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Fever Crumb is a Scriven-human hybrid, and the main protagonist of the Fever Crumb trilogy.

Description[]

Fever Crumb is described to be an odd-looking girl. She is bald, as the Guild of Engineers shave their heads - however she does grow this back after going on her travels during the events of A Web of Air. Her eyes are different colours; a trait that the Scriven possess. There is a scar running along the back of her head because Auric Godshawk put a Stalker brain with his memories inside her head.


The artificial micro/nanoscopic stalker cells move about her blood-stream, performing tasks such as virus elimination and tissue repair. Her father is actually her adoptive father Dr. Gideon Crumb, while her mother, Wavey Godshawk was a Scriven. Despite being half-Scriven, she doesn't have any spots.

Personality[]

Fever seemed to have a very rational nature, especially in the first book, and although this was still prominent all the way through to the end of Scrivener's Moon this train seemed to rise and fall based on her proximity to the Guild of Engineers, and it was probably a trait that she picked up through her continued exposure to the rational and scientific nature of Dr Crumb.

When she was allowed to show emotion and have a more natural personality, she seemed to be fairly observant, and she had a want of knowledge and discovery (although with none of the excitement of her mother Wavey). Not much of her true personality is actually seen, as as soon as she stops being overly rational she begins to fall in love, which is either a testament to her love for Cluny or a nod to a perhaps fickle nature of her personality.

She has a tendency to be, as discussed above, rather fickle and also perhaps quite naive as a product of her upbringing.

History[]

Pre-Series[]

Fever Crumb is the child of Dr. Crumb and Wavey Godshawk. However due to the Scriven Uprising, Wavey had to flee London. She left Fever in a basket near Godshawk's Head with a slip of paper saying "Her name is Fever Crumb"; however, her adoptive father Dr. Crumb at first told fever that it said Her name is Fever, without the Crumb part. This was because he did not want to give away the fact that he was her father, and her mother was a Scriven.

She spent the first fifteen years of her life growing up with the Guild of Engineers. She became highly intelligent, but she didn't know much about the life of the common people and was taught not to show feelings and to only make decisions based on rationality.

Time With Kit Solent[]

When Fever was sixteen, a request came that she helped with an archeological find. She left Godshawks head and travelled into London. She and the archaeologist Kit Solent tried to open a thick hydraulic door that he believed hid the laboratory of Auric Godshawk. At this point she began experiencing vivid memories belonging to Auric Godshawk, due to the machine placed in her head. This entrance later was revealed to go inside an ancient pyramid; Fever found plenty of Old Tech and Remembering Machines inside, telling her about the Sixty Minute War and the origins of the Scriven.

She was hunted by Charley Shallow and Bagman Creech; after a shot from a magneto pistol (a device to temporarily disable stalkers during medical repairs/operations on them) these memories seemed to be stunted or all together erased for a good two years.

Time with the Theater Barge[]

Fever left London after The Movement invaded and set off aboard a theatre barge, taking care of Ruan and Fern Solent, the children of the late Kit Solent (he was resurrected as Shrike, a stalker.). She worked as an electrician aboard the land ship, seeing much of Europe; eventually, after the Arlo Thursday Incident, she returned to London, marking the beginning of Scrivener's Moon.

Life in Scotland[]

After the events of Scrivener's Moon, Fever lived in a newly established static town, created by refugees from the Arkhangelsk Nomad Empires. It is unknown how much time she spent there or if further adventures occurred, but she is presumed to have forged an alliance with Nightwights, which was never done before.

Later life[]

Little is known about Fever's later life. She eventually left the new town created by the survivors of the Arkangelsk. Perhaps this is because they decided to turn the town into Arkangel, perhaps Cluny Morvish died and she felt disconnected from the community; perhaps Fever simply desired to move on.

She probably visited Nuevo Maya and Australia, because Philip Reeve has stated that her next books will probably be set in either or maybe even both locations. During this time she wrote a few books which became successful scientific publications of the time. It is unknown when she died, although it is made clear that she is long dead by the time of Mortal Engines.

Trivia[]

  • Fever Crumb is named after a fad of women naming their children after ailments they had while pregnant/during birth/shortly after birth. Wavey Godshawk had a fever while pregnant, i.e. a type of ailment where the afflicted develops a high body temperature, usually due to the body trying to increase the work of the immune system or placenta (in this case, trying to birth a Scriven hybrid with nano-tech cells).
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