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Larklight : Book summary and reviews of Larklight by Philip Reeve

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A Rousing Tale of Dauntless Pluck in the Farthest Reaches of Space

by Philip Reeve

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Published Oct 2006 250 pages Genre: Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Speculative, Alt. History Publication Information

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Book summary.

Arthur (Art) Mumsby and his irritating sister Myrtle live with their father in a huge and rambling house called Larklight…that just happens to be traveling through outer space. When a visitor called Mr. Webster arrives for a visit, it is far from an innocent social call. Before long Art and Myrtle are off on an adventure to the furthest reaches of space, where they will do battle with evil forces in order to save each other—and the universe. A fantastically original Victorian tale set in an outer space world that might have come from the imaginations of Jules Verne or L Frank Baum, but has a unique gravitational pull all its own…

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Author Information

Philip reeve.

Philip Reeve was born and raised in Brighton, where he worked in a bookshop for a number of years while also co-writing, producing and directing a number of no-budget theatre projects. Philip then began illustrating and has since provided cartoons for around forty children's books, including the best-selling Horrible Histories, Murderous Maths and Dead Famous series. Philip has been writing stories since he was five, but Mortal Engines was the first to be published. Mortal Engines defies easy categorisation. It is a gripping adventure story set in an inspired fantasy world, where moving cities trawl the globe. A magical and unique read, it immediately caught the attention of reviewers and book buyers. It was shortlisted for several awards and was the Gold Award winner at the Nestle Smarties Book Prize 2002 and the winner of the Blue Peter Book of the Year at the 2003 Awards. Since Mortal Engines 's release in 2001, followers and fans of the series have been growing exponentially. Philip Reeve is now known as one of the leading writers for young adults, with his every book achieving huge sales, glowing review coverage and award nominations. In 2007, Philip took a new direction with publication of Here Lies Arthur , a story which this time looks back into history. Set in the times of King Arthur, the book is a gripping adventure story and at the same time explores how a myth can be created simply through spin-doctoring and story-telling - a very relevant subject in today's political environment. Here Lies Arthur was shortlisted for the Booktrust Teenage Award, the Nestle Children's Book Prize and won the CILIP Carnegie Medal in 2008. Other projects in Philip's portfolio include writing a series for younger readers called Buster Baylis , illustrating the Urgum the Axeman books by Kjartan Poskitt, and the steam-powered Victorian space adventures Larklight , Starcross and Mothstorm . Fever Crumb , published in 2009 and set many generations before the events of Mortal Engines , was short-listed for the CILIP Carnegie Medal 2010. Philip lives on Dartmoor with his wife and son, and his interests are walking, drawing, writing and reading. You can find out more about Philip and his books on his website, www.philip-reeve.com

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Larklight by Philip Reeve (Larklight Trilogy: Book 1)

‘It was just another normal morning in space,’ aboard the floating house aptly named Larklight, orbiting good, old earth like your nosy, next door neighbour. It was also normal that the gravity generator within the house was malfunctioning for the umpteenth time and Arthur Mumby, our narrator with plenty of wit and bucketloads of resourcefulness is having a nice, long argument with his world-weary, older sister Myrtle, who is just trying to practice ‘Birdsong at Eventide’ on the pianoforte for crying out loud, so will everyone just back off!

Art and Myrtle live on this floating house which has no top and no bottom with their absent-minded father. The house, although falling to pieces, is a treasured memory left behind of their beloved mother. Then suddenly the news of a visitor goes sour when it turns out that this Mr. Webster is not here just for a cup of tea. Soon the siblings are flung on a swashbuckling space adventure that takes them to the Moon, the abandoned colonies of Venus, the red plains of Mars and grand opening of the Crystal Palace at Hyde Park. Art and his sister realize that it is up to them to save each other and the known Universe from Dire Peril and along the way, learn important secrets about the world they live in and about themselves.

The best part of this classical adventure would undoubtedly be the crew and captain of the Pirate ship Sophronia. A motley crew of endearing proportions, hailing from all over the galaxy; loyal fighters, every man jack.

I particularly enjoyed the interwoven tale of Jack Havock and how his childhood - and ultimately, destiny - entwines with that of the Mumby siblings giving depth, character and a damn, good story to tell. Philip Reeve conjures up an assortment of steampunk inventions, my favorite of which are the hoverhogs who are technically pigs that clean the air by taking it in and… well… letting it out! There’s even a clever illustration by David Wyatt incase the subtlety eludes you!

Which, brings me to the amazing Mr. Wyatt; illustrator extraordinaire. The whole book is cleverly written around some of the most detailed and priceless illustrations I have seen and makes reading it an absolute pleasure. It’s a fantastic book and should be read together with the other two in the trilogy; Starcross and Mothstorm, the third book, which I have yet to get my hands on and I guarantee that you will not regret it!

9/10 Cleverly written around some of the most detailed and priceless illustrations.

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Review by Dash Cooray

1 positive reader review(s) for Larklight

Hridyanshu from India

It is a great book for kids and their parents. I had gone gaga when I first read it. A fast and catchy novel that I bet you will love.

9.5 /10 from 2 reviews

All Philip Reeve Reviews

• Larklight Trilogy (Larklight Trilogy)
• Larklight (Larklight Trilogy: Book 1)
• Starcross (Larklight Trilogy: Book 2)
• Mortal Engines Quartet (Mortal Engines Quartet)
• Fever Crumb (Mortal Engines Quartet: Prequel)

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Larklight Summary and Analysis

FreeBookNotes found 8 sites with book summaries or analysis of Larklight . If there is a Larklight SparkNotes, Shmoop guide, or Cliff Notes, you can find a link to each study guide below.

Among the summaries and analysis available for Larklight , there are 1 Short Summary and 7 Book Reviews.

Depending on the study guide provider (SparkNotes, Shmoop, etc.), the resources below will generally offer Larklight chapter summaries, quotes, and analysis of themes, characters, and symbols.

by Philip Reeve

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TheGuardian - Larklight

Estimated Read Time : 2 minutes

Word Count: 592

FantasyBookReview - Larklight

Estimated Read Time : 1 minute

Word Count: 336

JanuaryMagazine - Larklight

Word Count: 735

PublishersWeekly - Larklight

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KidsReads - Larklight

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KirkusReviews - Larklight

Word Count: 345

GoodReads - Larklight

More Books by Philip Reeve

FreeBookNotes has 9 more books by Philip Reeve, with a total of 44 study guides.

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5480 ratings (Goodreads)

by Philip Reeve

The story begins at Larklight, a house that orbits Earth's moon, where the Mumbys receive a visitor from the Royal Xenological Society, a Mr. Webster, who is revealed to be an extra-terrestrial resembling an enormous white spider. Art and his sister Myrtle escape; but their father is captured and presumed dead. Art and Myrtle leave in an escape pod and crash-land on the Moon, where they are encased with predatory larvae of the Potter Moth and freed by pirate Jack Havock and his crew. Art is shocked to find that Jack is only fifteen years old, and that he is the only human in his crew, while Myrtle is distressed at being in the company of a pirate and demands that Jack take them to the Moon's British residence, Fort George. En route aboard the pirates' ship Sophronia, a ship of the British Navy comes alongside and orders Jack to surrender or have his ship destroyed. Jack distracts the officers by pretending to hold Art and Myrtle hostage, giving Ssillissa, the ship's alchemist, time to activate the ship's engines and fly the Sophronia to safety. They conceal themselves on Venus, Jack Havock's old home, where Jack tells Art and Myrtle that the colonists there, including his parents and brother, were changed into trees by a sudden pollination. The white spiders take Myrtle to the Martian home of industrialist Sir Waverly Rain, whose factories cover Phobos and Deimos. She escapes with a Martian maid named Ulla and her husband, Richard, with whom she learns that Sir Waverly Rain had been captured by the spiders and replaced with a spider-controlled automaton; believing the spiders might manufacture something much more sinister, they race to London. Jack and Art visit Jupiter's moon Io, descending into Jupiter's atmosphere to ask aid of the Thunderhead, who tells them to protect the key to Larklight. Not knowing what this is, they attempt to leave Jupiter, but are abandoned by their ferryman and escape to a broken-down harpoon ship attached to a native organism. They are rescued by the Sophronia's crew. Jack discovers that Myrtle's locket (now in Art's possession) is the key to Larklight, in that it can activate a set of complex engines capable of transforming the solar system, and leads his crew to the spiders' home on the Rings of Saturn to exchange it for Myrtle's safe return. Upon arriving at the spiders' home, most of the crew are captured. Art is later taken before Professor Phineas Ptarmigan, formerly of the Royal Xenological Institute where Jack was imprisoned until he was twelve, who reveals that he wishes to use Larklight to destroy the Solar System, leaving the remains to the spiders whose ancestors had colonized the planetesimals. Meanwhile, Ssillissa and her crewmate Yarg free the captured crew and two additional prisoners, Sir Waverly and Art's mother Emily. Having freed Larklight from the spiders, the protagonists visit Earth, where a gigantic mechanical spider is attacking London. There, Myrtle takes control of the machine and uses it to kill Mr. Webster, and later re-unites with her family and Jack. The epilogue reveals that the race of white spiders has not been exterminated, but subdued, and that Ptarmigan has been placed in an insane asylum. The Mumby family return to live at Larklight, which they deprive of its otherworldly machinery.

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Queen Anne conquers the Moon

The following correction was printed in the Guardian's Corrections and clarifications column, Wednesday December 13 2006

In the article below, the reviewer commented on the similarity between the hero's name, Art Mumby, and that of real-life Victorian Arthur Munby. A slip on the keyboard turned the latter's name into Mumby too.

Larklight by Philip Reeve 400pp, Bloomsbury, £12.99

There have been some memorable opening lines in children's books in recent years, and one which instantly springs to mind is: "It was a dark, blustery afternoon in spring, and the city of London was chasing a small mining town across the dried-out bed of the old North Sea," from Philip Reeve's debut novel, Mortal Engines. A good opening line isn't a copper-bottomed guarantee of a good book to follow. Readers of Reeve needn't have worried, though. The books in the ensuing quartet went on to win critical acclaim, numerous fans, and many awards, including the 2006 Guardian children's fiction prize.

And now, for slightly younger children, we have Larklight, Reeve's new offering, "decorated throughout by David Wyatt" (who was responsible for the stupendous silhouette illustrations in Geraldine McCaughrean's Peter Pan in Scarlet). The high ratio of pictures to text, the illustrative style Wyatt employs, and the alternative Victorian world of Heath-Robinson-like contraptions cannot help but lead to comparisons with Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell's award-winning Far-Flung Adventures. The hardbacks are even in the same unusual format. Larklight also brings to mind, in look and feel, those very British science fiction films of the 1960s, such as The First Men in the Moon and The Time Machine.

The story, however, is pure Reeve. On the copyright page, we are informed "The pages of this volume are impregnated with Snagsby's Patent Folio-dubbin to preserve them against the depredations of space moth and paper bats". The caption to an illustration of the instructions in a lifeboat reads: "Passages from the BIBLE provided may be read to keep spirits up, or until the air has expired." The endpapers of the book are cod advertisements for everything from McNamara's Exhaust-Trumpet Enamel Restorer to Whilkins Efficacious Linctus. There's no doubting a lot of fun was had creating this epic. It's inventive, reassuringly old-fashioned and, most importantly, the pages are also impregnated with Reeve's Patent Master Storytelling Techniques. I was quickly won over.

This unlikely romp is narrated by one Art Mumby, an interesting choice of name when one assumes that an author steeped in Victoriana must be well aware of the extraordinary Victorian gentleman Arthur Munby; he of the secret mistress (later wife) Hannah Cullwick, and their rather strange collection of photographs. Reeve's Mumby, however, is a young lad who lives with his sister Myrtle in Larklight, a house (of sorts) orbiting the Moon. Once Larklight is invaded by the many-legged Mr Webster (note the name), they flee and begin a series of adventures with the notorious - and surprisingly young - pirate Captain Jack Havock.

Mumby's universe doesn't quite follow the physical laws of our own, and the history of space travel is also somewhat different. Venus would be quite habitable by humans (if it weren't for those troublesome spores) and breathing on the Moon, which was claimed for Queen Anne by Captain Frobisher in 1703, is straightforward enough. In a wonderful nod in the direction of HG Wells, Reeve has humans observing the Martians from across the gulf of space, before the Duke of Marlborough finally brings "civilisation" to their planet. There is a moment of revelation concerning the villainous Sir Waverley Rain which is straight out of Men in Black, but I strongly suspect that Reeve has never seen the film and came up with the idea quite independently. A nod in the direction of Star Trek, however, was obviously intended.

Satisfying, enjoyable and engaging. Mr Reeve has done it again.

· Philip Ardagh is the author of the Eddie Dickens adventures and the Unlikely Exploits series (Faber).

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by Alex Aster ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 23, 2022

Follows a formula many have loved and will continue to enjoy.

A deadly game takes place on an island that only appears once every 100 years.

Isla Crown has trained for the Centennial ever since she was a child. When the island of Lightlark emerges from the storm that hides it and becomes accessible again after a century of isolation, a competition takes place wherein the rulers of this world’s six realms fight to undo the curses placed upon their people. The cost? One of them must die. Isla is leader of the Wildlings, a people gifted in nature-based abilities but cursed to eat human hearts and kill those they love. Once the game begins, Isla is quickly consumed by interrealm politics, life-threatening stakes, and a flirtatious rival. She’ll have to keep dangerous secrets close, however, if she wants to survive and free the Wildings from their suffering. This YA debut is deeply reminiscent of the era in young adult speculative fiction that produced the Hunger Games and Divergent series—for better and worse. Some readers will delight in the familiar beats and tropes, while others might find it all a little too predictable. Grim, one of Isla’s love interests, is a total scene-stealer, often making other characters seem flat by comparison; their steamy scenes are a definite highlight. Characters in this world are varied in physical appearance.

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A heavy read about the harsh realities of tragedy and their effects on those left behind.

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Larklight: A Rousing Tale of Dauntless Pluck in the Farthest Reaches of Space Paperback – August 21, 2007

Arthur (Art) Mumsby and his irritating sister Myrtle live with their father in a huge and rambling house called Larklight…that just happens to be traveling through outer space. When a visitor called Mr. Webster arrives for a visit, it is far from an innocent social call. Before long Art and Myrtle are off on an adventure to the furthest reaches of space, where they will do battle with evil forces in order to save each other―and the universe. A fantastically original Victorian tale set in an outer space world that might have come from the imaginations of Jules Verne or L Frank Baum, but has a unique gravitational pull all its own…

• Reading age 10 - 12 years
• Book 1 of 3 Larklight
• Print length 416 pages
• Language English
• Grade level 5 - 6
• Dimensions 5.28 x 1.16 x 7.87 inches
• Publisher Bloomsbury USA Childrens
• Publication date August 21, 2007
• ISBN-10 1599901455
• ISBN-13 978-1599901459
• See all details

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Editorial Reviews

About the author.

PHILIP REEVE worked in a bookshop and produced and directed several theatre projects before embarking on a career as an illustrator and a writer. His first novel, Mortal Engines , was shortlisted for the Whitbread Children’s Book Award and won the GOLD Nestle Smarties book prize. He lives in Devon, with his wife and their son.

Product details

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Bloomsbury USA Childrens; First Edition (August 21, 2007)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 416 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1599901455
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1599901459
• Reading age ‏ : ‎ 10 - 12 years
• Grade level ‏ : ‎ 5 - 6
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 12 ounces
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.28 x 1.16 x 7.87 inches
• #11,404 in Children's Siblings Books (Books)
• #57,091 in Children's Fantasy & Magic Books
• #83,207 in Children's Action & Adventure Books (Books)

About the author

Philip reeve.

Philip Reeve is best known as the author of Mortal Engines, but has written many other works, including Railhead, Here Lies Arthur, and a series of popular books for younger readers with the illustrator Sarah McIntyre.

Philip was born and raised in Brighton, where he worked in a bookshop for a number of years while also co-writing, producing and directing a number of no-budget theatre projects. Philip then began illustrating, and has since provided illustrations, cartoons and comic strips for around forty children's books, including the best-selling Horrible Histories, Murderous Maths and Dead Famous series. It was while working on these that he wrote Mortal Engines, his first novel.

Mortal Engines is a gripping adventure story set in a future world where moving cities trawl the globe. It was shortlisted for several awards and was the Gold Award winner at the Nestle Smarties Book Prize 2002 and the winner of the Blue Peter Book of the Year at the 2003 Awards. A movie adaptation, written and produced by Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens and directed by Christian Rivers, was released in 2018.

Predator's Gold is the second book in the Mortal Engines quartet, Infernal Devices the third and A Darkling Plain concludes the series to date. A Darkling Plain was published in 2006 and won the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize.

In 2007, Philip took a new direction with publication of Here Lies Arthur, a story which this time looks back into history. Set in the Dark Ages, the book is a gripping adventure story and at the same time explores how a myth can be created through story-telling. Here Lies Arthur was shortlisted for the Booktrust Teenage Award, the Nestle Children's Book Prize and won the CILIP Carnegie Medal in 2008.

Fever Crumb, published in 2009 and set many generations before the events of Mortal Engines, was short-listed for the CILIP Carnegie Medal 2010.  It was followed by A Web of Air (2010) and Scrivener's Moon (2011).

Philip is also the author of Goblins ,Goblins Vs Dwarves, and Goblin Quest (comic fantasies about the bloodthirsty goblins of Clovenstone) and a trilogy of steam-powered Victorian space adventures Larklight, Starcross and Mothstorm, all gloriously illustrated by David Wyatt.

In recent years Philip has begun a successful collaboration with the illustrator Sarah McIntyre. Their books together include Oliver and the Seawigs, Cakes in Space, Pugs of the Frozen North, and Jinks and O’Hare Funfair Repair. The Legend of Kevin, about a roly-poly flying pony, was followed by three sequels: Kevin's Great Escape, Kevin and the Biscuit Bandit and Kevin vs the Unicorns.

In March 2023 Philip and Sarah published the first of their new Adventuremice series: Otter Chaos. Based on paintings Sarah did during the pandemic lockdowns, and lavishly illustrated in full colour, the first book tells the story of Pedro, a young mouse who sets off in search of the fabled Mouse Islands, and meets the daring Adventuremice.

Inspired by working on the Reeve & McIntyre series, Philip returned to large-scale sci-fi with his YA novel Railhead, set in a future where human beings live in a galactic empire linked by hyperspace railways, Railhead tells the story of a young thief named Zen, who is recruited to commit an elaborate robbery. Zen’s adventures continue in a sequel, Black Light Express, and Station Zero completes the trilogy.

Philip's most recent novels are Utterly Dark and the Face of the Deep and Utterly Dark and the Heart of the Wild. Described by the Guardian as 'a superbly weird tale of wonder, peril, tragedy and the thin places between worlds', it is set on the imaginary 19th Century island of Wildsea, where young Utterly Dark keeps watch for even more imaginary islands which appear sometimes on the western horizon, and the terrifying being who lives on them. 'The writing is superbly descriptive, strongly evoking landscapes, weathers and moods. Much of the earlier part of the story feels lyrical and echoes the writing of the period in which it is set, without ever feeling in any way archaic. But…the story rapidly builds to a cataclysmic and hugely exciting sequence of climaxes.’ (Gordon Askew, Magic Fiction Since Potter.) The second book follows Utterly to another island, where old magic is stirring beneath the hills.

Philip lives on Dartmoor with his wife and son. 

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