Ship Breaker

Paolo Bacigalupi delivers again with another masterful work. His storytelling and attention to detail make the reader feel as if they're right alongside Nailer as he navigates a dangerous and oftentimes unfair world. My only regret is that it ended so soon. I'll look forward to any and everything that Bacigalupi has in store for us as he continues to amaze.

Fast-paced, gripping storyline with some well drawn characters. Undercut by ham-fisted foreshadowing and an almost unbearably predictable climax. Overall, an enjoyable read but it pales in comparison to the same author's Windup Girl.

I thought Nailer was awesome. An engaging and tough kid. Rooted for him every step of the way. I loved the environmental themes the book tackles (or suggests) and would have loved MORE of the world building and more information about the history of the world. Perhaps this will be discussed further in the next book of the series - which I just pre-ordered!

Although the beginning of the book seems to drag, the rest of it entertained me from that point on. I understand why it drags because it is necessary to explain the awful time period and circumstances. The main thing that bothered me was all of the bad language. The creativity and realistic point of the book truly deserves five stars.

This was a great book I loved everything about it. How Nailer saves lucky girls life and much more. I would recommend this book to anyone above the age of 13 because of some swears that some parents may not like. Its a great read hope you enjoy it!

Bacigalupi imagines a changed world where resources are no longer easy to come by. The detail he creates brings to life this alternative world that is not altogether an impossibility for the human race. A great read that I highly recommend.

If you enjoyed The Hunger Games, you'll love this book. Set in a dystopic, future Gulf Coast, the plot and characters are compelling. It's a classic coming-of-age as well, with the young, main character struggling to determine what's right and who he's going to become. Of course, a great love story woven in makes it all the better! I loved it!

Beautifully written, incomparable in it's prose and storyline. A true wonder to modern Young Adult Literature in it's breadth and scope.

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Now to what some who have may have a similar viewpoint on YA and "might" be helpful in wether you decide to invest the time and maybe money in this book:

Having taken in the four and five star reviews plus that shiny medal on the cover of this book, I didn't hesitate to shell out the hard cash for this highly touted YA novel. I was quite taken aback as I reached half way. The characters seemed shallow and predictable, the dialogue contrived and the futuristic world overly simplified and dumbed down.

I'm never quite sure what's going on when a book is so lauded but doesn't even come close to my expectation. I have read some excellent YA fiction like "The Monstrumologist and The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie: A Flavia de Luce Mystery for example, which may have sent me in the wrong direction on this one.

Scavengers struggle to move up the pecking order and improve their lot-in-life as they salvage reusable materials from beached ships in a dangerous, post apocalyptic Louisiana.

This is a pretty good story in the beginning, as the PA scenario is layed out and the main characters are developed. As the plot further expanded, the story got so bogged down that it became a very boring read. I never finished the book.

After reading 'The Windup Girl' by Paolo Bacigalupi' I thought I had found a new voice for an earthbound future. It painted a picture of a future that was all too believable, a future post oil where food had become the subject of wars and the method of domination. Surprise...the US through the use of virus's had wiped out most species except the ones they controlled through genetic engineering. It was thoroughly believable and a great book.
Shipbreaker on the other hand is touted as a novel for the young sci-fi reader. While it has some believable futuristic scenarios which again follow from an oilless future it is mostly an adventure where the bad guys chase the good guys. The plot is not believable and if I may say so 'silly'/juvenile to the point I won't bore you with it. Bacigalupi wrote one great book and I hope he has another in him. 'Ship Breaker' certainly was not it.

Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi is an exciting adventure set in a dystopian future that has been devastated by climate change, altered by genetic engineering and impacted by class struggles. A teenage boy must choose between the life he knows and an uncertain future filled with danger and a beautiful girl.

Since reading a wonderful short story by Paolo Bacigalupi printed in High Country News several years ago and his recent short story collection and novel, I was looking forward to his young adult work. His unique characters, compelling stories and effective writing style will make him popular with teens. His exploration of family, personal sense of right and wrong, and longing for a better life make this a powerful coming-of-age novel for teens.

Recently winning the Printz award for young adult fiction, this fast-moving book should be on everyone's young adult reading list. It would be a great pairing with the many other classic and recent dystopian literature.

Nailer, a teenager, is one of many people who live in shantytowns along the US Gulf Coast, trying to eke out a dangerous living by working on disassembling crews, taking apart abandoned -- and now obsolete -- oil tankers. The work is dangerous, and taking risks is almost a necessity, because if the young workers don't make quota, there are always other starving kids ready to take their jobs. Once the children get too big to crawl down the narrow ship ducts in search of copper wiring and other recyclable metals, there aren't many options left to them... and if they're not strong enough to do the heavier work, prostitution, crime or starvation are almost inevitable.

At the start of Ship Breaker, Nailer finds an undiscovered oil reservoir in the ship he is exploring -- a lucky strike that would be sufficient to feed him and possibly provide escape from his abusive father. However, when he almost drowns in the oil, and one of his young crew mates finds him, she decides not to rescue him and leaves him to die so she can take advantage of his find. Even though Nailer manages to escape, this incident, set early in the novel, is a perfect introduction to the competing themes of "loyalty in the face of adversity" vs. "everyone for themselves" that run through Ship Breaker. After all, when Nailer finds a gorgeous clipper ship run aground during a hurricane, he faces the same choice: should he rescue the rich "swank" girl trapped inside, or let her die so the ship's salvage can make him wealthy?

YA novels have changed just a tad, haven't they? Yep, although you maybe wouldn't guess so from the paragraphs above, Ship Breaker is actually the first Young Adult novel by Paolo Bacigalupi. You can draw a straight line right from the author's excellent SF novel The Windup Girl, which also focused on the disastrous consequences of environmental change, to Ship Breaker. Even though the reading level is YA, and most of the main characters are teenagers, the grimness (not to mention the violence) is definitely straddling the border between adult and YA.

Be that as it may, Ship Breaker is a well-written, gripping SF novel. The story's scope continually broadens, from Nailer's initial find, to the arrival of the clipper, and ultimately to everything the ship's owner stands for. Likewise, the dystopian future gradually becomes clearer as Nailer becomes more aware of, and eventually ventures into, the world outside his beach shantytown. As mentioned before, the theme of loyalty is approached from different directions. Just to name a few: Nailer's relationship with his abusive and addicted father; the connections with and between his crew's members; and maybe most interestingly, the concept of "halfmen," genetically engineered to be loyal to their owners.

While I enjoyed Ship Breaker, and would recommend it to mature YA readers, I can't help but wonder if this story wouldn't have worked better as a regular, non-YA novel. Some of the darker concepts, situated on the periphery of Nailer's story, are only broadly hinted at rather than described outright, which left me feeling frustrated and wanting to read more. If you told me there was a 600-page adult version of this 340-page YA novel, in which Paolo Bacigalupi really embraced the story's darkness and delved more deeply into the world's history and set-up, I'd be first in line to read it.

Still, armchair-quarterbacking aside, Ship Breaker is a good novel with a likable protagonist, a gripping story, and a vision of the future that's sadly becoming more probable by the day. If the grim realism of the environmentally ruined future described in The Windup Girl didn't bother you, and you're in the mood for something in the same vein but at a slightly easier reading level, definitely check out Ship Breaker.