移动城市4：黑暗荒原 (2006)

《移动城市4：黑暗荒原》（英语：A Darkling Plain）是菲利普·雷夫奇幻文学系列《移动城市》的第四部曲，于2006年出版。

A Darkling Plain is the fourth and final novel in the Mortal Engines Quartet series, written by British author Philip Reeve.

The novel won the 2006 Guardian Children's Fiction Prize and the 2007 Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Young Adult Fiction.

Setting

The book is set six months after Infernal Devices. Wren Natsworthy and her father Tom Natsworthy have taken to the skies in their airship, the Jenny Haniver. After the apparent death of the Stalker Fang at the end of Infernal Devices, General Naga has seized command of the Green Storm and has signed a peace treaty between the Green Storm and the Traktionstadtsgesellschaft, ushering in a new era of peace and trade. Whilst Wren is enjoying life as an aviator, Tom misses Hester, and has been informed by a doctor that his weak heart means he only has a few years left to live. The Lost Boy, Fishcake, is secretly repairing the Stalker Fang, coming to regard her as the mother he never had. Theo Ngoni has returned to Zagwa and rejoined his family.

Explanation of the novel's title

The title is derived from Matthew Arnold's poem Dover Beach. This excerpt of the poem appears at the beginning of the book:

Ah, love, let us be trueTo one another! for the world, which seemsTo lie before us like a land of dreams,So various, so beautiful so new,Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;And we are here as on a darkling plainSwept with confused alarms of struggle and flightWhere ignorant armies clash by night.

This relates to the novel in several ways. The characters are indeed swept about, often against their will, by the "ignorant armies" of the Green Storm and Traktionstadtsgesellschaft, on the "darkling plain" of the Great Hunting Ground.

Reeve references his choice of title himself towards the end of the book when the character Nimrod Pennyroyal writes a book within a book titled Ignorant Armies.

The similarly titled, "As on a Darkling Plain", by Ben Bova in 1972 also takes its title from this poem.

Plot

Part One

Six months after the events of Infernal Devices, General Naga, now leading the Green Storm following the presumed death of Stalker Fang, has brokered a truce with the Traktionstadtsgesellschaft, ushering in a new era of trade and peace.

Theo Ngoni returns to his hometown of Zagwa to reconnect with his family but thwarts an assassination attempt on Oenone Zero, wife of General Naga, now known as Lady Naga. In town to broker peace between Zagwa and the Green Storm, Zero suspects the attack was orchestrated by Stalker Fang loyalists. To prevent further danger, she arranges transport on a disguised merchant airship to rejoin Naga via an alternate route. Grateful for Theo’s assistance, she invites him along, and he accepts, hoping to find Wren during the journey. During the voyage, Zero’s servant Rohini is revealed as Cynthia Twite, a Green Storm spy who survived, and she attempts to kill Zero. Theo intervenes, but Cynthia escapes, causing the airship to crash. Both survive, but Zero is captured by air trader Napster Varley, who intends to sell her to the Traktionstadtsgesellschaft. Meanwhile, Theo is rescued from slavers by Hester Shaw and the Stalker Shrike, though Shrike’s abilities have been diminished by Zero’s earlier actions. Upon learning of Zero’s capture, Hester and Shrike set out to rescue her, knowing she can remove the "barrier limiting Shrike. When Cynthia reaches Naga’s base in Tienjing, she claims Zero was killed by the Zagwans, but Naga refuses to retaliate against the Tractionists. Cynthia then insinuates herself into a position within Naga’s household.