But when, by luck or chance, he discovers an exquisite clipper ship beached during a recent hurricane, Nailer faces the most important decision of his life - strip the ship for all it's worth or rescue its lone survivor, a beautiful and wealthy girl who could lead him to a better life.

In America's Gulf Coast region, where grounded oil tankers are being broken down for parts, Nailer, a teenage boy, works the light crew, scavenging for copper wiring just to make quota - and hopefully live to see another day. Comforting sounds of work and activity, the air tanged with the coal reek of smelters and the salt fresh breeze coming off the water. The torch lights flickered, bobbing and moving. ( )Įven at night, the wrecks glowed with work. The story is grittier than most young-adult fiction I have read, and Nailer is a well-nuanced character. The plot begins when Nailer and his crew rescue a young woman from a wrecked clipper ship who is on the run from corporate pirates. The very rich travel by high-tech, wind-driven clipper ships that also have some limited flight capabilities in ideal conditions. Most of the economy is based on scavenging for a huge recycling industry. It is set in an America that has suffered an environmental collapse that has melted the poles and generated frequent city-killer hurricanes. Ship Breaker also features the environmentalist themes and biopunk themes of The Windup Girl. It is a coming-of-age story with a 14-year-old protagonist, Nailer, whose small size lets him dive into the oily, water-filled holds of rusting tankers looking for salvageable materials.

Paolo Bacigalupi won the 2010 Hugo for his 2009 debut novel, The Windup Girl, but he is best known for his short fiction (some of which has been adapted for the Love, Death, and Robots series) and for his young adult novels. There is plenty of moderately explicit violence. This is a true YA novel so there isn't any four letter words beyond 'damn' and no explicit sex. This sets a theme that won't really be explored until sequel. There is an interesting sub-plot about the enslaved half-men clone mutants and their discrimination in society. The poor boy is shipbreaker Nailer and rich swank Nita on the run from kidnappers sent by her father's rival in the Patel shipping monopoly.Ĭertainly the most interesting part is the first half. After an auspicious beginning and a fascinating look at a totally different world of a future and the lifestyle of a particular group of the impoverished shipbreakers and beach dwellers (this is after the depletion of fossil fuels and a catastrophic increase in global warming), the book devolves into the usual poor boy-saves-rich girl adventure plot. Shipbreaker ends up as being something of a heart breaker.

Shipbreaker by paolo bacigalupi