Ship Breaker

Ship Breaker
written by Paolo Bacigalupi



I read Ship Breaker at the recommendation of Internet-famous and all-around awesome guy, Hank Green.  I really wanted to like the book.  It started off painfully slow, pontificating lengthily on irrelevant details.  The story thankfully did pick up the pace, and once the action started and more characters were introduced, it turned into a pretty decent read, almost unrecognizable from the story it started out as.  I've never understood the writing tool of "show, don't tell"--I felt that this book, even once the story picked up, showed too much and told too little.  I think Paulo Bacigalupi could have taken a page out of Scott Westerfeld's book and added some illustrations to really bring the story to life.  This is a book that would have benefited from visual imagery to supplement (and hopefully bypass entirely) some of the verbal descriptions.  It's nearly impossible to find a good young adult novel whose plot doesn't somehow revolve significantly around a romantic subplot, and while there are bits and pieces of romance here and there, it's not overwhelming and made for a refreshing change.  I thought the ending went and did a 180 on the beginning, as the plot felt rushed, and some characters (Tool, most notably) didn't get the full resolution they deserved.

Rating: 3/5