Glenn Stern's United Patriot Front, and Mahlia's decision to help him - despite the clear danger he presents to everyone - drives the rest of the novel. She learns to aid the doctor and is carving out a future in a time when life expectancy barely creeps into the double-digits.Įverything changes with the appearance of genetic experiment Tool, the part-man, part-dog, part-tiger, part-hyena supersoldier who appeared in 'Ship Breaker.' He's on the run from faction leader Col. Mahlia is saved by a young boy named Mouse after her right arm is chopped off by a child soldier who intends to leave her limbless, and they eventually find a home with kindly Dr. The color of her skin and cast of her eyes mark her as a pariah in a vengeful society. A 'castoff,' she was left behind by her father and loses her mother to one of the many factions vying for control. A multisided civil war waged by child soldiers has raged since the oceans rose, flooding some of the country's most populous areas, and the world returned to The Dark Ages after the failure of our Accelerated Age.Īt one time there were Chinese peacekeepers to help restore order, but they sailed away on their clipper ships, leaving the country to fall into chaos and young Mahlia to fend for herself. There are few adults in 'The Drowned Cities,' the result of years of fractious infighting in a lawless section of the eastern U.S.

His characters and plots play out a few centuries in the future, but they're so grounded in the now, they often make the reader stop and ponder the intricate game of connect the dots he plays to render such a convincing - if gloomy - outcome for humanity, and especially its children.

It's packed with the same kind of entrancing insight that made Bacigalupi's previous work - 'Ship Breaker' for young readers and the novel 'The Windup Girl' and the short story collection 'Pump Six and Other Stories' for adults - so unforgettable. 'The Drowned Cities,' (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers), by Paolo Bacigalupi: A new Paolo Bacigalupi novel is reason to celebrate - no matter how old you are.īacigalupi's latest, 'The Drowned Cities,' is his second straight young adult release, but that shouldn't deter the writer's older fans from picking up the book (even if you have to do it on the sly).

Pump six and other stories