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Category: Young Adult Science Fiction
Keywords: Fantasy, dystopian, ships, pirates, genetic engineering, family
Format: Hardcover, ebook, audiobook


I was a little apprehensive about picking this one up. While I thought Bacigalupi's last book, The Windup Girl, was interesting, it wasn't a favorite. But a long road trip prompted me to pick up Ship Breaker in audio book at the library. Luckily, my fears were unfounded, and I am really glad I took a chance on it.

The book takes place in a grim future where where global warming has caused a major shift in the ecological landscape. Rising water levels and "city killer" storms have left large metropolitan areas covered in water and refuse. Nailer, a young teenage boy, works a dangerous job on the light crew, stripping old tanker ships that have washed ashore for copper wire and other salvageable parts. Living a hand to mouth existence, with an abusive father at home, Nailer knows that any day might be his last. A lucky encounter with a downed clipper ship brings Nailer and his friend Pima to Nita, a "swank" rich girl and the only survivor of the ship. Nailer decides to risk it all to save Nita with the hope that she'll help him leave the ship yards for good.

Ship Breaker is a tense roller coaster ride that keeps you on the edge of your seat. Well plotted and well paced, there's never a dull moment. With a male protagonist and an emphasis on peril and adventure, I can see this book appealing to boys. There's a bit of romance thrown in, though it's minor compared to everything else that happens in the book.

Bacigalupi does a great job of creating a unique and believable dystopian future, one both familiar but also very different than our own. He tackles some heavy themes, including environmental responsibility, class disparity, and notions of family and loyalty. Though a bit heavy handed at times, Bacigalupi manages not to sound too preachy. Though their world is often cruel and heartless, there still exists kindness, friendship and love, as demonstrated by Nailer and others in the story.

While the world is vast and rich, what impressed me the most about the book were the characters in it. They are diverse in breeding and background and are a complex lot, damaged and imperfect. No character is all good or all ba

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    Absolutely everyone has noticed the rash of dystopian YA novels kicking around the bookstore these days. I was recently in the wonderland that is Powell's Books in Portland, Oregon, and their YA room had a great "I'm Dystopian!" display. Author Philip Reeve wrote about the phenomenon in this month's School Library Journal. And you can't escape the promotions for the upcoming movie version of The Hunger Games. I'm guilty of being quietly obsessed with the genre ever since I started teaching Lois Lowry's classic The Giver twenty or so years ago.

    Well, in the past few years, I've read: The Hunger Games series, The Maze Runner series, the Chaos Walking series, the Gone series, the Uglies series, Incarceron, Divergent, Matched, Delerium, Enclave, Shipbreaker, The Roar, etc., etc., etc. Lots and lots of 'em. Some of them are great (Shipbreaker, Delerium, Chaos Walking series); some are very good (Maze Runner, Uglies, Gone, Incarceron). All of them are addictively readable.  For some reason I cannot fathom, we are fascinated with our own inevitable, horrific future. What we know for sure: Earth will suffer many cataclysmic disasters which will (probably) be our fault; the new government of what is left of the U.S. will be oppressive and totalitarian; the poor will be really poor and the rich will be really rich. And one last thing: Some plucky teenager with mad fighting and survival skills will soon see it all for what it is and will fight back.

    So what is different about Marie Lu's Legend, which will be published later this year and has already been optioned for the screen? Truthfully, not much. When I received the galley of Legend and read the back cover, I actually groaned. Aloud, not inwardly. My obsession was in danger of spilling over into compulsion: Yet another dystopian novel I must read. No, really, I just can't do it again. Please make it stop!

    Still, I cracked Legend open and began. Original it ain't, but, I gotta tell you, I liked it.  I liked it a lot. Despite being able to predict almost everything that was going to happen, I couldn't put Legend down. And if it's done right, it could make an awesome film. At the very least, it would be a great video game.

    June is a war-ready prodigy in the future Republic of America, a perfect soldier-to-be, who grew up in the golden light of Los Angeles's richest district. Day is a prodigy of another kind. He is from one of the city's poorest districts, and he's also the country's most wanted terrorist/criminal.  June and Day could not have come from more contrasting origins, but their worlds are about to collide in a big way.

    When Day's family is quarantined because of a breakout of the newest strain of plague to run through the L.A. slum areas, he needs to steal some plague cure quick. June's brother Matias, who seems to be the ultimate Republic soldier, is murdered at the hospital on the night that Day tries to swipe a few vials of the cure. Now, Day is the number-one suspect in the crime, and June is out to exact her revenge.

    Soon, however, June and Day cross paths in a most unlikely way.  An uneasy alliance, even a touch of romance develops, and June and Day start to uncover some horrifying trut

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