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dorouu 's review for:
The Drowned Cities
by Paolo Bacigalupi
On the surface- The Drowned Cities is a beautifully written book. It's deep and really emphasizes a lot of serious qualities of war and human nature. The writing is engaging, haunting, and detailed. But the plot itself didn't really cut it for me.
The world building was enough so that you understood what was going on, but it wasn't enough to really feel like everything was real and happening. (I'm fairly certain these problems would've been solved had I delved more into Bacigalupi's books and universe prior to reading this one but...) I had no idea where the book was even taking place until about 2/3rd of the way through. I knew it was the Drowned Cities, but I didn't realize that was D.C as in Washington D.C, until they mentioned the capitol building. It was clear from the start that this place in our world, I just had no idea where in the world we were. I didn't even know it was in the United States until I was like 30% through. There's no explanation or background to this war, what Tool is, how he exists, what the rest of the world is like... and maybe the first book explains all of this and I'm just complaining- but I was really confused for a large portion of this book.
The plot wasn't extremely amazing either, I just kept expecting more... when I was towards the end I was still so confused and it didn't seem like there was enough pages to explain everything I didn't understand.. But here we go: The Drowned Cities is a post-apocalyptic book. Global warming has taken place and lots of land forms have been drowned in water- hence, The Drowned Cities. China is a super power who tries to be a peace keeper, but failed and ran away instead. There's a war in the Drowned Cities between like 6? different groups. It's been going on for so long, no one remembers why it started. The soldiers are all children (which can't be true if the war has been going on for so long no one remembers, because if all the children are dying where are these other children even coming from?)- sometimes as young as five, carrying guns to big for them, and being war fierce even though they're still terrified children inside.
The characters and their individual journeys were incredibly well written and deep. The book focuses on two characters Mahlia and Mouse, both of which are living under the wing of a village doctor. The doctor is a very- glass full, dislike war, peaceful person. One day, soldiers come, Tool enters the picture, the doc dies, Mahlia runs with the half-man, and Mouse is recruited to become a child soldier. Mahlia is a great character- she's half Chinese, and has had her right hand cut off by one of the warring groups (all who kind of hate the Chinese Peace Keepers). Her father was one of the Chinese Peace Keepers and so Mahlia lived in fair comfort, until one day, the Peace Keepers just all pull out- leaving the DC to fend for themselves. (What even happens to her father and why doesn't he come back, I don't know). But anyways, this creates a really interesting character- who was raised speaking Chinese and learning about Lao Tzu. It was cool how Chinese was written into the book, as well as bits of the culture. Mahlia survives because she runs and she avoids dangerous situations- she doesn't understand the doctor and his peaceful ways because she thinks- that's how you get killed. In the end though, she learns and understands him and when she realizes she agrees and such.. that portion of the book was very powerful. I imagine mouse as an adorable little kid who runs around and climbs things. Then he gets taken by the soldiers and becomes Ghost. Ghost, I imagine very differently than Mouse. Ghost's eyes are darker, and he knows how to kill, he knows how to survive. Bacigalupi's description of how child soldiers are made is frighteningly detailed and understandable. Tool... I don't really understand him.
Anyways. Super well written. Dark. War. Humans. Depth.
The world building was enough so that you understood what was going on, but it wasn't enough to really feel like everything was real and happening. (I'm fairly certain these problems would've been solved had I delved more into Bacigalupi's books and universe prior to reading this one but...) I had no idea where the book was even taking place until about 2/3rd of the way through. I knew it was the Drowned Cities, but I didn't realize that was D.C as in Washington D.C, until they mentioned the capitol building. It was clear from the start that this place in our world, I just had no idea where in the world we were. I didn't even know it was in the United States until I was like 30% through. There's no explanation or background to this war, what Tool is, how he exists, what the rest of the world is like... and maybe the first book explains all of this and I'm just complaining- but I was really confused for a large portion of this book.
The plot wasn't extremely amazing either, I just kept expecting more... when I was towards the end I was still so confused and it didn't seem like there was enough pages to explain everything I didn't understand.. But here we go: The Drowned Cities is a post-apocalyptic book. Global warming has taken place and lots of land forms have been drowned in water- hence, The Drowned Cities. China is a super power who tries to be a peace keeper, but failed and ran away instead. There's a war in the Drowned Cities between like 6? different groups. It's been going on for so long, no one remembers why it started. The soldiers are all children (which can't be true if the war has been going on for so long no one remembers, because if all the children are dying where are these other children even coming from?)- sometimes as young as five, carrying guns to big for them, and being war fierce even though they're still terrified children inside.
The characters and their individual journeys were incredibly well written and deep. The book focuses on two characters Mahlia and Mouse, both of which are living under the wing of a village doctor. The doctor is a very- glass full, dislike war, peaceful person. One day, soldiers come, Tool enters the picture, the doc dies, Mahlia runs with the half-man, and Mouse is recruited to become a child soldier. Mahlia is a great character- she's half Chinese, and has had her right hand cut off by one of the warring groups (all who kind of hate the Chinese Peace Keepers). Her father was one of the Chinese Peace Keepers and so Mahlia lived in fair comfort, until one day, the Peace Keepers just all pull out- leaving the DC to fend for themselves. (What even happens to her father and why doesn't he come back, I don't know). But anyways, this creates a really interesting character- who was raised speaking Chinese and learning about Lao Tzu. It was cool how Chinese was written into the book, as well as bits of the culture. Mahlia survives because she runs and she avoids dangerous situations- she doesn't understand the doctor and his peaceful ways because she thinks- that's how you get killed. In the end though, she learns and understands him and when she realizes she agrees and such.. that portion of the book was very powerful. I imagine mouse as an adorable little kid who runs around and climbs things. Then he gets taken by the soldiers and becomes Ghost. Ghost, I imagine very differently than Mouse. Ghost's eyes are darker, and he knows how to kill, he knows how to survive. Bacigalupi's description of how child soldiers are made is frighteningly detailed and understandable. Tool... I don't really understand him.
Anyways. Super well written. Dark. War. Humans. Depth.