Skip to main content
PBS logo
 
 

Book Review of The Drowned Cities (Ship Breaker, Bk 2)

The Drowned Cities (Ship Breaker, Bk 2)
reviewed on + 1452 more book reviews


In a dark time beyond today violence, terror, and grief touch everyone in America. Mahlia and Mouse left the war-torn Drowned Cities and escaped into the jungle. When they find a wounded half-man named Tool hunted by soldiers their safety fades. The soldiers catch one while the other must decide whether to vanish or risk all to save a friend. These key characters become a team. Tool is a genetically engineered soldier who is created with animal parts and human DNA making him almost unbeatable. Mahlia and Mouse are the children of a war where the soldiers are children themselves, brainwashed to seek cruelty and violence. If not, they become victims, too.

The novel seems like a futuristic/dystopian novel in which one encounters war and more war that threatens the characters, forces them forward, and challenges them to make difficult decisions. The details are at times horrific and like much what has occurred and is happening in our world today. Who suffers most - probably the children. Mahlia is a victim having only a stump of her right arm because it was severed by cruel soldiers.

The novel could be a look at our own future where natural resources are scarce, global warming causes climate change and the world endures extensive flooding. In this plot the US is torn by civil war. China emerges as a peacemaking power. Genetically enhanced individuals serve wealthy patrons for war combat and sexual services alike.

The author describes the failure of peacekeeping attempts and the effects of civil war. What should one do? Fight to survive at any cost, ignore it or try to escape. Like many other readers I think the message is what happens to children in war. Victims or soldiers, the will survive. How can we forget the tragedy that during war children are forced into a life of fear and how will it affect their future.