Title: Ship Breaker
Author: Paolo Bacigalupi
Publisher: Little Brown and Company (2010)
Genre(s): Young Adult Fiction, Dystopian Fiction, Post Apocalyptic Fiction
Length: 323 pages
Synopsis:
In a not-too-distant future, life is grim for the poor. Nailer is one of them. He's a member of the "light crew" of ship breakers at Bright Sands Beach, scraping a meager living from tearing apart the oil tankers. His mother died of sickness, and his father slipped into a haze of violence and drug abuse. Soon, Nailer himself will be out of a job, too big to scramble into the narrowest crevices of the wrecked ships for light scavenge, and too small to be of much use on the heavy crews that tear apart the ships' structure. He's got nothing to look forward to except the occasional sight of clipper ships out on the sea. They're beautiful craft, white and elegant as a seabird in flight, but Nailer knows he'll never have the chance to see one up close. Or so he thinks, until a storm brings a him to a very different kind of shipwreck, one that offers him a chance to leave behind the life of a salvager forever.
My Rating: 4 Stars
My Opinion:
The popularity of dystopian and post-apocalyptic fiction in the young adult market makes it very difficult for books in this niche to make a statement. Ship Breaker is a good book; the characters are flawed in ways that are entirely believable. The best laid plans don't always work out. Moreover, the environmental disaster that reduced Bacigalpi's world to its current state is completely realistic, as are the long term consequences. But despite its strengths, the book doesn't quite come alive in ways the reader might hope. It's certainly a worthwhile read, and very enjoyable, but it didn't resonate in ways that would keep me coming back for rereads, or dashing out to purchase the next book in the series (The Drowned Cities, 2012). It is refreshing to see dystopian books, however, in which the characters do not immediately set out to overthrow the unjust ruling system. Perhaps that's where the series will ultimately end up, but Bacigalupi respects his characters enough to let them work on resolving their own problems before they set out to fix the world's.
The popularity of dystopian and post-apocalyptic fiction in the young adult market makes it very difficult for books in this niche to make a statement. Ship Breaker is a good book; the characters are flawed in ways that are entirely believable. The best laid plans don't always work out. Moreover, the environmental disaster that reduced Bacigalpi's world to its current state is completely realistic, as are the long term consequences. But despite its strengths, the book doesn't quite come alive in ways the reader might hope. It's certainly a worthwhile read, and very enjoyable, but it didn't resonate in ways that would keep me coming back for rereads, or dashing out to purchase the next book in the series (The Drowned Cities, 2012). It is refreshing to see dystopian books, however, in which the characters do not immediately set out to overthrow the unjust ruling system. Perhaps that's where the series will ultimately end up, but Bacigalupi respects his characters enough to let them work on resolving their own problems before they set out to fix the world's.
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