Gone Fishing; Mortal Engines

Gone Fishing : Ocean Life by the Numbers (591.77) by David McLimans, 2008
Nature & Environment (Ocean life)
Picture book
Rating : Loved
Told in black, white, and blue, this book is about ocean life that is endangered or in danger of becoming endangered. On each page, the author illustrates a member of the featured species in a fanciful interpretive style to represent the numerals 1-10, and then includes a realistic sketching and some basic facts about the species’ class, habitat, aquatic regions, treats, and status. The front half is black and white on a blue background and counts from 1 to 10, while the second half is blue and white on a black background and counts from 10 to 1. The middle spread includes ocean facts by the numbers – exponents of 10 from 100 to 109. At the end, the author includes more information about each featured species and more stats about our oceans.

I’ve looked at a lot of number books this year, and this one is as good as any I’ve seen. It is a great introduction to ocean life, habitat threats, digits, powers of 10, and statistical information.



Mortal Engines (Hungry City Chronicles, book 1) by Philip Reeve, 2001
Science Fiction
Adventure & Espionage
Rating : Liked / Loved
Set in a post-apocryphal world where America is a waste land and most technologies are lost, cities travel about on giant tank tracks and practice Municipal Darwinism where larger cities consume smaller ones, stripping them of their resources and using their inhabitants as slaves. London, one of the great traction cities, has left its self-imposed exile and returned to the hunting grounds. Organized by guilds – Engineers, Historians, Navigators, Merchants – Tom Natsworthy, a Third Class Apprentice in the Historian guild, saves his hero, Thaddeus Valentine (archeologist and head of the Historian guild), from a murder attempt by a mysterious and severely disfigured girl, Hester Shaw, only to find himself thrown from the city and stranded with Hester in the Out Country. As they struggle to follow the city, they encounter slave dealers, an aviatrix and anti-tractionist Anna Fang, a floating city AirHaven, a Resurrected man or stalker, a pirate city called Tunbridge Wheels led by Peavey who wants Tom’s help to become a gentleman, an island city that defeats Tunbridge Wheels, and the Shield Wall that protects anti-traction cities from the hunting grounds and rivals the beauty of London – experiences that make Tom question his ideas about Municipal Darwinism and form a strong connection with Hester. Told in alternating chapters is the story of Katherine, Valentine’s daughter, who slowly learns the truth about her father and the Lord Mayor’s plans to destroy the wall and open up new hunting grounds. Tom and Hester working from without and Katherine and her Apprentice Engineer ally Bevis Pod working from within, the two stories come together at the end when the evil designs of London’s rulers blow up in their faces.

I like science fiction, and this one is no exception. The universe of the story is well crafted, and the characters are engaging. I liked it enough to pick up the sequel, something I don’t always do, but my rating hovers between Liked and Loved because it didn’t completely absorb me.