❗❗Contains major spoilers❗❗




A great sequel to Mortal Engines. I'm such a sucker for a good dystopian story and this is fast becoming one of my favourite series's.

Reading other reviews I have realised that opinions are decidedly split about this book, especially the "and they all lived happily ever after" nature of the ending. My opinion on this is completely positive. I understand where these negative opinions come from, but to me the way the ending was crafted makes sense, and I'll use this review to explain why.

Firstly, the "happily ever after" part. A lot of dystopian books don't have such positive endings, so I can see where there is a level of expectation for a bitter-sweet ending. Personally I think that in this hostile, post-apocalyptic world and after all the hardships these characters have been through they definitely deserve a happy ending.

Secondly, the "they all lived". This seems to have more opposition then the aforementioned nature of the ending. But I can see a logical way all the characters survived, which is revealed by the finer details of the book. I shall split this explanation into two parts.
1) The people of Anchorage Vs the Huntsmen of Arkangel
- On the surface it does seem unlikely that a group of untrained townspeople could defeat a group of mercenaries with no major casualties. However the Huntsmen are not soldiers. They are rich young men with expensive equipment who rely on intimidation tactics and the reputation of their city to achieve their goals. Any resistance is quickly crushed by the Huntsmen inflicting damage on the prey town. Therefore it is logical they have little to no combat talent as they have no need for it, and end up out of their depth against the determination of the people of Anchorage to protect their town.
2) Tom surviving a bullet to the chest
- To a 21st century audience, being shot in the chest is almost certainly a death sentence. But this is not taking place in the 21st century. The weapon is described as a "gas pistol" and later the projectile is seen to be spherical. This heavily implies that these weapons are not to an audiences modern standards, but to a standard we would consider historical. For weapons of such types the cause of death was infection, internal bleeding and/or blood loss for the majority of the time, not the impact itself. Therefore with medical care it is very much possible to survive being shot. Additionally Tom was wearing several layers of thick, arctic-weather clothing. This paired with the spherical shape of the bullet (meaning it has a large forward-facing surface area) would create a lot of resistance, slowing the projectile significantly, in this case meaning the bullet did not puncture Tom's heart and he was able to make a recovery.

One main drawback of Predators Gold was the way Freya's character was crafted. Starting off as an entitled and selfish girl, she had the potential for a lot of development. She did see this development to a partial degree : transgressing the traditions of her ancestors and becoming more open and friendly. However near the end of the books she still has some very cruel thoughts about Hester, which I was hoping she would have moved past by that point. Also, I will never like the "in the way of a relationship" trope. I can appreciate how Hester leaving and informing Arkangel of Anchorages' location was a large part of the plot, but that doesn't mean I have to like the reason she left.

Finally, the plague on Anchorage seemed a bit redundant to begin with, as it wasn't actually a plot device. However I soon changed my mind as I realised the diminished population allowed for minor characters to have their own development, and to form a team that would probably have never met under normal circumstances.

Overall a very good book, I'm very much looking forwards to reading the rest of this series.