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Ship Breaker  By  cover art

Ship Breaker

By: Paolo Bacigalupi
Narrated by: Joshua Swanson
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Editorial reviews

Nebula Award-winning author Paolo Bacigalupi has made a name for himself writing stories set in a bleak near-future following an environmental collapse. A more timely novel could not exist than his latest, Ship Breaker, his first Young Adult offering and possibly his strongest work to date. Narrator Joshua Swanson brings precisely the young, street-wise performance needed to carry this story.

Nailer Lopez is fighting to survive in a devastated world, doing the only work a boy on the verge of manhood can do — "light crew" duty as a ship breaker, salvaging copper wire from the rusting hulks of tankers left wrecked on America's Gulf Coast. Every day is a struggle to make quota and find the best salvage to stay in the good graces of his crew. There is always the hope of the big score: a pocket of petroleum, precious fuel in an age of exhausted wells, drowned cities, and risen seas, where any energy source is precious.

When Nailer and his best friend Pima come across the find of a lifetime, a salvage that could buy him freedom not just from the brutality of light crew but from his abusive father as well, there's only one problem — it comes with a swank, a rich girl named Nita. Nita has value just like everything else, and Nailer is faced with a choice: keep her ship and buy his independence, or he can go the far more dangerous — but possibly more profitable — route and help her. Nailer, Pima, and the identity of newly nick-named "Lucky Girl" are always on the edge of discovery by Nailer's drug-addicted father, his crew, and the genetically augmented "half-man", Tool.

Joshua Swanson was well cast. His style is wholly appropriate to a dystopia, and he is completely convincing as he takes us through Nailer's dilemmas and perils. This is a fast-paced story of adventure and suspense, and Swanson's narration — while careful and precise — carries the tension well. He skillfully handles the voicing of the story's main female characters, Pima and Nita, without slipping into the narrative pitfalls of falsettos or needless breathiness. Bacigalupi's cast is vast and varied, but Swanson manages to keep the listener oriented through adept pitch and passable island dialects here and there.

This is a performance that draws the listener into the dark recesses of a rusted and starving world. Though marketed as Young Adult, there is plenty here for any lover of near-future dystopian literature to enjoy. —Christie Yant

Publisher's summary

Printz Award Winner, 2011

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. 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 this powerful novel, award-winning author Paolo Bacigalupi delivers a thrilling, fast-paced adventure set in a vivid and raw, uncertain future.

©2010 Paolo Bacigalupi (P)2009 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

  • AudioFile Earphones Award Winner

"Narrator Joshua Swanson makes this harsh dystopian world all too believable. He adjusts the pacing to fit the intensity of the action and gives each character a voice that fits his or her personality. This is superb listening for teens—and adults too—even those who aren’t big fans of science fiction." (AudioFile)

What listeners say about Ship Breaker

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Engrossing Dystopian YA Fiction

This marked the second fictional audiobook that I have listened to. At first, the narrator’s voice felt stiff, and almost computer-ish - but once the story itself became more interesting, the narrator’s voice started to sound more dynamic. Though some of Swanson’s “voices” for the dialogue blended together (causing moments of confusion), the writing itself retained its clarity so I never felt overly lost in Bacigalupi’s dystopian, flooded world.

Though this book would most likely be a one-sitting-read for me, by listening to it only at work, I really drew out the experience and I think savored it a lot more. I could easily see why comparisons were made to Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games trilogy, but this felt like a very different sort of dystopia - and one that answered a lot more of those questions concerning the transition between modern civilization to this fictional breakdown. Bacigalupi strayed a few times onto a soap box (the importance of diversity, global warming, differences between class), but the YA market often leads to those kind of PSA-feeling topics. Overall, those moments don’t detract from the strength of the overall story. A few repetitive phrases (pain always “blossomed” or “exploded”) distracted me a bit - but that might be more due to the audio version than something that I would actively notice in a printed version.

Bacigalupi created likable characters - I especially liked Tool and Nailer. Of all the characters, Tool was felt the most intriguing to me. He was enigmatic and genuinely fascinating. It is mostly due to him that I already purchased to listen the sequel, The Drowned Cities. Tool reminded me a bit of Ron Pearlman’s Beast - at least that was what he looked like in my head, anyways... And this crumbling society and land utterly captivated me, too, so I am also looking forward to hearing more about it as well. It’s dark, but age-appropriate and I think a book that would definitely interest younger, male readers.

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5 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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YA but still good for adults

It's a young adult book, but still worthy of an adult read/listen. It's less violent than Baciagalupi's adult books, thankfully, but it's still well written and not dumbed down for a younger audience. Also post-apocalyptic, like the others of his I've read, which is a genre I like.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Engaging story of post-oil earth

Although the narration is stilted with odd pauses, the story pulled me in. This post-oil earth is full of haves and have-nots, engineered bodyguards and corporate intrigue.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Worth it!!!

I bought this one through the paperback sale, and I am glad I did. This is a dystopian novel, set in what seems to be New Orleans post a massive hurricane that has left it beyond repair or rather people no longer wanted to restore a place that would just be storm ridden again in the future, a lost cause. The only inhabitants live off of scavenging ships that have been left behind after the "city-killer" storms. The author reminds me of James Dashner, if you enjoyed Maze Runner, you will enjoy this!

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Top Five Fave Author

I first learned of Paolo Bacigalupi when I won a copy of The Windup Girl at our local library. Was hooked immediately by his intelligent foresight. Great characters & dialogue, and especially by his understanding of the less fortunate among us & visceral knowledge of the plight any of us might face under the right ( or wrong) circumstances, or just by the simple luck of birth.

Bacigalupi writes intelligent bleeding edge near future as well as or better than most out there. As the title of my review said, he’s in my top five. And he writes books you can read and re- read, always picking up something new.

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2 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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Good postapocalyptic story

Bacigalupi invents a colorful and detailed future where human and quasi-human toil to survive. Grim but not without hope. The story takes place in a tropical and swampy South Coast and follows the struggle of two teenagers to escape their enemies and survive in a relentless world. The two protagonists come from very different background and yet learn to be with each other. The scenario and story show great inventiveness. Well written and read.

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Well done YA story

This was an enjoyable, easy-to-listen-to, interesting YA novel with a fine narrator. If you like YA novels, go for it!

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Very YA Novel

This is a very young adult novel about very poor children or at least that’s what I heard for the four hours before I gave up. I’m quite a few decades past the target audience age.

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    1 out of 5 stars
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Unbearably annoying...

Would you try another book from Paolo Bacigalupi and/or Joshua Swanson?

I have always heard great things about The Wind Up Girl, so MAYBE I will try that one day, but only gave this a shot because it was on the 2 for 1 deal... This book just ended up being too Juvenile and lead to me being annoyed by the characters.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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Pretty Good

Would you listen to Ship Breaker again? Why?

No..no need.

What did you like best about this story?

It was pretty interesting

What does Joshua Swanson bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Not much, really. He was ok, but not the best I've heard.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

Book title is find as is.

Any additional comments?

Pretty good but not "gripping." I had no trouble stopping when I needed too. There have been other books where I would keep driving around the block just to keep listening.

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1 person found this helpful