Fever Crumb Review

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Fever Crumb ReviewFever Crumb is a prequel of sorts to Philip Reeve's fantastic Hungry Cities/Mortal Engines series. I say "of sorts" in that it's set in the pre-history of the Hungry Cities world but far back enough in time that Fever Crumb doesn't act as a direct lead-in to the larger series, but rather sets up the major concepts and incipient events of that series rather than give us more of the same characters. Though it's set earlier, I'd still recommend beginning with the later books because while I enjoyed Fever, the Mortal Engines books have a much stronger impact (think starting the Narnia series with The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe vs. The Magician's Nephew)
In the later series, cities are large, mobile monstrosities that war with one another in order to gain needed resources, one city devouring another. It's an annex or be-annexed world. In Fever Crumb, though, London is still geographically bound to one place, though smaller localities have taken up the nomadic life and one such alliance from the North--The Movement--appears on the horizon seemingly ready to invade. People are clearly on edge, especially as it wasn't all that long ago that there had been a violent uprising in London against the Scriven, the long-lived and seemingly inhuman tyrannical overlords who had ruled over London for centuries. All the Scriven were killed or driven out, but the memory of death and violence is still fresh, as is resentment toward anything remotely "other."
Fever is a young woman, a foundling brought up by Doctor Crumb in the uber-rational guild of Engineers who consider emotions silly and hindrances to logical living (they live, fittingly enough, in a giant head). The book mostly begins when Fever is sent out to work on an archaeological dig with Kit Solent, who is looking into secrets possibly buried beneath the home of the last Scriven overlord.
Clearly Reeve is going to be working several plots here. One is the simple suspense of the encroaching Movement--what do they want? Is it an invasion or something different? Will London fight or not? Another is the suspense regarding the dig--what, if anything, will they uncover? Will uncovering it be a good or bad thing? Yet a third is Fever's slow discovery of the truth of her lost background. Still focused on Fever, Reeve also explores her growing conflict between the rational, emotion-free approach she's spent near her whole life with and her newly-awakened sense of the emotional life. There are side-plots and mysteries as well surrounding several other characters: Doctor Crumb, Kit Solent, the old man who killed the last Scriven overlord and who remains ever vigilant, the old man's young apprentice in Scriven-hunting (called "skinning" for reasons you might imagine), and an ambitious tavern owner seeking to use the unrest to his own ends.
The characters are all pretty complex, even those that don't get a lot of page time. It'd be tough to accuse any of them save one or two of being "stock" types and those that are play a pretty minimal role. But from Fever to Kit to the old man and his apprentice, Reeve has created complicated, human, fully fleshed out characters.
The story does sometimes (not often and not for long) lag here and there--I would have argued for a stronger edit of Fever's back-story for instance--, but while I wouldn't call it "gripping" it mostly it pulls you along quickly and smoothly as you're eager to learn what happens. You'll also enjoy many of the mangled bits and pieces of our time that get sprinkled into the language of Fever's era, though a few times these felt a little forced. And there are just some wonderful bits of creative imagery here that I won't spoil, though it's tempting to rave about one in particular.
While not quite as strong as the Mortal Engines books, Fever Crumb stands well enough on its own and is certainly worth a read, even for those unfamiliar with the series. But as mentioned, while I recommend reading Fever, I strongly recommend doing so after picking up the series, not so much for plot as for a stronger introduction to Reeve's writing. If for some reason you don't and find you're not enamored with Fever, don't let it prevent you from trying the series.Fever Crumb Overview

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