[openbook booknumber=”0060082070″]
Mortal Engines is the first book in the Hungry City Chronicles. They’re set about 2000 years in the future. Sometime in the near future, there is a Sixty Minutes’ War. This wreaks enough havoc (kills the continent of North America and creates a chain of volcanos in Europe) that after a few hundred years, some folks cut up some cities and put them on treads with massive engines. Municipal Darwinism is the idea that all cities should be on treads and mobile, and stronger, more worthy cities will run down the weaker ones and salvage their parts and inhabitants.
Add in airships, Old Tech, and the fact that at least one civilization bloomed and died between modern day and the world in Mortal Engines, and you’ve got the setting.
If you liked Airborn, you will likely like this. The characters are a little more three-dimensional than in Airborn.