Thaddeus Valentine
Encyclopedia
Thaddeus Valentine is a fictitious historian
of London
in the book Mortal Engines
by Philip Reeve
. Mortal Engines is the first of a four-part series detailing life in an post nuclear war world. In the United States, the series is known as the Hungry City Chronicles.
steampunk
world ravaged by a nuclear holocaust called the Sixty Minute War
. This war caused a massive geological upheavals. To escape the violent geological forces unleashed on earth, Nikolas Quirke designed a system known as Municipal Darwinism
. In this system, entire cities become immense vehicles known as Traction Cities that must consume one another in order to maintain themselves in a world deprived of most natural resources. Although the planet has since stabilized, Traction Cities are still used.
Technological and scientific knowledge was lost in the Sixty Minute War and what remains of the so-called "Old Tech", artifacts remaining from the past's more developed society, are dug up and pored over by scavengers and archeologists. Europe
, some of Asia
, north Africa
, Antarctica and the Arctic
are inhabited by Traction Cities, and North America
is a radioactive wasteland. Most of the rest of the world is the stronghold of the Anti-Traction League
, an organisation that seeks to stop cities from moving and thus stop the intense consumption of the planet's resources.
Valentine is an agent of the traction city of London, one of the most powerful of the traction cities, and a member of the Historians Guild. The Historians collect and preserve highly prized and sometimes dangerous artifacts of the pre-nuclear holocaust world. He has two daughters, Katherine Valentine and Hester Shaw
. Katherine's mother dies soon after her birth and Valentine raises her alone. Pandora Shaw, Hester's mother, marries another man. Together, they raise Hester.
Pandora wants to sell both the plans and the computer to the Anti-Traction League
so that they could rebuild the machine and destroy the Cities. She lures Valentine to her home to propose they sell the items together and split the profits. Valentine, who is an agent for the Traction City of London, knows that if his city has the plans, it would become the most powerful of the cities. He kills Pandora and her husband to get them. Realizing young Hester had seen him—and fearful that his deed will be revealed—he slashes wildly at her, ruining her face, but leaves her alive. After that, he takes the plans and the artifact to London and helps the lord mayor, Magnus Crome
, to recreate the weapon inside St. Paul's Cathedral, which is the only building to survive the Sixty Minute War.
Later, one night in the Gut, a part of London, an orphan (and a continuing character of the novels) Tom Natsworthy saves Valentine's life from a veiled, knife-wielding girl, who is later revealed to be Hester. The girl runs away and falls off London. Valentine pushes Tom after her because she had told Tom her name, giving Tom the information to ruin Valentine. Unknown to Valentine, Hester and Tom survive their fall.
Later at Batmunkh Gompa, Valentine destroys the Anti-Traction' League's air fleet and is confronted by a flier, Anna Fang
. They fight furiously in the snow until Anna knocks him to his knees, leaving Valentine disarmed and exhausted, the picture of defeat. However, just as she is about to kill him, Valentine's airship
, the Thirteenth Floor Elevator, distracts her. He grabs her sword and plunges it into her neck.
Valentine returns to London, joining the mayor and the other "Engineers". Hester and Tom return to London in Anna Fang's old airship, the Jenny Haniver. Hester is captured and brought before Valentine, who is terrified of this reminder of his past. He tries to stab her. His daughter Katherine jumps between them and is stabbed in Hester's stead. Katherine then collapses on MEDUSA, causing it to build too much power, and later destroy itself. He then helps Hester reach the Jenny Haniver before Katherine dies in his arms. Hester and Tom leave in the Jenny Haniver. Then, with the rest of London, he dissolves in an explosion of light as MEDUSA malfunctions and destroys itself and the city.
it is revealed that he is Hester's father and their ruthless characteristics are compared. Thaddeus Valentine is also mentioned in passing in Infernal Devices
.
Historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...
of London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
in the book Mortal Engines
Mortal Engines
Mortal Engines is the first of four novels in Philip Reeve's quartet of the same name, which is also known as the Hungry City Chronicles in the United States...
by Philip Reeve
Philip Reeve
Philip Reeve is a British author and illustrator. He presently lives on Dartmoor with his wife Sarah and their son Samuel.-Biography:...
. Mortal Engines is the first of a four-part series detailing life in an post nuclear war world. In the United States, the series is known as the Hungry City Chronicles.
Premise
The book is set in a post-apocalypticApocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction
Apocalyptic fiction is a sub-genre of science fiction that is concerned with the end of civilization due to a potentially existential catastrophe such as nuclear warfare, pandemic, extraterrestrial attack, impact event, cybernetic revolt, technological singularity, dysgenics, supernatural...
steampunk
Steampunk
Steampunk is a sub-genre of science fiction, fantasy, alternate history, and speculative fiction that came into prominence during the 1980s and early 1990s. Steampunk involves a setting where steam power is still widely used—usually Victorian era Britain or "Wild West"-era United...
world ravaged by a nuclear holocaust called the Sixty Minute War
Sixty Minute War
The Sixty Minute War is a fictional event in Philip Reeve's Mortal Engines Quartet. It is a cataclysmic conflict which is deliberately left vague, but was evidently fought between the American Empire and Greater China. It is likely that the Middle East was involved, as this region has been reduced...
. This war caused a massive geological upheavals. To escape the violent geological forces unleashed on earth, Nikolas Quirke designed a system known as Municipal Darwinism
Municipal Darwinism
Municipal Darwinism is a fictional concept featured in Philip Reeve's Mortal Engines Quartet. It refers to the practice in the post apocalyptic world described in the series, in which large mobile metropolitan areas, known as Traction Cities, consume one another by gathering other, smaller cities...
. In this system, entire cities become immense vehicles known as Traction Cities that must consume one another in order to maintain themselves in a world deprived of most natural resources. Although the planet has since stabilized, Traction Cities are still used.
Technological and scientific knowledge was lost in the Sixty Minute War and what remains of the so-called "Old Tech", artifacts remaining from the past's more developed society, are dug up and pored over by scavengers and archeologists. Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, some of Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
, north Africa
North Africa
North Africa or Northern Africa is the northernmost region of the African continent, linked by the Sahara to Sub-Saharan Africa. Geopolitically, the United Nations definition of Northern Africa includes eight countries or territories; Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, South Sudan, Sudan, Tunisia, and...
, Antarctica and the Arctic
Arctic
The Arctic is a region located at the northern-most part of the Earth. The Arctic consists of the Arctic Ocean and parts of Canada, Russia, Greenland, the United States, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Iceland. The Arctic region consists of a vast, ice-covered ocean, surrounded by treeless permafrost...
are inhabited by Traction Cities, and North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
is a radioactive wasteland. Most of the rest of the world is the stronghold of the Anti-Traction League
Anti-Traction League
In Philip Reeve's book-series Mortal Engines Quartet, the Anti-Traction League is an organization opposed to the prevalence of Traction Cities and Municipal Darwinism. Its symbol is that of a broken wheel.-Geography:...
, an organisation that seeks to stop cities from moving and thus stop the intense consumption of the planet's resources.
Valentine is an agent of the traction city of London, one of the most powerful of the traction cities, and a member of the Historians Guild. The Historians collect and preserve highly prized and sometimes dangerous artifacts of the pre-nuclear holocaust world. He has two daughters, Katherine Valentine and Hester Shaw
Hester Shaw
Hester Shaw is a fictional character from Philip Reeve's Mortal Engines Quartet who has terrible facial scarring, due to an attack from Thaddeus Valentine when Hester was a child.-Personality:...
. Katherine's mother dies soon after her birth and Valentine raises her alone. Pandora Shaw, Hester's mother, marries another man. Together, they raise Hester.
Character's role in the story
In the first of the series, Mortal Engines, Thaddeus Valentine is a key character. On an expedition to America, the dead continent, Valentine and his lover, Pandora Shaw, find the plans and operating codes of a weapon made by the so-called ancients (the people before the nuclear holocaust), called MEDUSA. Several years later, Pandora returns to the base where they found the plans for the weapon. After further exploration, she finds the computer brain of MEDUSA and takes it back to her city with her. However, the Brain is useless without the plans and codes that she and Thaddeus Valentine discovered on the last trip, and which Valentine now possesses.Pandora wants to sell both the plans and the computer to the Anti-Traction League
Anti-Traction League
In Philip Reeve's book-series Mortal Engines Quartet, the Anti-Traction League is an organization opposed to the prevalence of Traction Cities and Municipal Darwinism. Its symbol is that of a broken wheel.-Geography:...
so that they could rebuild the machine and destroy the Cities. She lures Valentine to her home to propose they sell the items together and split the profits. Valentine, who is an agent for the Traction City of London, knows that if his city has the plans, it would become the most powerful of the cities. He kills Pandora and her husband to get them. Realizing young Hester had seen him—and fearful that his deed will be revealed—he slashes wildly at her, ruining her face, but leaves her alive. After that, he takes the plans and the artifact to London and helps the lord mayor, Magnus Crome
Magnus Crome
Magnus Crome is the Lord Mayor of London in Phillip Reeve's book Mortal Engines. He has been mayor of the city for 20 years and he is also head of the Guild of Engineers. Many Londoners believe that this is unfair and that he may put the priorities of his guild before those of London's three other...
, to recreate the weapon inside St. Paul's Cathedral, which is the only building to survive the Sixty Minute War.
Later, one night in the Gut, a part of London, an orphan (and a continuing character of the novels) Tom Natsworthy saves Valentine's life from a veiled, knife-wielding girl, who is later revealed to be Hester. The girl runs away and falls off London. Valentine pushes Tom after her because she had told Tom her name, giving Tom the information to ruin Valentine. Unknown to Valentine, Hester and Tom survive their fall.
Later at Batmunkh Gompa, Valentine destroys the Anti-Traction' League's air fleet and is confronted by a flier, Anna Fang
Anna Fang
Anna Fang is a character in Philip Reeve's Mortal Engines Quartet. Her name may be derived from the German "anfang" meaning beginning.-Mortal Engines:Anna is introduced as a friendly Asian aviator who helps Tom Natsworthy and Hester Shaw escape slavery...
. They fight furiously in the snow until Anna knocks him to his knees, leaving Valentine disarmed and exhausted, the picture of defeat. However, just as she is about to kill him, Valentine's airship
Airship
An airship or dirigible is a type of aerostat or "lighter-than-air aircraft" that can be steered and propelled through the air using rudders and propellers or other thrust mechanisms...
, the Thirteenth Floor Elevator, distracts her. He grabs her sword and plunges it into her neck.
Valentine returns to London, joining the mayor and the other "Engineers". Hester and Tom return to London in Anna Fang's old airship, the Jenny Haniver. Hester is captured and brought before Valentine, who is terrified of this reminder of his past. He tries to stab her. His daughter Katherine jumps between them and is stabbed in Hester's stead. Katherine then collapses on MEDUSA, causing it to build too much power, and later destroy itself. He then helps Hester reach the Jenny Haniver before Katherine dies in his arms. Hester and Tom leave in the Jenny Haniver. Then, with the rest of London, he dissolves in an explosion of light as MEDUSA malfunctions and destroys itself and the city.
Appearances in sequels
In Predator's GoldPredator's Gold
Predator's Gold is the second of four novels in Philip Reeve's series for young adults, the Mortal Engines Quartet.-Setting:Predator's Gold is set two years after Mortal Engines...
it is revealed that he is Hester's father and their ruthless characteristics are compared. Thaddeus Valentine is also mentioned in passing in Infernal Devices
Infernal Devices
Infernal Devices is the third of four novels in Philip Reeve's children's series, the Mortal Engines Quartet.-Anchorage:The story continues sixteen years after the events of Predator's Gold. The peaceful city of Anchorage is now a static settlement called "Anchorage-in-Vineland" on an island in the...
.