Stalker Shrike, who succeeds in tearing her apart. Wren lands with the severed Cloud 9 section of Brighton at an unspecified place in Africa, and is found by Tom and Hester. However, after having spoken with Pennyroyal, Wren discovers that Hester was the one who sold Anchorage to Arkangel in Predator's Gold. After Wren tells this to Tom, Hester flees into the burning wreckage of Cloud 9 in despair, believing her life with him is over. Once within the complex, she encounters Shrike, who carries her out into the Sahara Desert.
In the desert, the Stalker Fang's still functioning severed head and body are found by a Lost Boy called Fishcake, who agrees to help rebuild her.
