drowned cities

Apparently, The Drowned Cities is part of a trilogy, and as luck would have it, this is book two. The front matter in this book indicates that it is a 'companion book' to Ship Breaker, and it doesn't talk about a trilogy. But maybe this is one of those things where the third book just grew out of the success of the first two. Ship Breaker won a couple of awards; Drowned Cities was nominated for a few as well. The Ship Breaker Trilogy is rounded out by Tool of War. So, I guess I'll stick that on the list as well.

The Drowned Cities is listed as teen or young adult science fiction, so it is a little simpler in its overall story arc than either The Water Knife or The Windup Girl, which I have to say, I enjoyed more. That said, I did enjoy this, and it was a welcome break from the crime/spy novels I've been reading.

A quick look at the cover art will tell you that this story takes place in a time in the not too distant future when society has broken down. That post-apocalyptic world is Paolo Bacigalupi's playground, based on the stories I've read thus far. I assume the stories share the same universe, and therefor the same apocalypse, but that isn't touched on specifically in this book. The world does seem hotter however, so... there is no such thing as global warming. note: this sarcastic remark is posted in the color of smog. see, that's art

This story goes together like a kit of parts. Its fast moving, not overly complicated, has some compelling characters, and an interesting backstory that seems to drive the background narrative. Easy, right? I burned through this pretty quickly, and not just because its written in an easy-to-read manner, but because its engaging. I have ordered book 1 (Ship Breaker) from the library; our local library is doing self-service holds, so I can just put them on hold on the interwebs, and then trot down and pick them up.

An interesting aside from our local library. When I picked this book up, along with the Charles Yu book, about 3 weeks ago, a sign on the door read "Masks Welcome." Now the sign on the library door says "Masks Required." My city went to masks required in all public buildings in the middle of August, sometime. I assume its in advance of school starting up, and the Commonwealth's DESE (Department of Elementary and Secondary Education) decision to not allow remote learning in public schools this year.