Philip Reeve Confirms 'Bridge of Storms': A Sequel to Thunder City
Fans of the glorious, grinding, city-eat-city world of Mortal Engines have massive cause for celebration. Master architect and author Philip Reeve has officially announced a brand new novel, Bridge of Storms, which will serve as a direct sequel to his 2023 prequel, Thunder City.
Eagle-eyed visitors to online book retailers may have already spotted the mysterious title floating around in the catalog databases, but Reeve has now officially confirmed the details for the highly anticipated next chapter in the perilous life of Tamzin Pook.
Scheduled for publication by Scholastic in both the UK and US on February 12th, 2026, Bridge of Storms picks up the traction-tread story just a few short months after the chaotic conclusion of Thunder City. The novel joyfully rejoins the young, fiercely capable mercenary Tamzin Pook and her unlikely band of misfit friends. This returning crew includes Max Angmering, Oddington Doom, Hilly Torpenhow, and, of course, the terrifyingly armored, un-dead Revenant who famously travels complete with a rather adorable pet kitten.
Plot Summary: The Perilous Journey of Museion
The core narrative of Bridge of Storms revolves around a fascinating new lore concept: voluntary consumption. Tamzin and her crew are hired for a highly unusual, high-stakes mission. They must safely escort the small, deeply academic university city of Museion across the treacherous, muddy wilds of a recovering Europe.
Set in a slightly more "genteel" and polite era of the Mortal Engines world, which takes place long before the desperate, hyper-predatory age of Hester Shaw and Tom Natsworthy, Museion holds a very unique ambition. Instead of fleeing from larger predators, the academics of Museion actually want to be safely and ceremoniously eaten by the great traction city of London. In this specific cultural timeline, being consumed by a metropolis like London is seen as an honorable assimilation, allowing the smaller city's scholars and vast libraries to formally join London's prestigious Guild of Historians.
However, the journey to reach London's designated hunting grounds is fraught with intense peril. Museion finds itself geographically trapped in a massive former city nest known ominously as the "Frying Pan." To escape this treacherous basin, the slow-moving university town must evade packs of ferocious, hungry predator suburbs and a ruthless band of motorised nomads who do not care about academic prestige.
The external conflict promises an epic, heavily mechanized showdown on a majestic, ancient bridge during a blinding, ferocious ice storm. This titular "Bridge of Storms" will test the limits of Tamzin's tactical mercenary skills and the sheer structural integrity of the fleeing university.
As if those external environmental and predatory threats were not enough to deal with, a sinister internal plot threatens to tear the city apart from the inside. A hidden traitor on board Museion begins murdering its prominent citizens one by one. This forces Tamzin and her crew to solve a tense, locked-room murder mystery on a moving platform, frantically trying to uncover the killer while simultaneously battling outside forces for their very survival.
Looking Ahead: A Third Book is Already Complete
In a highly promising and exciting update for hardcore fans, Reeve noted that the core text for Bridge of Storms was actually completed quite some time ago. This incredible work ethic has allowed him to get a massive head start on expanding the broader universe even further.
Reeve happily revealed to his readership, "I've already had time to write a third book in the series, which I hope will appear in 2027." This guarantees that fans will have a steady stream of Traction Era content for the next several years.
Described by the publisher as an "epic, thrilling, action-packed" adventure, Bridge of Storms promises the exact kind of page-turning, witty, and astonishingly imaginative storytelling that has definitively made Philip Reeve an absolute master of the steampunk and dystopian genres. Mark your calendars for February 2026 for a highly anticipated return to the Great Hunting Grounds.
