Phoebe's Reviews > Fever Crumb

It's an odd world we live in, is it not? Otherwise how can Philip Reeve write about using 'Cheesers Chrice' as a curse and 'blogger' as an insult? Or about people who think a persisting skin mutation is a sign of racial superiority and then those who hunt them out of jealousy but say it's in the name of peace? And what about those technomancers who play with dials and screws while chanting to the machines like they're gods? So many things that Reeve presents to us are written in such a way that they should remind us of us--and they do.

But Fever Crumb is a celebration--or should I say a mocking?--of technology as much as it is a self-discovery journey punctuated with tidbits of social satire. Sure, you see no mad scientists or inventors in the likes of Fogg. Instead you see scavengers, of ancient technology, of burnt-out love, of memories that are not your own.

I think I've made my point--the world is different from ours, but not so different at all. When you read Fever Crumb you can't help but get a little excited over the tiniest thing you discover because not only are you an explorer of a world at its end...you're also an archaeologist trying to work out what this used to be--what it should be in this world that we live in right this moment.

When it comes to characterisation, however, Reever does get a little stereotypical. But I expect I'll probably retract this statement upon my second-or third-reading.

And the stalkers...man they're scary.