The Sword and Laser discussion
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Mortal Engines
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ME: Full Spoiler and Review Thread
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Great review that nicely sums up what I was thinking. Overall I enjoyed it and the book was definitely a quick read. But the ending seemed a bit rushed and just felt like it could have been much better. I'm really curious now how the upcoming movie version will play out the climax.
In general I enjoyed the book. (view spoiler)[ At the outset, the obvious romantic set-up of the outsider and the insider seemed very telegraphed, but I didn't feel like it detracted from the story. I also liked that both Tom and Katherine branched out of their league for romance, albeit somewhat ham-handed and haltingly for Katherine and Pod. Ah, young love...
I really laughed out loud when the Historians shouted, "We've won!" just before the city exploded. It was a very stiff-upper-lip, if-we-need-to-win-some-need-to-lose moment. Cap would be proud.
I also liked the lack of a clear "Right" side. The Traction Cities went around destroying things, the Anti-Tractionist went around destroying things, and though I felt kind of pushed to sympathize more with the Anti-Tractionists the book never flat-out demands that we view London as EVIL and the nameless, undefined whatever to the east of the wall as GOOD. We know nothing about whatever civilization exists there, and we have only Crome's maniacal rant near the end about devouring everything on the planet and then beyond to judge his view of the ultimate goal of the Traction-centered society.
However, I felt the ending was a bit off. Like when you look at Raiders of the Lost Ark and realize that it would have ended the same whether or not Indiana Jones did anything in the whole movie, it seemed like the destruction of MEDUSA and thus London were basically predetermined and nothing Tom, Hester, Katherine or Pod did contributed in any meaningful way to it. I suppose a case can be made that the power of Katherine's selfless love for life and thus her moral opposition to her father is what ultimately caused the distraction that led to MEDUSA's meltdown, and Good triumphs over Evil without resorting to Evil's methods, but that feels like a thin thread after all everyone went through to reach that point. I didn't feel like that moral (if indeed that was the moral) was emphasized at any time until the very end, and without some foreshadowing it seems to fall flat. In the end, Tom was just a cab driver to get Hester to London. Hester did nothing but get caught. Pod simply had to die for...reasons. And Katherine just plucked her father's heartstrings long enough to delay a code entry. I don't know what I wanted, maybe an Ocean's 11 (or 12, or 13, or 8) -style team-up where everyone's strengths and weaknesses that they've developed over the entire novel contributed to the win? But whatever I wanted, I didn't get it. (hide spoiler)]