Fever Crumb

Starred review from February 15, 2010
In this exciting steampunk adventure, Carnegie Medal–winner Reeve takes readers to a far future that looks back at our era with a darkly humorous sensibility (how's “Blog off,” for an expletive?), while laying tantalizing groundwork for his Hungry City Chronicles quartet. Fever Crumb, a 14-year-old orphan, is the only girl ever accepted into the Order of Engineers and has been raised in seclusion by obsessively logical scientists in an enormous head, part of an unfinished statue of London's deposed ruler, the hated mutant “Scriven,” Auric Godshawk. But Fever's thoroughly rational nature is thrown into flux when she's sent into the bustling, violent city on her first job, working for an eccentric archeologist who may have discovered Godshawk's secret cache of scientific inventions. As invaders near the city's outer perimeter, the streets of London erupt in mob violence, and Fever finds herself proclaimed a mutant and pursued by an implacable enemy. Beautifully written, grippingly paced, and filled with eccentric characters and bizarre inventions (such as foldable assassins made of paper), this is a novel guaranteed to please Reeve's fans—and very likely broaden their ranks. Ages 12–up.

Starred review from April 1, 2010
Gr 5-7-Reeve's "Hungry City Quartet" (HarperCollins) remains a landmark of visionary steampunk imagination, with a future where traction cities roll about chasing down smaller cities, which they devour for parts in an exercise called Municipal Darwinism. Returning to this future, Reeve gives readers a story that takes place decades before the rise of the traction cities and examines the social and political milieu that led to that major societal change. Fever Crumb is the adopted daughter of Dr. Crumb, and the only female member of the Order of Engineers. Taken from the safety of the Order into the streets of London, Fever discovers a world where bands of Skinners have virtually exterminated a mutant race of people with speckled skin known as the Scriven. Suspected of being a Scriven herself, Fever must elude capture while she searches to find out who she really is. The answers she finds have far-reaching implications for the future of the world. Reeve is not just an excellent writer, but a creator with a wildly imaginative mind. The future London setting of this story is well imagined and feels like a place Charles Dickens might have described had he been a science-fiction writer. Plot details such as the origin story of the resurrected cyborg Stalker Shrike will resonate with fans of the earlier titles, but this book can also be read independently by those who are new to Reeve's work. A must for any fantasy collection."Tim Wadham, St. Louis County Library, MO"

Copyright 2010 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from January 1, 2010
Grades 6-9 *Starred Review* Set some centuries before the Hungry City Chronicles, yet still well into the future, this prequel series opener stars young Fever Crumb, reared by the Order of Engineers in the massive head of an unfinished statue, to operate with a slavish devotion to logic. (In one delightful scene, a group of engineers pours out of the heads nostril door like a highly educated sneeze). Uncertain of her heritage, as well as the source of the memories invading her mind, Fever embarks on a rather typical quest of discovery with anything-but-typical trimmings. London is a nearly medieval backwater, where relics of ancient technology hint at a time thousands of years ago when people still understood how to make circuit boards and microchips. Reeves captivating flights of imagination play as vital a role in the story as his endearing heroine, hissworthy villains, and nifty array of supporting characters. Although theres all manner of foundation work to gratify readers familiar with the world introduced in 2003s Mortal Engines (including the genesis of Municipal Darwinism and the origins of a very familiar figure), Reeve has crafted a swiftly paced story worthy of standing alone, both in terms of where Fevers adventure may lead her next as well as the connections to the Hungry City Chronicles. It may not be possible for Reeve to ever fully explore this world, but that shouldnt keep him from trying, hopefully in many books to come.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)

July 1, 2010
Fans of Reeve's Hungry City Chronicles will find plenty to treasure here, but newcomers won't be left behind: Fever Crumb has lots of mysterious origins, technological wonders, and sociopolitical complexities. Touches of whimsy balance high-minded themes, and orphan Fever is a sterling example of Reeve's ability to depict the universals of human nature as shaped by an utterly foreign set of social conventions and conditions.

(Copyright 2010 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

March 1, 2010
Reeve opens with an orphan abandoned, Moses-style, in a basket; the construction of soldier boys from paper; and the skins of long-defeated mutant overlords flapping like flags in the breeze -- and that's just the beginning. Fever Crumb, the aforementioned orphan, has been raised by London's Order of Engineers to be rational above all else. Her first assignment puts that to the test, as her new colleague, archaeologist Kit Solent, reveals her connection to his project: she has been implanted with the memories of deceased inventor Auric Godshawk, a Scrivener (a mutated strain of humanity) and the former ruler of London. One vigilante's belief that Fever herself is a reviled Scrivener; the imminent arrival of a prototypical, conquest-bent traction city; and Kit's excavation of a long-buried secret converge in the kind of intricate, inevitable climax that characterized Reeve's Hungry City Chronicles (Mortal Engines, rev. 11/03). Fans of that series will find plenty of treasurable nuggets (including the genesis of the Stalker Grike) in this snapshot of the birth of Municipal Darwinism, but newcomers won't be left behind: Fever Crumb has mysterious origins, technological wonders, and sociopolitical complexities all its own. Touches of whimsy balance the high-minded themes, and if Fever is no iconic Hester, she is nevertheless a sterling example of Reeve's ability to depict the universals of human nature as shaped by an utterly foreign set of social conventions and conditions -- and to bring that society vividly to life.

(Copyright 2010 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)