In Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve a post-apocalyptic London has become a Traction City, a great wheeled machine roving round swallowing up smaller cities. (There are of course similarities with the present-day City of London which with its banking swallows up cities around the world.) The heroes take to the air in airships to fight it.
Even if you don’t know the book, you might recognise that it belongs to the sub-genre of Steampunk, with it’s clockwork and steam powered wonders. It’s a new and perhaps unfamiliar sub-genre, we’ve been coming across it all over the place:
Laputa – Castle in the Sky:
Steamboy:
The Mysterious Explorations of Jasper Morello (Website):
Also, in the same Lotte Reiniger style: The Invention of Love:
There’s a fashion element to it too. Sam was intrigued by this video, and would like to try his hand at similar things:
Some steampunk creations:
stories 