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3.8 AVERAGE
3.8 AVERAGE
I'll start by saying that Bacigalupi is really a great writer. He continues with the world that he created in his excellent debut, Shipbreaker, here. This novel is set in a different part of that world, with different characters, but he does pull in Tool, who was introduced in the Shipbreaker. Tool is quite a character. I found this novel a little slow and less compelling than Shipbreaker, but Bacigalupi is a great storyteller and this world is vividly imagined.
As with his Windup Girl (but not Ship Breaker curiously) I found it quite slow to get going but when it does, very gripping. This is the same post-oil world of those books and shares the character Tool from Ship Breaker although it's intriguingly unclear as to whether this takes place before or after that story.
I'm not sure why i find them so difficult to get into at first but suspect that his strength is in plotting rather than exposition or character .. although the world and the people to people it that he has created are fascinating so ... ? Maybe too fascinating. I had similar issues with Tolkien to be honest so he's in good company.
I'm not sure why i find them so difficult to get into at first but suspect that his strength is in plotting rather than exposition or character .. although the world and the people to people it that he has created are fascinating so ... ? Maybe too fascinating. I had similar issues with Tolkien to be honest so he's in good company.
Companion to Ship Breakers, which was also great!
I had heard that The Drowned Cities surpassed Ship Breakers and was pleasantly surprised to find it indeed so!
Of all the dystopian American novels recently, Bacigalupi's are the most realistic (in my mind). If the US government and society did collapse for whatever reason, I doubt we would develop a complex caste system (Divergent) or random districts with highly evolved transport (Hunger Games). Total chaos seems rather more our style. In Drowned Cities (and yes...it took me until they described the Washington Monument to figure out that it was DC), the region is controlled by warring factions of children (Sudan, anybody?) who kidnap villagers to scavenge the DC area in order to sell to multinational companies in exchange for bullets, so they can continue to kidnap villagers...etc.
The main character, Mahlia, is another smart and selfish girl who doesn't have anybody to take care of her. She and another "war maggot", Mouse, adopt each other and save each others' lives in multiple situations. When Mouse is recruited into one of the child armies as Mahlia saves herself (along with Tool, a genetically designed cocktail of human, dog, wolf, hyena, tiger genes), Mahlia decides to rescue him, even if it means giving up on her philosophy of survival at all costs.
She does not fall in love. Nobody falls in love. In a YA novel, this is notable.
I had heard that The Drowned Cities surpassed Ship Breakers and was pleasantly surprised to find it indeed so!
Of all the dystopian American novels recently, Bacigalupi's are the most realistic (in my mind). If the US government and society did collapse for whatever reason, I doubt we would develop a complex caste system (Divergent) or random districts with highly evolved transport (Hunger Games). Total chaos seems rather more our style. In Drowned Cities (and yes...it took me until they described the Washington Monument to figure out that it was DC), the region is controlled by warring factions of children (Sudan, anybody?) who kidnap villagers to scavenge the DC area in order to sell to multinational companies in exchange for bullets, so they can continue to kidnap villagers...etc.
The main character, Mahlia, is another smart and selfish girl who doesn't have anybody to take care of her. She and another "war maggot", Mouse, adopt each other and save each others' lives in multiple situations. When Mouse is recruited into one of the child armies as Mahlia saves herself (along with Tool, a genetically designed cocktail of human, dog, wolf, hyena, tiger genes), Mahlia decides to rescue him, even if it means giving up on her philosophy of survival at all costs.
She does not fall in love. Nobody falls in love. In a YA novel, this is notable.
Makes me want to get a dog and name him Tool, if it weren't too embarrassing to call out across the park when you need to get him back on his leash.
Gritty book. Hard to read in places but couldn't put it down. More in depth look at Tool who is also in Shipbreaker.
I'm only rating this so low because it has probably one of my biggest triggers in it: kids killing kids.
Otherwise, it was very well written, as per usual with Paolo Bacigalupi. The characters are real, and very well fleshed out. Considering they are children, going through some really tough shit (aka something that child soldiers legit go through, this is real life people).
I didn't really love Mahlia at the beginning of all of this, but she went through some pretty hard character development once she started hanging around Tool. I really appreciated seeing that.
Otherwise, it was very well written, as per usual with Paolo Bacigalupi. The characters are real, and very well fleshed out. Considering they are children, going through some really tough shit (aka something that child soldiers legit go through, this is real life people).
I didn't really love Mahlia at the beginning of all of this, but she went through some pretty hard character development once she started hanging around Tool. I really appreciated seeing that.
Welp, I'm officially over dystopias...but I do agree with the comments others have made that Bacigalupi portrays a fairly realistic scenario of our future.
Second time I've read this book, and I can't say how much I loved reading it again. The world building is fantastic, the descriptions so vivid I could see the world rising up in my mind's eye in all its horrific, gritty and gory detail. The characters are so real in all the conflicting emotions they may feel towards the traumatizing events that Bacigalupi throws them into. This book is a fast paced thrilling adventure and I couldn't get enough. LOVED THIS STORY JUST AS MUCH ASI I DID THE FIRST TIME.
The thing I love about Paolo Bacigalupi is that he doesn't pull any punches. [b:The Drowned Cities|12814594|The Drowned Cities (Ship Breaker, #2)|Paolo Bacigalupi|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1333712780s/12814594.jpg|13677912] is a YA novel set in the middle of a never-ending war and does not shy away from showing how horrible it is. For all that, he manages to fit in touches of humor and somehow, don't ask me how, manages to give a sense of hope.
The characters are viscerally real and compelling. Highly recommended.
The characters are viscerally real and compelling. Highly recommended.