Review: Ship Break by Paolo Bacigalupi

Genre: Young Adult, Dystopian
SciFi Element: Apocalypitic 
Order Online:  Amazon.com 
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PJ's QUICKIE POV:
After having read and enjoyed The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi I quickly moved on to his young adult novel, SHIP BREAKER. Favoring the gritty and in-your-face style of writing that Bacigalupi is known for, SHIP BREAKER, while young adult, didn't hold back. Bacigalupi thrust you into a very uncomfortable, dystopian world and rubs your face into it repeatedly and if you are anything like me, you'll love every minute of it.

REVIEW:
In the future world of SHIP BREAKER there is a huge economic divide between the poor and the rich, much like you would find in 3rd world countries. The rich live in sickening luxury while the poor destroy themselves to earn pennies and barely survive. The Gulf Coast region of what was once the United States has been devastated by hurricanes, plague and famine. Ragged villages exist upon the coast, their whole existence revolving around scavenging the oil tankers that were left to rot after the decline of the human race. Nailer is our hero of this story, he is a young teenager, still small in frame so he is able to squirrel his way through the ships and scavenge on what is called Light Crew. His existence is horrendous, forced to scavenge in an environment that could kill you at any turn, then only to come home to an abusive father, waiting for that day when his shoulders grow a little too wide and then he won't be able to crawl through the ships...therefor not able to work any longer.

Change comes to the shores in the form of a terrible hurricane, not uncommon in those parts, but with it comes more scavenge as Nailer and his friend Pima come across a clipper ship, broken and screaming wealth. A lone survivor on the ship puts some serious questions in front of the teens...it would be so much easier just to kill her and take the scavenge then it would be to let her live. Something stops Nailer though and he does the right thing...hoping that his choices, made for the right reasons will lead him to a better life instead of just scraping by in his village.

Bacigalupi (just like writing out his name – saying it is even better) has the voice of a science fiction rock star. His descriptions are so vividly stunning that the world comes alive around you. To describe his book in one adjective it would be “rusty”, it's just this old world, slightly acidic environment that is portrayed in such naked and viscous detail that it can almost be hard to digest at times. This is a book you don't want to pass up.

What some readers might find hard to take in: This is a more “boy” oriented story, it's not romantic with kissing and sobbing and love triangles. This is an adventure story with a girl and a boy, but the theme is triumph over your circumstances, not romance. I highly recommend this one and it's great for something different, if you are tired of those love triangles...

RECOMMENDATIONS:
Recommended for fans of dystopian and gritty science fiction. Recommended for more mature teens 14+ because of some mature and sometimes violent themes, but nothing that is out of line.




  


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Review: The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi

Genre: Adult, SciFi, Dytstopian
ScFi Element: Biological Disaster
Order Online:  Amazon.com
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PJ's QUICKIE POV:

I have never experienced such gritty and descriptive world-building as I have with Paolo Bacigalupi’s THE WINDUP GIRL. You could almost taste the heat as Bacigalupi described the post-apocalyptic Asian landscape. Bacigalupi has a way of blending realities, the dystopian squalor with the science fiction advancement, the way you didn’t know who was a good guy or a bad guy and the on-your-toes plot twists that had my head whirling. THE WINDUP GIRL. is a grown-up dystopian and a must-read if you fancy yourself a fan of the genre. I have to say this has to be one of the finest modern science fiction novels I've read.

REVIEW:

The lands have been racked with bio-engineered diseases and horrendous natural disasters. Bangkok is a city on the verge of disaster, exploited and two feet from being overrun by the ocean. The people live in fear of infected foods and the calorie is the new currency. Anderson Lake, one of the hated “calorie men” from the West is in Bangkok in search of extinct food to use for profit for his company AgriGen. He uses an AgriGen factory as a front, but his real motives is to find lost foods that he believes Bangkok might have.


In a backdoor meeting with an unsavory brothel owner he is introduced to Emiko. THE WINDUP GIRL. Emiko is a bio-engineered “New Person.” She was grown in a crèche in Japan, created to become the plaything of rich Japanese businessmen. She is bred to serve, for her beauty and her uniqueness. Most humans distrust her, thinking she is soulless. When her master grew tired of her he abandoned her in a city that deems her illegal. Her new master is harsh and abusive but there is no other way to survive, especially when her every movement is a sign that she is New People. As the city goes mad, enraged from corruption and political maneuvering, Emiko only wants one thing…to be free. Because even though she is New People, she still wants.


Bacigalupi has to have one of the most unique voices that I’ve experienced in an author. His blending of the Asian culture with this gritty dystopian was something that I’ve never experienced before and probably never will. You could practically smell, touch and taste his descriptions. I can only compare THE WINDUP GIRL with the greats, such as BRAVE NEW WORLD or 1984. The only down points I found in this novel was the almost abstract broadness of the writing. Bacigalupi plunges you in head first with very little explanation of back-story on most of the plot-lines so I found myself feeling that I missed something. Also, because of the Asian names it was sometimes hard to keep track of the multitude of characters. This worked for me as an audio book and the narrator Jonathan Davis handled pronunciation quite well. This is one book that I would highly recommend in audio format.


RECOMMENDATIONS:

Highly recommended for fans of the dystopian genre. If you’ve read and enjoyed a BRAVE NEW WORLD or 1984 and would like a grittier meal, give this one a try. This is an adult novel and has a multitude of heavy themes, rape, violence, sex and debauchery. For mature audiences only.










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