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Monday, November 7, 2011

A Pleasant Surprise

By
Dave Amaditz


Science fiction is not something I normally grab as a first choice to read. But while scanning the Amazon store on my iPad I came across a newly published book by Paulo Bacigalupi, Ship Breaker.
Paulo Bacigalupi easily lifted me into, and kept me inside, the futuristic world he created.
I was pulling for Nailer, the teenage protagonist, from the start. I wanted for Nailer to achieve his dream and escape the horrific conditions he was forced to endure in order to eek out a meager existence. The story was adventurous and exciting, but more than that, thought-provoking.
Some of the questions addressed within the novel are best asked by Bacigalupi himself in his 2011 Printz Award Speech.
"What happens when energy stops being cheap? How high will our sea levels rise? How easy is it to disrupt an ecosystem and make it unravel? What happens if our political dialogue continues down this path of name-calling and denialism? What happens if the rich make up a microscopic percentage of a nation, but control the majority of its wealth?"
Visit this website if you want to read the entire speech. http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/yalsa/booklistsawards/printzaward/Printz.cfm#current
If you're looking to be drawn into a futuristic world that might someday be our own, then give this book a try.
Want to read any other material by Paulo? Check out this website for a list of his other works.
http://windupstories.com/stories/

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