Mortal Engines

In a post-apocalyptic future, cities have become vast mobile predators on wheels. London, a towering traction city, chases and devours smaller towns for their resources in a process called Municipal Darwinism. Young apprentice Tom Natsworthy is thrown from London’s upper tiers alongside Hester Shaw, a scarred girl bent on revenge against the city’s most powerful man. Together they must survive the wastelands and uncover a conspiracy that could destroy everything.

Why This One

Mortal Engines takes steampunk’s core fascination with Victorian-era technology and industrialism and pushes it to a spectacular extreme. The concept of predator cities consuming smaller settlements is one of the most striking images in the genre, and Reeve uses it to explore themes of imperialism, resource exploitation, and the myth of progress. The world-building is inventive and detailed, full of airships, mechanical weapons, and the remnants of a lost civilization.

Originally published as a young adult novel, Mortal Engines reads just as well for adults. The prose is sharp and efficient, the characters are complex, and the story does not shy away from consequences. Reeve won the Nestl Smarties Gold Award and the Blue Peter Book of the Year for this novel, and it was later adapted into a film produced by Peter Jackson.

What to Expect

A fast, inventive adventure with real emotional stakes. At 296 pages, it is the shortest book on this list and the quickest entry point into steampunk fiction. The world-building unfolds naturally through the action rather than through exposition. Expect a story that is more exciting than cozy, with a few genuinely shocking moments.