FEVER CRUMB / Philip Reeve

This book has got me so confused! Normally I form an opinion about a book in the first chapter, and yet this book has me still undecided after the last page.

Fever Crumb is an extremely rational girl who is abandoned as a baby and brought up by an eccentric but kind engineer. Set thousands of years in the future, the novel opens in the London ruins of a civil war. A superior race, the Scriven, have been outnumbered and ousted by the underdog humans.

Fever Crumb emerges for the first time from the protective bubble of the engineering world to become technical assistant to the illusive archaeologist Kit Solent.

On the journey there Fever’s distinctive looks and mismatched eye colour rises the suspicions of the last of London’s Scriven hunters, and they begin to follow her. The bookish Fever begins to realise how little she really knows about her own life. Is Fever really Scriven? What is Kit Solent hiding? And why does he seem to have been waiting for her?

The presence of an invading nomad army hovering on the outskirts of London soon ties all the elements of the story together. However, I did really have to force myself to preserve with the first half of the book and came very close to abandoning it. Although it’s great that the characters and the setting are so unique and fresh I found them very hard to relate to and emphasise with. The language is playful but sometimes erred on the wrong size of irritating for me.

I was disappointed since I’d read some great reviews, but I had a real difficulty maintaining an interest in the story. Perhaps it’s down to the fact that I read in short bursts a lot, or that I’ve never been crazy about science fiction.

Nevertheless, the ending is cleverly thought out and original and the action did speed up towards the end. Would still only really recommend to those lovers of teen science fiction. I know you’re out there!