A Darkling Plain is the fourth and final novel in the Mortal Engines Quartet series written by Philip Reeve.
The novel won the 2006 Guardian Award and the 2007 Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Young Adult Fiction.
Setting
The book is set six months after Infernal Devices. Wren Natsworthy and her father Tom Natsworthy have taken to the skies in their airship, the Jenny Haniver. After the apparent death of the Stalker Fang at the end of Infernal Devices, General Naga has seized command of the Green Storm and has signed a peace treaty between the Green Storm and the Traktionstadtsgesellschaft, ushering in a new era of peace and trade. Whilst Wren is enjoying life as an aviator, Tom misses Hester, and has been informed by a doctor that his weak heart means he only has a few years left to live. The Lost Boy, Fishcake, is secretly repairing the Stalker Fang, coming to regard her as the mother he never had. Theo Ngoni has returned to Zagwa and rejoined his family.
Title
The title is derived from Matthew Arnold's poem Dover Beach. This excerpt of the poem appears at the beginning of the book:
"Ah, love, let us be true
To one another! for the world, which seems
To lie before us like a land of dreams,
So various, so beautiful so new,
Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,
Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;
And we are here as on a darkling plain
Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight
Where ignorant armies clash by night."
– Matthew Arnold , Dover Beach
This relates to the novel in several ways. The characters are indeed swept about, often against their will, by the "ignorant armies" of the Green Storm and Traktionstadtsgesellschaft, on the "darkling plain" of the Great Hunting Ground.
Reeve references his choice of title himself towards the end of the book when the character Nimrod Pennyroyal writes a book within a book titled Ignorant Armies.
Plot summary
Part One
Theo Ngoni foils an attempt to murder the now Oenone Naga, General Naga's wife. Oenone suspects that the murder attempt was organized by factions in the Green Storm still loyal to the Stalker Fang. Theo is made commander of an airship that will secretly deliver Lady Naga back home to Batmunkh Gompa. While flying across the Sahara Desert it is revealed that one of Oenone's retinue is really Cynthia Twite, a secret agent for the Stalker Fang first encountered in Infernal Devices. After murdering the pilot, Twite attempts to kill Lady Naga but is foiled by Theo. She escapes from the airship before a bomb she planted explodes. Theo and Oenone are assumed dead.
Meanwhile, Tom and Wren encounter a face from the past: Clytie Potts, a historian from London who Tom had assumed perished on the night MEDUSA exploded. She goes by a different name and claims to have never met Tom, but he is unsatisfied and follows her to the cities of the Traktionstadtsgesellschaft. Manchester has recently arrived and is encouraging the German cities to abandon the peace treaty and attack the Green Storm again. Here they also encounter Professor Pennyroyal, who assures them that nobody could have survived the destruction of MEDUSA. A young German soldier named Wolf Kobold, however, claims to have seen Potts' airship flying east towards the ruins of London. He tells them of how he once crash-landed in London and witnessed strange activity. Wolf suspects there are survivors living in the ruins of London, who are working on something secret. Tom and Wren agree to travel with him in his burrowing predator suburb Harrowbarrow to investigate.
Meanwhile, Hester Shaw and Shrike (called Grike in US editions), who finds himself unable to kill any humans due to memories unlocked by Dr Zero, have been travelling the Sahara for six months, where they have a chance encounter with Theo. Following the crash, he and Oenone were taken as slaves by a desert town. Hester rescues Theo and shoots several guards. They escape on board Hester and Shrike's sand-ship, killing their pursuers. Theo tells them that Oenone Zero was taken north by a merchant called Napster Varley, and convinces the two to help him rescue her. They sell the sand-ship, buy an airship and travel north.
The Stalker Fang is demanding that Fishcake take her east, back to Shan Guo, so she can activate ODIN. They steal a limpet from Brighton (which, after the events of Infernal Devices, is now ruled by warring gangs of Lost Boys) and travel east, eventually arriving at the mountain Zhan Shan in Central Asia. Throughout this journey, the Stalker faces an internal battle between its warlike side and the remnants of Anna Fang, resulting in a split personality. Fishcake comes to love Anna and hate the Stalker Fang. Eventually Anna gains the upper hand, and Fishcake is delighted. After meeting with Sathya in a hermitage on Zhan Shan, they travel to Batmunkh Gompa to try and find Dr. Popjoy (the Engineer who created her) and force him to remove the Stalker Fang personality permanently.
Meanwhile Cynthia Twite has returned to Tienjing and informed General Naga of Oenone's supposed death. The General despairs and Twite becomes his own servant so that she can infiltrate his government and then topple it from within.
Tom, Wren and Wolf travel across the Green Storm's frontline in Harrowbarrow. They are shocked by his violence when smashing through the line, but still take the Jenny Haniver westwards with him onboard. In the ruins of London they make a startling discovery - survivors are indeed living amongst the ruins, including two people Tom knew from his life on London: Clytie Potts and Chudleigh Pomeroy, who is the new mayor. They are welcomed into the community suspiciously, but Wren thinks the Londoners are hiding something from them.
Fishcake and Anna arrive at Popjoy's villa, but in killing his guards she reverts to her Stalker self, and the plan backfires as she makes Popjoy try and remove the Anna parts of her instead. He tells her he cannot, so she kills him and steals his airship to travel east to activate ODIN, accompanied by a miserable Fishcake.
In the ruins of London, Wren and Wolf make a discovery - the Londoners are concealing a new city called "New London", built to float above the ground using the Ancients' magnetic levitation technology. Wolf escapes from London with this knowledge, intending to return and devour it with Harrowbarrow.
Part Two
Napster Varley arrives in Airhaven, which is floating above the Traktionstadtsgesellschaft, and makes cautious attempts to sell Oenone. Hester, Theo and Shrike arrive shortly afterwards and attempt to buy her back, but they do not have enough money. Hester then finds Pennyroyal hiding in Airhaven, in disgrace and debt after a newspaper exposed him as a fraud. She takes what remains of his money and heads to Varley's ship to buy Oenone back. Pennyroyal realises what she is doing and rounds up a group of troops from Manchester to try to get there first.
Hester attempts to cheat Varley, but is discovered and has to fight her way out. He is killed by his wife and she escapes with Oenone when Pennyroyal and his troops challenge them. A fight ensues, and in the confusion Hester and her party manage to escape on their airship with Oenone. Pennyroyal falls from Airhaven, and is assumed killed, but instead lands in the rigging of Hester's airship and is begrudgingly taken on as a passenger. The five of them make it across no-man's land to a Green Storm airbase, where they are hailed as heroes. The airbase is soon attacked by the Traktionstadtsgesellschaft, however - at the urging of Manchester, the war has begun again. All of them manage to escape in an airship heading east except Theo, who turns back to recover a letter he had from Wren.
Meanwhile the Stalker Fang and Fishcake arrive in Erdene Tezh, her old home. She begins to assemble a powerful radio station to send a signal to ODIN.
Part Three
Theo survives the attack on the airfield and, as the letter from Wren says she intended to explore the ruins of London, he treks east across the plains to find her. He is welcomed into the ruins by the community there and reunited with Wren, but brings bad news that the war has started again. The development of New London is pushed faster, the Londoners eager to escape before the cities of the west arrive.
The Stalker Fang has activated ODIN, however, and turns it on the Traktionstadtsgesellschaft. Manchester and many other cities are completely destroyed, and the surviving cities flee west.
In Tienjing, news of Oenone's survival reaches General Naga. He realises Cynthia Twite had deceived him and confronts her. She is about to kill him when ODIN fires upon the city. Twite is killed instantly but Naga survives. He takes the shattered remnants of his government and flees to Batmunkh Gompa. News of ODIN's destruction reaches the ruins of London. They have no idea it has been turned on Green Storm cities as well, and assume it is a new weapon of Naga's. Tom decides to take the Jenny Haniver east to talk to the General and tell him about New London, and how it will not damage the earth as the other Traction Cities do. He sneaks away in the dead of night, leaving a letter for Wren, confident that Theo and Chudleigh Pomeroy will look after her. In no-man's land, news comes to Harrowbarrow of the destruction of the Traktionstadtsgesellschaft. Wolf is determined to carry on to the ruins of London, and tells his second-in-command that after the Sixty Minute War, the creatures that survived best were cockroaches and rats. He believes that with the old cities gone, the time for creeping places like Harrowbarrow is at hand, and they continue east.
Part Four
On the same night that Tom slipped away, Chudleigh Pomeroy died in his sleep. The new mayor appointed is Mr. Garamond, the paranoid head of security who is convinced that Tom has gone to tell the cities about New London, and that Wren and Theo are traitors. He orders them locked up, but an Engineer (the mother of Bevis Pod) believes he is wrong and frees them in the night. They sneak away west through the debris fields. Tom arrives in Batmunkh Gompa and is taken prisoner by the Green Storm. General Naga speaks to him, but does not believe him about New London. He does, however, believe that something is going on in London's ruins, and becomes suspicious. Hester's party arrive in Batmunkh Gompa to discover that Tienjing has been destroyed. Shrike speculates that perhaps the Green Storm does not control ODIN; that it is instead in the hands of a third party, the Stalker Fang. Hester also learns that Tom is being held captive in the city, and goes to see him. Oenone meets General Naga but he no longer trusts her, and hits her. He still believes ODIN to be a weapon of the Traktionstadtsgesellschaft, and since Oenone wanted the peace treaty, tells her it is her fault. He has her imprisoned and flies to the ruins of London with a fleet of airships. Hester is awkwardly reunited with Tom. She frees him just as Pennyroyal comes back from the audience chamber with Naga; he tells them that Oenone has fallen from grace, and Naga intends to destroy London. Another blast from ODIN strikes just to the south, triggering the volcano of Zhan Shan. Shrike suggests they find ODIN's true ground station and destroy it before any more attacks occur. Leaving the debris fields of London, Wren and Theo encounter Harrowbarrow approaching. Theo runs back to warn the Londoners, as Wren stays and convinces Wolf to lead Harrowbarrow down 'Electric Lane' a clearing where anything metal is struck by lightning from the remnants of MEDUSA. The Green Storm's air fleet then arrive and the Londoners demonstrate New London's levitation to Naga. He decrees that it is not a city, just a "very large, low-flying airship" and decides to help defend them against the approaching predator suburb. Hester, Tom and Shrike fly towards Erdene Tezh, where ODIN's ground station is located. During the journey Hester confesses to Tom that she is Valentine's daughter, and he forgives her for betraying Anchorage. They fall in love again, but are interrupted by Shrike announcing that he has discovered a stowaway: Pennyroyal. As they decide what to do with him, the airship is attacked by Stalker-birds. Shrike defends the ship but falls from it, disappearing down into the mountains. The Jenny Haniver then crashes on the shores of the lake at Erdene Tezh, and the three escape as it burns to ashes. Hester ties up Pennyroyal and leaves him in the bushes as she and Tom approach the house where the ground station is. The Stalker Fang (whose personalities have fused back into one) confronts them. Fishcake is with her and, bitter about their betrayal in Infernal Devices, demands that Fang kill them. Tom has a heart attack, however, and she takes them into her house as prisoners. Meanwhile, Theo and Wren are engaged in a sword fight with Wolf on top of Harrowbarrow, as New London flees through the debris fields. Wolf is killed and they are rescued by General Naga, who takes them back to New London. Harrowbarrow still chases the young city, however, and the General sacrifices himself by flying his airship into its mouth in a kamikaze attack, destroying both of them. New London escapes across the plains. Shrike recovers from his fall into the mountains, and climbs out of a frozen lake, running towards Erdene Tezh. Fishcake discovers Pennyroyal in the bushes and frees him, telling him about the airship and how the keys are kept around the Stalker's neck. Pennyroyal realises he has no other way to escape, salvages an electricity gun from the wreck of the Jenny Haniver, and creeps towards the house. Inside Tom has recovered from his heart attack, and Fang tells the two of them about her plans. She intends to fire ODIN on volcanoes across the world, blotting out the sky with volcanic ash and wiping out the Human race. She believes it is the only way to make the world green again. Tom pleads with the Anna side of her to destroy ODIN, and after an internal struggle the Stalker sends a new set of orders up to the orbiting weapon. Pennyroyal bursts into the house and attacks Fang with the electricity gun shortly after. He manages to kill her, but also sets the house on fire. Tom has another heart attack, and lies helpless in Hester's arms. She drags him outside as Pennyroyal runs to get the airship and get Tom to a doctor. Onboard the airship, however, Fishcake puts a knife to Pennyroyal's throat and forces him to fly away, abandoning Tom and Hester the same way they abandoned him on Brighton. Hester sees him fly away, and understands. Tom dies in her arms, and Hester peacefully commits suicide by stabbing herself in the heart to be with him in death. Above them, ODIN follows Anna Fang's last order and turns its weapon upon itself, raining debris down on the planet. With the Green Storm's armies shattered and the Traktionstadtsgesellschaft smashed, Oenone is appointed the new leader of Shan Guo. New London prospers, and Wren and Theo become air-traders. Fishcake returns to the mountains to find Sathya; he grows old and has children, and finds in his later life that he regrets leaving Tom and Hester. Pennyroyal tries to publish a new book about what happened at Erdene Tezh, telling the truth this time. He cannot find a publisher for it, however, and lives out his last days with Minty Bapsnack, an old girlfriend in the Traction City of Peripetitiapolis. The final chapter deals with Shrike (called Grike in US editions), and how he arrives at Erdene Tezh too late. He finds Tom and Hester's bodies, and takes them up into the mountains where he lays them down together. He watches as they decompose, and new plants and trees grow from their remains. He then shuts down into hibernation, and sees hundreds of years go past like minutes, he sees a girl putting a ring of flowers around his neck, and starts to slow his hibernation. He sees another girl, who thought he was just an old statue, and put flowers around him for luck, she says that her family have been hanging the flowers since her mother's mother's time, showing that he took two generations to slow his hibernation. He follows her down into a valley where her village rests (built around the ruins of an old city), where he starts to decipher their language, and discovers that traction cities are considered a fairytale. Cities no longer move except in stories, showing that some knowledge of Municipal Darwinism has lived on, and airships still exist, powered by magnetic levitation. They ask if he is one of the machine men out of stories they have heard, again showing some memory of Stalkers. They ask Shrike what he is for, and he tells them he is a Remembering Machine. He says that he remembers the age of the Traction Cities, London and Arkangel, Thaddeus Valentine and Anna Fang, and Hester and Tom. The villagers gather round and ask him to tell them. He begins to tell them his story, beginning with the first line of Mortal Engines(which probably means he is the narrator).
Awards
- Guardians Children's Fiction Prize (winner)
- 2007 Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Young Adult Fiction (winner)
Reception
"Phenomenal" - Sunday Times
"An extraordinary maginative achievement." - Guardian
References
^ Ezard, John. "Philip Reeve wins the Guardian children's fiction prize". Guardian Unlimited. Retrieved 2007-12-21. ^ "And the L.A. Times Book Prize winners are...". LA Times "Jacket Copy" Blog. 2008-04-25. Retrieved 2008-05-02. [edit]External links
Strange Horizons review Science Fiction Weekly review (contains plot detail) The Guardian review
| Mortal Engines Series |
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| Fever Crumb • A Web of Air • Scrivener's Moon Traction City • The Haunted Sky • Night Flights In the Bleak Midwinter Mortal Engines • Predator's Gold • Infernal Devices • A Darkling Plain The Traction Codex • The Illustrated World of Mortal Engines Mortal Engines (film) |