Book Review: Infernal Devices by Philip Reeve (Mortal Engines Quartet #3)

Here we’re having a look at the third book of the Hungry Cities/Mortal Engines Quartet! Join me as we take a look at the continued adventures of Tom, Hester and others. Spoiler alert!

Sixteen years after settling in Anchorage, Wren, the daughter of Hester and Tom, embarks on an unexpected adventure as she steals something called the Tin Book and gives it to what she sees as a dashing pirate, after going with him. Tom and Hester go looking for her, and wind up in another big adventure.

The plot was interesting enough. I kept wondering where it kept going, and being surprised.

The pacing was also quite good, with it keeping moving forward at the right pace for the most part. While I did feel like it sometimes dragged a bit, it still kept me engaged enough and want to keep going.

The characters are probably the biggest issues I have with this book. In the first two books I praised the main characters, Tom and Hester. They were for the most part enjoyable and realistic-feeling, flawed characters.

Tom still feels like himself in this book. However, Hester, one of my absolute favourites before, I lowkey couldn’t stand in this one. She was jealous of her own daughter and killed more and more people. She even ends up abandoning her husband and Wren, rather than talking things out with them. I just feel like this book did her dirty. Whether or not she’ll redeem herself in the final book we’ll have to see once I get to that.

Wren is also a character I simply couldn’t get into. She was an absolute brat throughout most of the book, and I simply could not bring myself to care about her, other than “Tom and Hester will be sad if something happens to her”.

Something I did enjoy was the return of Shrike in this book, as he’s my favourite character. He and Theo were the only one I did really care about in this story.

I feel like this is the weakest book of the Hungry Cities quartet I’ve read so far. It’s still decent, but in comparison to the previous two books, I think this one is the worst so far. I gave the first book five stars, the second four, so I’ll have to give this one three. Check it out if you feel so inclined, but I'm not a big fan of the direction the series is heading into. We'll see how things end in the fourth and final book!

Rating: 3/5