Book Reviews: Traction City

Traction City is a short story, written for World Book Day 2011, by Philip Reeve, one of my favorite writers.   It was published along with some short horror stories, called The Teacher's Tales of Horror, by Chris Priestley.   Philip Reeve wrote a series of books called the Mortal Engines Quartet (which is brilliant!), and this little story takes place in that universe, and uses some of the same characters.   It's about a policeman hunting a Stalker aboard the moving city of London.   A Stalker is a piece of ancient technology, a half-mechanical, half-organic warrior.   It's very well-written, and even though it's only very short it manages to be very exciting and scary.   For fans of the series it's a very interesting look at some parts of the universe that weren't explored in the books, but it works as a stand-alone story too.   The Teacher's Tales of Horror is worth a read too.   Some genuinely creepy stories.