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).