The Drowned Cities (Ship Breaker, #2)
Paolo Bacigalupi
Soldier boys emerged from the darkness. Guns gleamed dully. Bullet bandoliers and scars draped their bare chests. Ugly brands scored their faces. She knew why these soldier boys had come. She knew what they sought, and she knew, too, that if they found it, her best friend would surely die.In a dark future America where violence, terror, and grief touch everyone, young refugees Mahlia and Mouse have managed to leave behind the war-torn lands of the Drowned Cities by escaping into the jungle outskirts. But when they discover a wounded half-man--a bioengineered war beast named Tool--who is being hunted by a vengeful band of soldiers, their fragile existence quickly collapses. One is taken prisoner by merciless soldier boys, and the other is faced with an impossible decision: Risk everything to save a friend, or flee to a place where freedom might finally be possible.This thrilling companion to Paolo Bacigalupi's highly acclaimed Ship Breaker is a haunting and powerful story of loyalty, survival, and heart-pounding adventure.
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Originally posted at The Wandering Fangirl.
Though labeled as the sequel to 2010′s [b:Ship Breaker|7095831|Ship Breaker (Ship Breaker, #1)|Paolo Bacigalupi|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1327874074s/7095831.jpg|7352929], The Drowned Cities is more a novel that takes place in the same universe as the first, and includes one of the minor characters from Ship Breaker to great effect.
The Drowned Cities is not an easy novel to stomach. It’s a story of war, and what that does to a world, from the top of society all the way down. We follow the story of Mahlia, a girl who’s seen the worst of war in the past, and her friend Mouse, a young boy who gets caught in the great war machine. Then there’s Tool, a genetically created half-man, half-animal that somehow has broken free of his training. Between the three characters, there isn’t much to the ravages of war that isn’t touched.
Mahlia is an incredibly strong character, someone who is hard to stomach but easy to root for. She knows what it means to be an outcast, to survive on the outskirts and in the middle of a war when she needs to. Scrappy, independent, hard, she forges her way through the drowned cities of a future war-torn America to save her friend. Mouse is a little harder to take as a character, and it’s the sympathy of his storyline that got to me. He gets caught up in the war, becomes a soldier boy, and watching his initiation and bonding with his fellow boy soldiers is painful. And it’s real.
Then there’s Tool. Tool, who is such a great force that he overshadows Mahlia and Mouse. He’s got such an amazing presence that it’s hard to pay attention to anything else. Mahlia has her moments to shine beside Tool, but he’s the real star of the novel, in my eyes. He embodies the questions of genetic manipulation, of what it means to have humanity, what it means to be free of your own accord. The fact that he’s a terrifying killer on top of it all seems to be just another aspect of Tool’s personality, which is something I have to applaud Bacigalupi for. He’s created a character so realized, you can’t help but cheer him on and be repulsed by him at the same time.
The Drowned Cities explores what it means to be human, and what horrible things we can do to ourselves and to others if we keep going down the route we are. It’s such a great, great read.
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