hiddenstar13 's review for:

The Drowned Cities by Paolo Bacigalupi

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So I read Ship Breaker earlier this year, not realising that it was a book #1 in a series. Then I recommended it to Dad, who revealed that he had The Drowned Cities and hadn't realised it was a book #2 in a series! Which I think is really a sign of a good book, that you can't tell it has a prequel or sequel. Books should really stand alone. But anyway, I read The Drowned Cities and it was pretty good, although imo a little less self-contained than Ship Breaker because I'm pretty keen to read Tool of War now. Hopefully the post ships it to me quickly... Good stuff, these books. I already knew Paolo Bacigalupi was a great writer (have you read Wind-Up Girl? Go read it) but these are really impressing me with the thorough world-building and the fact that they kind of read like post-apocalyptic fantasy but in fact I think technically qualify as sci-fi, which is super cool when you think about it.