Ship Breaker

Ship Breaker

Written by Paolo Bacigalupe
Image Accessed 11/30/2013 http://austin.bibliocommons.com/item/show/771453067_ship_breaker

Summary

            In the not-to-distant future the earth’s climate has changed and humanity has changed along with it. City-killer sized storms have carved apart continents and the sea has risen, reshaping the globe and ripping apart countries.  Survival is a constant struggle and if you do not have work, do not have a crew that will vouch for you, your only other option is to sell everything you have, including yourself, in order to live one day longer.

Nailer is at a dangerous age. He is small enough to be valuable to the “light crews” as he can crawl down into the bellies of ships to bring back the small treasures of wire and materials hidden in pipes - but Nailer is growing fast. Soon Nailer will be too big for “light” crew and too small for “heavy” crew – a position that haunts his future. One night after a massive storm Nailer discovers a wrecked clipper ship. Amid the wreckage Nailer finds Nita, the wealthy daughter of a corporate CEO who is fleeing from deadly corporate espionage. In a desperate gamble, Nailer swears Nita in as crew and together, with the help of the dog man Tool, they make for the city and the safety of those still loyal to Nita’s family.

Critical Analysis

            The world of Ship Breaker is wholly believable with a foundation based on the scientific predictions of the environmental future of our Earth. Bacigalupi carefully weaves the meteorological catastrophes of the present with the humanitarian crisis that exist outside of the first world and amplifies them with the environmental predictions of what is to come if the world does not change it’s ways.

Bacigalupi’s grim setting for Ship Breaker provides a compelling backdrop for the plot of this story – survival. By saving Nita, Nailer takes a humble first step in attempting to better his life permanently rather than just scrapping Nita for her “parts” and earning a quick buck to better his life immediately. By swearing Nita as crew, Nailer binds himself to her and she to him and together they attempt to escape the volatile, drug addled savagery of life on the edge of the world. In Nita, readers witness adaptation, growth and strength. In Nailer, readers see the best traits of humanity struggling to reach their fullest potential, but it is in Tool, the dog-man that readers see humanity at it’s most honest. Tool, the genetic soldier creation who has broken free of his loyalty conditioning allows no words or good intentions to warp the truth. Tool acts as the filter of Ship Breaker, stripping down the characters actions and intention into the bare, unadulterated truth and allowing the characters to have a rare chance to make a true choice – free of the influence of others or the lies they tell themselves.

 The quest to reunite Nita with her people brings to light haunting questions of right and wrong. Nailer and Nita must ask themselves what detonates true loyalty, what does the bond of family really mean and ultimately, what is the value of a human life? Traveling to the city of Orleans, Nailer struggles to take control of his future; to educate himself, earn a trade and a life of relative safety, but in order for Nailer to rise out of the savagery he was born into and defeat his sociopathic, drug addicted father, Nailer is forced to commit his own acts of savagery in order to break free.

Awards

Michael L. Printz Award

National Book Award Finalist

Connections

            Patrick Ness’ The Knife of Never Letting Go is a post apocalyptic science fiction set on a planet where all the men can hear one another’s thoughts – and all the women have died. The Knife of Never Letting Go provides an interesting companion piece to Ship Breaker in that the main character must also confront the darkness within him before he can hope to rise above the horrors of the world he was raised in, and that the choice to save another human life can end up saving your own.

Reviews

Kirkus Review - A gritty teen betrays his father and flees his grim existence in a post–global-warming Gulf Coast village to protect a young woman he barely knows in this gripping futuristic thriller. Fifteen-year-old Nailer works on the"light crew" as a ship breaker, salvaging metals from abandoned oil tankers. Nailer's vicious father routinely beats him. In this violent world where people do anything for money, Nailer's future seems bleak until he discovers Nina, the wealthy, attractive survivor of a shipwreck. Rather than kill Nina and steal the salvage, Nailer opts to save her, triggering a harrowing journey to the submerged cities of Orleans to find people loyal to Nina. As Nailer experiences brutal betrayals, he relies on his wits and learns the people worth calling family are the ones who"[cover] your back.... Everything else [is] just so much smoke and lies." In Bacigalupi's defiled, depressing landscape populated by mercenary humans and mechanical dog-men, Nailer's loyalty offers hope. Told in the third person, this stark, surreal story sends an alarm to heed the warning signs of climate change or suffer a similar fate.

Publishers Weekly - SF novelist Bacigalupi ("The Windup Girl") makes a stellar YA debut with this futuristic tale of class imbalance on the Gulf Coast. Teenage Nailer scavenges ships with his crewmates, eking out a poverty-filled existence while avoiding dangers that range from giant city killer hurricanes to his vicious, drug-addicted father. When a storm strands a beautiful shipping heiress on the beach (earning her the nickname Lucky Girl), Nailer manages both to infuriate members of his camp (including his father) and to become embroiled in upper-class trade disputes that he barely comprehends. As Nailer and Lucky Girl escape toward the drowned ruins of New Orleans, they witness rampant class disparity on individual and international levels (tribes whose lands were flooded have taken to the seas as pirates, attacking multinational shipping firms). Bacigalupi's cast is ethnically and morally diverse, and the book's message never overshadows the storytelling, action-packed pacing, or intricate world-building. At its core, the novel is an exploration of Nailer's discovery of the nature of the world around him and his ability to transcend that world's expectations.

Booklist - Grades 8-12 *Starred Review* This YA debut by Bacigalupi, a rising star in adult science fiction, presents a dystopian future like so many YA sf novels. What is uncommon, though, is that although Bacigalupis future earth is brilliantly imagined and its genesis anchored in contemporary issues, it is secondary to the memorable characters. In a world in which society has stratified, fossil fuels have been consumed, and the seas have risen and drowned coastal cities, Nailer, 17, scavenges beached tankers for scrap metals on the Gulf Coast. Every day, he tries to make quota and avoid his violent, drug-addicted father. After he discovers a modern clipper ship washed up on the beach, Nailer thinks his fortune is made, but then he discovers a survivor trapped in the wreckage the swank daughter of a shipping-company owner. Should he slit the girls throat and sell her for parts or take a chance and help her? Clearly respecting his audience, Bacigalupi skillfully integrates his world building into the compelling narrative, threading the backstory into the pulsing action. The characters are layered and complex, and their almost unthinkable actions and choices seem totally credible. Vivid, brutal, and thematically rich, this captivating title is sure to win teen fans for the award-winning Bacigalupi.

School Library Journal - Gr 7 UpA fast-paced postapocalyptic adventure set on the American Gulf Coast. Nailer works light crew; his dirty, dangerous job is to crawl deep into the wrecks of the ancient oil tankers that line the beach, scavenging copper wire and turning it over to his crew boss. After a brutal hurricane passes over, Nailer and his friend Pima stumble upon the wreck of a luxurious clipper ship. It's filled with valuable goodsa "Lucky Strike" that could make them rich, if only they can find a safe way to cash it in. Amid the wreckage, a girl barely clings to life. If they help her, she tells them, she can show them a world of privilege that they have never known. But can they trust her? And if so, can they keep the girl safe from Nailer's drug-addicted father? Exciting and sometimes violent, this book will appeal to older fans of Scott Westerfeld's "Uglies" series (S & S) and similar action-oriented science fiction.

References

Bacigalupi, Paolo. 2010. Ship Breaker. New York, NY: Little Brown & Company. ISBN 0316056219

Booklist 05/15/2010 pg. 50 (EAN 9780316056212, Hardcover)

Kirkus Review - Children 04/01/2010 (EAN 9780316056212, Hardcover)

Ness, Patrick. 2008. The Knife of Never Letting Go. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick Press. ISBN 9780763639310

Publishers Weekly 04/19/2010 pg. 54 (EAN 9780316056212, Hardcover) - *Starred Review

School Library Journal 06/01/2010 pg. 93 (EAN 9780316056212, Hardcover)