Review: Ship Breaker #1
Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Dystopian deliciousness!
Jungle and wilderness has reclaimed most of what used to be major cities around the world due to years of horrible storms. In the new world, divisions between classes are stark and resemble the caste system; if you're born poor, you die poor.
Our 15 year old protagonist, Naylor, works as a ship breaker. He spends his days crawling around filthy ship wrecks looking for anything that can be salvaged and sold on the black market. People are salvaged for parts as well. Naylor lives in a world where someone could be his friend one minute and try to slit his throat the next. He can't even trust his own father.
After surviving an accident on the job followed by a two day hurricane, Naylor and his crew boss, Pima, find a clipper ship by their island. They scavenge it for parts and find a pretty girl onboard, barely alive. Pima wants to kill her, but Naylor convinces her that it wouldn't be right to do that. So, Naylor joins the strange girl on a quest to reunite her with her people. Initially, that sounds easy, but luck isn't on their side 100% of the time.
Ship Breaker is full of good action scenes, gore, violence, and bad asses. I highly recommend it; just don't read it during lunch.