If it’s one thing this book is gonna do, it’s remind you every chapter that Hester is ugly. Honestly it adds nothing to the story aside from just reminding you “man Hester is ugly af”

Another really good far-future, post-apocalyptic story, but not simply a continuation of the first. It's the same characters, but it's a new adventure with new places and new faces as the world-building is fleshed out more. It also does a really good job of showing people dealing with death in various ways (imagined ghosts or shifting blame on others or denial that anything has changed); makes the characters more real to be reacting in realistic ways.

If you read & liked the first, then you definitely have to read this one too.

That's a V E R Y generous three star there. Had it not been for the last 80 (77 to be exact) pages, this book would've been a very shakey two.
The beginning is slow as fuck, like a road trip that doesn't have a map, nor even a destination. Due to this the faults in characters was easier to see because they had to uphold the story for so long without motivation.
It's two and a half years after the events of the first book and Hester and Tom are going strong, madly in love it seems. Of course this all happened off page and we're simply dropped into Hester's paranoid mind. The sudden nose dive into Hester's paranoia for her two and a half year relationships' stability felt not only out of character but also didn't make a lot of sense. The previous book was told from Tom's POV and not really Hester's, this one is more than half from Hester's perspective. As a result I guess Reeve thought he had to humanise Hester, make her more relatable to the audience, and having her scared stupid at the idea of Tom leaving her seemed to fit the relatable bill?
All it did was give me as a reader a weird feeling because I don't remember any inclination of romance between the two and they're so widely different. I could've accepted it had we seen more times when they actually acted as a couple, without the need to kiss. Regardless of this, two and a half years down the line, Hester should at least be slightly changed. Tom has apparently been loving her good this whole time, always by her side, that type of positive energy changes a person. Not that she isn't allowed to be paranoid, but she should at least have a little bit of confidence in him and he should also have been aware of her fear by this time. It's just been the two of them for over two years now??! C'mon.
And the reason why I talk so much about this seemingly teeny tiny problem is because it takes up 162/342 PAGES!! Like that's legit the only plot thread aside from meeting some old Alternative History Professor (of little consequence) and landing on a ghost town of a traction city buried under grief and tradition(as a setting used only to inflate Hester's bad feelings). And her needling paranoia over Tom is unfortunately what gets the ball rolling for the actual plot (that inevitably got left hanging; vague, alluding, and promising to reveal more of itself in the next book).
This was all mixed in with Slimy-For-No-Good-Reason dudes from whom we're given the lovely pleasure of hearing, in-depth, all their incel-like/abusive thoughts about the world. Putting new main Hester in a light she wasn't put in during the first book. For the most part, the characters are reactionary for 265/342 pages meaning we get to sit back with the main cast as shit not only just happens around them but also as shit happens SPECIFICALLY because they didn't fucking do anything.
Also no girls will get along in this book because we all know how catty women are and how they simply can't get along with all their emotions getting in the way, especially boy-centric emotions, IN FACT they're the only kind of emotions in this universe. Ok, a little exaggerated but I'm really not far from the truth. Reeve's elected to ignore a lot of blatantly glaring opportunities to explore these characters (mainly the females because for some reason they're the only ones with inner dialogue about their emotions because the boys are busy going off on adventure or some Goonies type shit). Opportunities like, how it feels to lose parents, how it feels to be a god lead leader of a dying town, how it feels to have failed a life long mission and more. Instead we brush over the dead parents (and all the other dead too because boring!). The leader is an inadequate child who for plot reasons needs to do something boy-centric rather than do what she was raised to do (y'know, like leading her people). And unless snippets of that failure are used later on as the tipping point to an emotionally driven torture to break a character then we don't see much of the pull behind that cool character arc are either.
So when, at the end of the book these things are actually explored the only reason it feels great is because of the shit show that preceded it. But these things are explored and I guess I was so starved of good plot line, character developments and characteristics, and entertainment that I was swallowed hook, line, and sinker for the marketing ploy of selling a sequel because the ending had so much power and likability behind it that I forgot how shitty it had begun. Only I do remember and I'm holding it accountable (if only because I doubt it will itself).
2/3's of this book could've been left out and the end tacked onto the beginning of the next book. I want to read this series, provided it doesn't dip too badly into being a product of its time, so I will continue to read and see for myself how accountable the next is with all that happened in this book. Only one thing (that I can see) of consequence was learned in this book in regards to how the series will continue. There are others that, if this book wasn't just a filler book suffering second-book-itis, could become plot devices but I'm not holding my breath.

Our friends Hester and Tom hit the skies two years after the events of Mortal Engines, and they have taken leave of their senses. Two relatively strong characters are now defined entirely by their relationship to the exclusion of all else, and it makes them just a little bit stupid. Hester Shaw was always single minded, and now that singlemindedness is devoted to being jealous of her boyfriend’s attention; Tom Natsworthy was naïve but not an idiot distracted by shiny things.
 
If any of the action in Predator’s Gold was driven by anything other than the petty machinations of the Hester and Tom equation, it would be a better novel; Hester performs an unforgivable deed in the interests of securing Tom’s admiration and it is one of the most evil crimes that you can commit in the world of Municipal Darwinism.
 
Outside of the bones of Predator’s Gold lays a stronger story: new character Freya Rasmussen offers a classic tale of a spoiled girl made good, and the concept of the Lost Boys and Uncle is fascinating. Anchorage is a settlement more worth cheering than any seen to date in the series, and the Green Storm show promise, even if much of this book seems somewhat like table setting for the back end of the series.
 
Reeve continues to fixate too much on the relative ugliness of his characters – possibly Hester doesn’t need to be told she’s a hideous beast at every turn – but otherwise he offers a bouncy novel that can’t quite manage to reconcile its YA trappings (idiot live triangle) with its harder steampunk edge (an enemy who has already surrendered his post is brutally slaughtered right there on the page).

Set just over 2 years after the events of the first 'Mortal Engines' book. Tom Natsworthy and Hester Shaw have been travelling around the world on the Jenny Haniver, Anna Fang's old airship, but after picking up a passenger, Nimrod Pennyroyal - an author of adventure books, they're pursued by the gunships of the Green Storm, who are fanatical about Anna Fang and blame them for her death and 'stealing' the Jenny Haniver, they seek sanctuary on the traction city of Anchorage. A once thriving city that has been devastated by plague, leaving only a handful of people left. But jealousy gets the better of Hester when she sees Tom spending more time with Freya Ragmussen, the young Margravine (queen) of the city, and she does something drastic with repercussions that will haunt her for years.

Another exciting read in Philip Reeve's series. It expands on the lore and world building of the first book, which I liked, and adding more characters to the mix as well. As protagonists go, the main couple of Tom and Hester are total opposites; one comes across as empathetic, believing that life should be fair, and appearing a bit naive at times, whilst the other is very insecure, and full of hate and anger that boils to the surface on more than one occasion, unfortunately making them a bit unlikeable to me. The surrounding characters of Freya, Nimrod Pennyroyal, Piotr Masgard, and of Uncle and the Lost Boys of the sunken city of Grimsby, on the other hand do add a bit of variety and depth to the story.

Its a good addition to the quartet of stories in this series, and due to the time jump in between and the amount of well placed references to what has gone on before, one that could easily be read as a standalone, but it's better if you've read the first.

I am not sure why, but I didn’t find this as intriguing as the first. I didn’t much like Freya trying to steal Tom away from Hester. Their bond is so strong and that “kiss” felt so out of character that it bothered me because I know Tom would never do something like that. I still enjoyed the world building and I think it’s a cool concept so I will continue with the series :)

This was touch and go in the first third of the book. It couldn't keep my attention, I was still miffed at the ending of the first book, and I had so many other things I needed to concentrate on that I was reading bits by the day.
Also, a lot of the scenes at the winter palace were very similar to the beginning of the Secret Garden, which I was listening to on Audiobook at the same time. Coincidence or "inspiration"?

Then I got passed that mark, and it picked up. I was physically unable to read for as much as I wanted to. The different groups of people, Pennyroyal, the Hester vs Freya conflict, who was Uncle!? I was sunk.

And yeah, alright, I knew straight away Pennyroyal was another Gilderoy Lockhart. But it was when it would all crack for him that kept me interested in him.

And then, I would say from over half way to the end that I didn't want to put the book down. Anna Fang's resurrection, Hester's Betrayal, Caul trying to save the day, Gargle Actually saving the day! Yes, this was what the first third of the book needed to be. Until it looked like Tom was about to die. If that was the case, I might have pitched poor Keith the Kindle across the room. Philip Reeve was on his last chance.

The man pulled through, though. And so did Tom. I was a bit dissappointed with the exposition, summary, Epilogue-style of that part. I thought, after all the detail of what happened in the lead up, the glossing over of the aftermatch was a bit lacklustre. We could have been given a bit more, there. I was left a bit dissappointed with Pennyroyal's exit to the story.

But it was good enough. And it was a nice ending, leaving me ready to see what the next instalment of the Mortal Engines series will offer me.