Book Review: ‘Night Flights’ by Philip Reeve

Night Flights is a stand-alone Mortal Engines spin-off book by Philip Reeve. It features a collection of three brand-new short stories which focus on the life of one of Reeve’s original characters: Anna Fang.

Straightaway I loved that each story was set during a different part of Anna’s life. Even through these brief snapshots we see Anna grow as a person and understand how she becomes the cunning yet brilliant Anti-Traction League agent first introduced in Mortal Engines.

Reeve takes care to ensure each of the three stories is distinctive with its own style and memorable group of characters. Night Flights is also the only book in the series to be illustrated. Ian McQue’s drawings are a fantastic addition to the book and they helped me to really appreciate the scale of this post-apocalypse world.

Frozen Heart

For fans of Mortal Engines, ‘Frozen Heart’ depicts what really happened during the most well-known part of Anna’s backstory – her childhood as a slave aboard Arkangel, building her airship the Jenny Haniver, and the infatuation of Stilton Kael.

The events of ‘Frozen Heart’ were hinted at several times in the original books – meaning that this short story had the difficult job of meeting reader expectations whilst also being an enjoyable story in its own right. Reeve achieves this balance very well and manages to convey a detailed plot within what is a relatively brief story. It features great character development moments for Anna and a few surprises for both new and long-time readers.

‘Frozen Heart’ is possibly my favourite of the three stories. It was exciting to finally read about this big event that had influenced so much of the original Quartet.

Traction City Blues

Deep in London’s lowest tiers, a monster is on the loose. Anna is a new member of the Anti-Traction League and wants to recruit the creature to her cause – assuming she can evade the local constabulary and the claws of this lethal predator.

Moving away from the love and betrayal of ‘Frozen Heart’, ‘Traction City Blues’ is a crime noir set in the city’s underbelly with gangsters, law enforcement, tales of murder, and mysterious shadowy figures.

Within this very atmospheric story it was great to see a younger Anna at the start of her journey as a League agent. While still quick-witted it was interesting to see Anna armed with the confidence of youth rather than experience. After some rash decision-making and very near-misses, it’s clear to see how the future Anna Fang grew from the events of this story.

Teeth of the Sea

Now a trusted agent of the League, Anna is sent to the island of Pulau Pinang to investigate if the nation’s recently widowed Sultana is consorting with traction cities and assassinate her if necessary. However the island holds a far greater secret than anyone realises.

In ‘Teeth of the Sea’ Reeve shows his skill by turning a throwaway line in Mortal Engines into an entire short story. With elements of a mystery/detective drama, the reader and Anna must both try and work out the truth in regards to the Sultana’s motives.

Of the three stories, this is the one which focuses the most on world building and showing long-time readers a new civilisation and way of surviving in this town-eat-town-world. No spoilers but ‘Teeth of the Sea’ does feature one of the most fascinating constructions in the entire extended series!

*

Night Flights is one of those books that is sure to be loved by long-time fans but also feels accessible to new readers – especially those who have just started Mortal Engines. It’s a great book for any Anna Fang fans. I enjoyed all three stories and the different genres included in the collection mean there is something for everyone to enjoy.

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