David Bremner reviewed Ship breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi
post-climate-apocalypse meets high seas adventure
4 stars
People who have read the (one year earlier) Windup Girl will find aspects of the setting familiar, but it is not identical. This book does not talk about calorie scarcity which really drives Windup Girl but focuses on resurgence of sail transport. A triumphant and uncaring capitalism probably prevents the book from being solarpunk.
As for plot, young boy from underclass rescues princess, has adventures on land and at sea. It is immersive and makes the point well enough about human driven climate change, but it didn't touch me as deeply as some other stories in e.g. Pump six. Not sure why, could just be the others were my first exposure to the author's world building.
I guess this is targeted at young adults? No explicit sex, some light (hopeless?) romance. Reference to impoverished women forced to sex work as a means of survival.
