Ship breaker

a novel

English language

Published June 25, 2010 by Little, Brown and Co..

ISBN:
978-0-316-05621-2
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4 stars (1 review)

In a futuristic world, teenaged Nailer scavenges copper wiring from grounded oil tankers for a living, but when he finds a beached clipper ship with a girl in the wreckage, he has to decide if he should strip the ship for its wealth or rescue the girl.

3 editions

reviewed Ship breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi

post-climate-apocalypse meets high seas adventure

4 stars

People who have read the (one year earlier) Windup Girl will find aspects of the setting familiar, but it is not identical. This book does not talk about calorie scarcity which really drives Windup Girl but focuses on resurgence of sail transport. A triumphant and uncaring capitalism probably prevents the book from being solarpunk.

As for plot, young boy from underclass rescues princess, has adventures on land and at sea. It is immersive and makes the point well enough about human driven climate change, but it didn't touch me as deeply as some other stories in e.g. Pump six. Not sure why, could just be the others were my first exposure to the author's world building.

I guess this is targeted at young adults? No explicit sex, some light (hopeless?) romance. Reference to impoverished women forced to sex work as a means of survival.

Subjects

  • Conduct of life -- Fiction
  • Recycling (Waste) -- Fiction
  • Science fiction