Ship Breaker: so far, so awesome

[asakiyume]

Ship Breaker, by Paolo Bacigalupi
Little, Brown and Company, 2010

cafenowhere, intertribal, cucumberseed, I think all of you guys, for overlapping and different reasons, would love this book. I haven't finished it yet, so there's still room for it to go pear-shaped, but so far, it's *great*. The hero, Nailer, is a kid who works on "light crew," crawling through the ducts of old, decrepit oil tankers that lie abandoned on climate-changed Gulf Coast of the future. The details of this dystopic future are all so believable--the kid wears an old dust mask that says "discard after 40 hours," the best currency to have is Chinese red paper cash, and people pray to any number of deities, old and new and intermingled, but among them, the Rust Saint and the Scavenge God. There are realistic loyalties and betrayals, good parents and awful ones--all believable. The conflicts are personal, intense; no one's too good, and no one is impossibly bad. It's grim, but there's hope and humor, too--without the story falling into any danger of becoming "a feel-good tale"

There are some awesome books out there.

P.S. Description of what it's like to fall into oil---TERRIFYING.

Comments

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I've never read his other stuff, but I'd say this is pretty good. Pima, who is Nailer's immediate superior and friend, is extremely competent, likable, strong, and loyal, and her mother is all those things, too. Sloth (also a girl), who leaves Nailer to die in Chapter 2, is a negative character, but there's nothing particularly *female* about what she does--at least, the characters themselves certainly don't think so, and I'm persuaded. Nita, the "swank" girl whom Nailer and Pima discover on a crashed clipper ship (these are cool, futuristic ships for a post-petrochemical-feul era--"only a maglev train can go faster") is clueless and privileged, but a quick learner and with problems and issues of her own that she's dealing with (and they're not merely selfish and personal problems, either), and, at least so far, it doesn't simply come down to Nailer falling for her and Pima hating her.

--Okay, I've just now read a quick plot synopsis of The Windup Girl, and I can see how there might be problems with Emiko's character, but I'd be interested to hear what things struck you.

Re: trigger warning: discussion of rape in fiction

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

*nods*

Yeah, I was afraid it might be that. -_-

Ughh.

Well, this is YA, and while there are plenty of references to sex abuse, it's not something you actually see (so far, anyway--I'm not done yet), and, as I say, the main female characters are very competent--no subservience genes!

Re: trigger warning: discussion of rape in fiction

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I'll let you know my overall opinion when I've finished it.

(Going to check out your whole review of The Windup Girl, too.)

Re: trigger warning: discussion of rape in fiction

[cafenowhere.livejournal.com]

Oh. My. God.

I am so glad I stopped reading before that (although for different reasons). Emiko's first chapter was gruesome enough. Now I know not to pass the book on to certain friends, as I'd considered.

Re: trigger warning: discussion of rape in fiction

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Just read your whole review. Yeah, that sounds bad. The stuff you caught about the portrayals of Thailand were disappointing. (I realize that's somewhat minor in the context of portrayals of women and Muslim, etc...)

Re: trigger warning: discussion of rape in fiction

[helivoy.livejournal.com]

After I had read Bacigalupi's story collection Pump Six, I knew I would not enjoy a novel from him. Some stories in the collection were very interesting and delivered on their premise/promise (The Fluted Girl, The People of Sand and Slag) but the near-future settings felt false, just as you describe his Thailand in The Windup Girl. Also, the unrelenting grimness gets to you after a while.

Re: trigger warning: discussion of rape in fiction

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I can see that reading Bacigalupi will be a case-by-case thing.

[tltrent.livejournal.com]

I looooved this book, so I'm just really biased. But glad you're enjoying it. :) I can't wait for more in this series--I think he's finishing up another book in this world.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I totally love it too. I wish I had the chops to write like this! But what the heck--I'm glad HE does, so I can read it!

[tltrent.livejournal.com]

I keep trying to have the chops to write like this, but it seems not quite to work out the way I keep hoping. Like you, I'm glad PB does, though. :)

[cafenowhere.livejournal.com]

Shipbreaker's been on my TBR list for a long time, but I bumped it down after giving up on Windup Girl, which I found needlessly repetitive and manipulatively structured. I'll be interested to see your final take on SB.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I haven't read The Windup Girl, but I'd say this is a totally different cup of tea. None of the characters are the sort of hapless victims that it sounds as if Emiko is. There's a great scene in which Nailer has to deal with his vicious dad, who's on a drug high. The way he manages it--his feelings, his words, how it all played out--totally persuaded me.

Now, it's possible that in the last bit of the story, a whole lot of yuck could come up. It's definitely happened before with books I've read. But so far I'm hopeful.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Hmmm, but to back a step away from my previous comment a little, I have to say that after reading alankria's whole review of The Windup Girl, I'm not sure, maybe, that I'm reading this with a critical enough eye? I have to ask myself, am I paying enough attention to how various ethnic/cultural/religious groups are portrayed? Because I was mainly just delighted by the overall melange of characters of all stripes. I don't think that he denigrates people of any one group by casting a character from that group as a bad guy. So far, I'd say that even when people are being vile, you can understand why they're being vile. It's situation based in a way that makes me think, sure, there but for the grace of God go I.

[peppergrass.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the recommendation! It's one of the RI Teen Book Award winners, apparently, so I've seen it around. I might just have to read that as soon as possible.

Btw, I just finished "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children." I can't imagine that you wouldn't love it.

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

That is definitely a title that makes me want to read it!

If/when you read Ship Breaker, let me know what you think.

[peppergrass.livejournal.com]

I read "Windup Girl" last year, and I really liked it. Yes I had trouble w/ Emiko's character, and yes the rape scene was awful (really, did he have to go into such detail for us to get it = RAPE BAD??), but...well, I just really got caught up in the whole world he created, which I found extremely believable. I guess I accepted Emiko for who/what she was and went with it. I even put it on my "Staff Picks" at work. Didn't realize until just now that the same author wrote "Ship Breaker."

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I can well imagine that the worldbuilding would be awesome.

[suzan-s.livejournal.com]

Ship Breaker, by Paolo Bacigalupi, does sound awesome.

I am reading George R.R. Martin's "A Song of Ice and Fire series." I'm now half way through the second book in the series...."Clash of the Kings"...it's so awesome.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I've heard lots of good things about that series (and bad things too--people are opinionated!) but haven't read it myself. Glad you're enjoying!