January book review: ‘Fever Crumb’ by Philip Reeve

Reviewed by

Sandy Bareither

The tale of “Fever Crumb” drops you metformin weight loss pcos in the dark streets of future London and then hauls you through a dystopian world of chaos and struggle moderated only by small snatches of emotion. The wretched conditions people live in echo those of Charles Dickens’ “Oliver Twist”; advanced science does not exist, the city is filled with the desperately poor, each child’s fate is settled at birth and hope is squeezed out of every day by the constant struggle to survive. Named for the persistent condition of her mother’s pregnancy, Fever Crumb lives by comparison, a cloistered existence. She was found when she was a very small child by Dr. Giddeon Crumb and raised and trained by his guild of engineers. Her necessities are provided by this benevolent brotherhood of eccentric geniuses and she feels great affection for them although they frown on expressed emotion. The Engineers are charged with unraveling the mysterious functions of items, such as knots of wiring, cell phone carcasses and bits of internal combustion engines, which have been dug up by archeologists. In their harsh surroundings they have been forced to discipline themselves so that logic and reason rule every decision they make in their work and habits.

Fever is the only female in the Order of Engineers but that is not her only singular quality; her head is bald, her eyes are different colors¸ the base of her skull is marked by a strange sinuous gray scar and her talents seem extraordinary for someone so young, especially a girl. When she is 14, her abilities are noticed by those outside the Guild and, despite the fatherly misgivings of Dr. Crumb, she is sent to solve a mechanical engineering problem for an archeologist named Kit Solent. He lives with his two children in the abandoned mansion of a Scriven; a race of self-proclaimed super humans who ruled London with cruel tyranny for two centuries just after the “Dark Times.”

Fever’s eyes are so startling she is noticed wherever she goes and, like lepers of old, she is called out by the fearful on every street corner. People are shocked by her appearance, sure that her odd eyes and bald head are the result of Scriven genes. Bagman’s web of Scriven-spotters soon lead him to Kit’s where Fever is laboring to open a subterranean door which was sealed by Auric Godshawk, a scientific genius and the last of the Scriven Overlords. Standing in front of the intricate door she is supposed to open, Fever is strangely overwhelmed by memories of a childhood she never had, a father she never knew and scientific understanding never taught by the Engineers. Fever’s sheltered existence has not prepared her for either the hatred of those stalking her or the sudden rush of emotions that are triggered by being immersed in Kit’s family life.

Nomadic tribes, commanded by Land Admiral Quercus, begin gathering their forces outside London to prepare for an invasion. His warriors include humans and Stalkers, the undead who have been transformed into cyborgs that are more fierce and resilient than humans.

Is Fever really part Scriven? And how do her origins cause her to be both in danger and dangerous? Her survival depends on answering that question. Fever Crumb is a believable, human character and yet, she’s not. The story carries you quickly from beginning to end and will leave you anxious to read the sequel, “Web of Air.” If you enjoy reading Steam Punk or dystopian novels like “The Roar” by Emma Clayton or the “Hunger Games” by Suzanne Collins, “Fever Crumb” will grab your imagination and drag you into a world made vivid, compelling, and perhaps not so far in the future.