Book Review: ‘Scrivener’s Moon’ by Philip Reeve

Scrivener’s Moon is the third and final book in Philip Reeve’s prequel series to his Mortal Engines Quartet. The book features exciting action and chase scenes, wonderful character interactions, and great moments of development for this new group of characters to Reeve’s post-apocalypse world.

Fever returns to London where her parents are both senior engineers overseeing the city’s transformation into a fully working traction city. After hearing of an ancient pyramid that may contain important technological and historical artifacts, Fever and her mother Wavey set off to investigate. Before they can complete the journey Fever is injured and captured by a powerful Nomad tribe. After falling in love with Cluny Morvish the two young women must do everything they can to stop London and the Nomads from destroying each other.

The seventh book published in the extended series, Reeve shows his readers and long-time fans of Mortal Engines that there is still so much to explore and discover. While Nomad tribes have been mentioned in previous instalments, Scrivener’s Moon is the first book to properly show what life is like inside one of these tribes.

The return to London means we see the how the original traction city has evolved since we last saw it in Fever Crumb. A long way from the industrial behemoth introduced in Mortal Engines, this 1.0 version of London focuses on practicality and a logical design – in essence it is a carefully planned science experiment. This makes sense as the project is overseen by Dr Crumb and his Order of Engineers. Only when London is threatened by the Nomad tribes does the need for power and strength become a factor. As a fan of the series it was exciting to read Reeve’s descriptions of this early London and be able to picture which elements of the city would progress for better or worse over the centuries.

Speaking of Dr Crumb, Scrivener’s Moon transforms the previously caring and endearingly awkward character into one of the novel’s main antagonists. The change happens gradually throughout the story with Crumb turning as cold-hearted as one of his machines as he rejects emotion in favour of pure rational thought – London will work, no matter what. It was chilling to see Crumb become the archetype for London’s future engineers and heart-breaking as Fever reacts to losing the only father figure in her life.

A strong theme in the novel is identity. Despite spending most of her life in London, Fever’s time away has allowed her to see the world differently and to know what it feels like to be her own person. Throughout the story we see her yo-yo between the old links she formed with the city and her parents and the new bonds she is making with the Nomads and Cluny. In the end she is forced to choose where she wants to belong.

I was very excited when Scrivener’s Moon gave us one of the biggest lore drops of any book in the series. The novel unexpectantly reveals both the origin of the Scriven and gives insight into how one group of scientists tried to ensure the continuation of the human race around the time of the series’ historical sixty-minute war. We see locations and ideas hinted at in the original Quartet. I love the world Reeve has created and I hugely enjoyed these backstory moments.

Scrivener’s Moon acts as the unplanned ending to Reeve’s prequel series; with the author stating he feels too much time has passed for the inclusion of a fourth novel. Despite its slightly open ending, I feel Scrivener’s Moon does actually work as a concluding novel. True not everything is wrapped up as absolutely as the Quartet’s final book A Darkling Plain was but I don’t mind this. London succeeds in becoming a working traction city which parallels New London’s maiden voyage at the end of A Darkling Plain. After battling with her identity throughout the prequel novels, Scrivener’s Moon ends with Fever making a choice on the type of person she wants to be.

With so many elements incorporated into the plot, Scrivener’s Moon is fast-paced and exciting. While I wish the Mortal Engines expanded series would continue forever, this novel ensures that it ends on a high. For fans we luckily have the non-fiction book The Illustrated World of Mortal Engines which hints to some of the events which occurred during the early days of the Traction Era.

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