Mortal Engines Character Analysis

Tom Natsworthy

Tom Natsworthy is a 15-year-old apprentice museum worker who has lived in the Traction City of London his whole life. His parents died when he was young in an accident called the Great Tilt. Growing… read analysis of Tom Natsworthy

Hester Shaw

Hester Shaw is a teenage girl about Tom’s age who has a large scar on her face from the night when Thaddeus Valentine murdered her parents and left her for dead. After losing her… read analysis of Hester Shaw

Thaddeus Valentine

Thaddeus Valentine is the head of London’s Guild of Historians as well as the father of Katherine Valentine and possibly also Hester Shaw. Young Historian Tom Natsworthy idolizes Valentine, but in reality, Valentine holds… read analysis of Thaddeus Valentine

Katherine Valentine

Katherine Valentine is the daughter of Thaddeus Valentine and an unknown woman from outside of London who died when Katherine was very young. She was then sent to live with her father in London, and… read analysis of Katherine Valentine

Miss Anna Fang

Miss Anna Fang (also called Feng Hua) is an aviator who works as a spy for the League of Anti-Tractionists. Although this technically means she is an enemy of the Londoner Tom Natsworthy, Miss… read analysis of Miss Anna Fang

Shrike

Shrike is a “Resurrected Man,” meaning that he was a soldier who died in a war long ago and was turned into a deadly cyborg. While parts of Shrike, including his brain, are organic, much… read analysis of Shrike

Magnus Crome

Magnus Crome is the evil Lord Mayor of the Traction City of London. Unlike previous mayors, he is thin, suggesting that times have gotten tougher for London and that its predatory practice of eating other… read analysis of Magnus Crome

Bevis Pod

Bevis Pod is a convict who is sentenced to perform hard labor in London’s lower part: the Gut. But after Pod accidentally witnesses an exchange between Hester Shaw and Thaddeus Valentine, Katherine Valentine seeks… read analysis of Bevis Pod

Chudleigh Pomeroy

Chudleigh Pomeroy is Tom’s boss at the Museum of Natural History in London. He can be a strict boss, punishing Tom for being late or daring to venture outside the Museum when he should… read analysis of Chudleigh Pomeroy

Dog

Dog is Katherine’s pet wolf. Valentine found him as a cub and shot his mother but didn’t have the heart to kill him, mirroring how Valentine killed Pandora Shaw but didn’t kill her daughter… read analysis of Dog

Pandora Shaw

Pandora Shaw is the mother of Hester Shaw. She used to be Thaddeus Valentine’s assistant, and it’s possible they were lovers and that Hester is Valentine’s daughter, but when Pandora finds the super-weapon… read analysis of Pandora Shaw

Minor Characters

Captain Khora

Captain Khora is an aviator who captains a gunship for the Anti-Traction League. He is a friend of Miss Fang’s who helps Tom realize that people in the League can be kind and generous, despite what he’s heard about the League in London.

Herbert Melliphant

Herbert Melliphant is a bullying Historian apprentice who uses words rather than physical force, often in an attempt to impress fellow Historian Clytie Potts. Melliphant contributes to the destruction of London by snitching to Lord Mayor Crome about Katherine and Pod’s plan to stop MEDUSA.

Clyde “Clytie” Potts

Clytie Potts is a pretty Historian girl who seems to like Tom.

Nikolas Quirke

Nikolas Quirke is the historical figure who first turned London into a Traction City that can move. Although he died long ago, he survives in statues and in expressions that characters sometimes say (like “By Quirke!”).

Chrysler Peavey

Chrysler Peavey is the captain of a pirate suburb. He takes an interest in Tom because Tom’s fancy London accent allows Peavey to live out his own fantasies of being more respectable.

Orme Wreyland

Orme Wreyland is the mayor of a small townlet called Speedwell who seems at first to help Tom and Hester, but who really drugs them in order to sell them into slavery.

Mungo

Mungo is the pirate who kills his former boss, Chrysler Peavey. Shortly afterwards, Shrike kills Mungo.

Dr. Evadne Twix

Dr. Twix is one of Crome’s Engineers who studies Shrike to learn how to make more Stalkers like him.

Governor Ermene Khan

Governor Khan is the leader of Batmunkh Gompa, an important settlement in the Anti-Traction League.

Mortal Engines Characters