Mortal Engines

“Out in the corridor all the argon lamps were dancing too, spilling their light up the metal walls. Two black-robed Guildsmen hurried past, and Tom heard the reedy voice of old Dr. Arkengarth whine, ‘Vibrations! Vibrations! It's playing merry hell with my thirty-fifth-century ceramics...’ He waited until they had vanished around a bend in the corridor, then slipped quickly out and down the nearest stairway. He cut through the 21st Century Gallery, past the big plastic statues of Pluto and Mickey, animal-headed gods of lost America. He ran across the main hall and down galleries full of things that had somehow survived through all the millennia since the Ancients destroyed themselves in that terrible flurry of orbit-to-earth atomics and tailored-virus bombs called the Sixty Minute War.”

This passage from the book’s opening chapter provides backstory and context for the timeline and history of the Mortal Engines story world. The reference to the 35th century indicates that the civilization we know in current times lasted several hundred more years before the Sixty Minute War that set the planet on a path toward destruction—and because the war was fought by the “ancients,” it can be assumed that centuries have passed since the war. Pluto and Micky (presumably the famed Disney icons of today) show how time and cataclysmic events distort history. Despite the Guild of Historians best efforts, many records of the time before the war have likely been lost, resulting in fictional characters from an entertainment franchise being mistaken for gods.

“‘Never forget, Apprentices, that we Historians are the most important Guild in our city. We don't make as much money as the Merchants but we create knowledge, which is worth a great deal more. We may not be responsible for steering London, like the Navigators, but where would the Navigators be if we hadn't preserved the ancient maps and charts? And as for the Guild of Engineers, just remember that every machine they have ever developed is based on some fragment of Old Tech—ancient high technology that our museum keepers have preserved or our archaeologists have dug up.’”

Tom remembers Valentine giving this speech several years ago. When taken beside Valentine’s character, his words show that he’s an excellent motivational speaker. He’s in league with Crome and the Guild of Engineers, but he builds up the influence of the Guild of Historians, making them sound equal to the Engineers, when the Engineers believe the opposite. This speech also might represent how Valentine truly feels and indicate that his actions throughout the book were a mask he donned for his and Katherine’s survival.