content such as the city politics that Reeve thought would not be interesting to children. The Mortal Engines world was originally written as an alternative universe set in the early 1900s, but Reeve has stated this turned out to require just too much explaining as how and where history could have diverged. He was inspired to start then due to The War of the Worlds. Critical reception At Goodreads, Mortal Engines has a score of 3.92 out of 5. Publishers Weekly praised the book, calling it "staggering feat of engineering ... [that] ... offers new wonders at every turn". Adaptation A film adaptation by Peter Jackson was announced in 2009. In October 2016, Jackson announced that the film would be his next project as producer and co-writer, alongside long-time collaborators Fran Walsh (also his wife) and Philippa Boyens. The film was directed by Jackson's long-time collaborator Christian Rivers. The film premiered on 27 November 2018. It was released in the UK on 7 December 2018 and on 14 December 2018 in the US. It received generally negative reviews and was a commercial failure. It was criticized for changing the book's climax and ending, removing the book's social commentary and satire, and its portrayal of Hester Shaw as a more traditionally heroic character. However, the design of the traction cities and Robert Sheehan's performance were praised. On November 18, 2020, upon asked whether Mortal Engines would be rebooted for television, Reeve responded that, while that would be nice, it seemed unlikely. Legacy Critics have suggested that the 2019 Amazon Prime Video series Carnival Row is influenced by the Mortal Engines series of novels, amongst other influences. See also Mortal Engines Quartet References Citations External links Official website Goodreads SF Site review Reading Matters review Mortal Engines 2001 British novels 2001 science fiction novels British steampunk novels British young adult novels Novels by Philip Reeve Novels set in London Post-apocalyptic novels post-apocalyptic Children's science fiction novels Predator Cities Debut speculative fiction novels British novels adapted into films 2001 debut novels Scholastic Corporation books