At the end of Fever Crumb, young engineer-trained Fever left her home in London with two young orphans in tow, hitching a ride with a traveling theater barge. Two years later, she is still traveling with the theater company, acting as the group’s lighting and effects specialist, using her technical skills. It’s not the life she’d expected, but she’s getting along fine. When the barge makes a stop in Mayda, a port city, 16-year-old Fever gets to know some of the locals, including one elusive young man she has to track down in his family home, after hearing about his experiments making flying machines.

Of course, Fever is not the only one looking for the inventor. There are others who have reason to either exploit his work or destroy it, but Fever just wants to help him. All she knows is that her new friend should succeed in recapturing the ancients’ ability to fly.

Fever Crumb introduced the future civilization inhabiting London and the beginnings of the city’s mobility, and I would have expected this book to continue right in that thread. So I was a bit surprised by the seemingly different direction this story took, only referring to London and what’s happening there from a distance. I am now looking forward to the third book in these prequels to see how this storyline fits into the whole picture. Either way, it’s still a fascinating story, and I’ll probably want to read The Hungry City Chronicles after finishing these prequels.

Rated: Mild, for some mild language and some violence.