The Drowned Cities by Paolo Bacigalupi

The second installment of Paolo Bacigalupi's Ship Breaker series dealing with a post-apocalyptic America is set in the Drowned Cities, one of which is Washington, DC. The Drowned Cities picks up the story of Tool, a half man who was captured at the end of the first book, Ship Breakers.

Tool is half man, a genetically designed war machine, trained to make war and kill. He had been part of a battalion commanded by General Caroa and had fought in the Kolkata Delta, as well as many other wars and survived them all. Tool escapes the prison he is held captive in and flees into the salt swamps around the Drowned Cities. He is being pursued by Colonel Glenn Stern of the United Patriot Front and his boy soldiers.. In an attempt to hide from the soldiers, Tool submerges himself in a swamp only to be viciously attacked by a gigantic alligator. The two behemoths end up in a life and death struggle.

Meanwhile not far away, in Banyan Town, Mahlia, Mouse, and Doctor Mahfouz struggle to survive. Mahlia's father was a Chinese General who came over to America with his troops as peacekeepers. When the Chinese left, their peacekeeping mission a failure, Mahlia's father left too, leaving behind Mahlia and her mother, who sold antiques to survive. Eventually Mahlia's mother disappeared and she was left on her own. Mahlia is considered a castoff - someone who sympathized with the peacekeepers. She lost her right hand to the boy soldiers of the Army of God, one of many armies battling for control of what remains of America. Finding refuge in Banyan Town, Mahlia helps the kindly Dr. Mahfouz as he tends to the wounded and sick with the limited medical supplies he has managed to salvage.

Mouse, or Malati Saint Olmos as he was once known, saw his family farm burned, his parents and his little brother Simon shot dead, and his older brother Shane recruited as a boy soldier. Mouse and Mahlia are together because he saved Mahlia from the Army of God.

On an expedition for food, Mouse and Mahlia encounter Tool, fatally wounded and in the process of dying. Tool manages to capture Mouse and in order to free him, Mahlia offers to bring back medicine from Banyan Town. Tool agrees and Mahlia leaves for Banyan Town. But when she returns home, she finds that the soldiers who have been hunting Tool are in the town, pillaging and terrorizing the inhabitants. When they see that Mahlia is a castoff and half-Chinese, they try to kill her. Dr. Mahfouz intervenes and he and Mahlia are made to treat the wounded survivors from their encounter with Tool.

But this means that Mahlia will be delayed in bringing the meds back to Tool, thus endangering Mouse's life. So she concocts a plan that brings about a devastating coywolf attack on the soldiers and ultimate ruin upon Banyan Town. Mahlia, Mouse and Dr. Mahfouz escape into the jungle and locate Tool who is now barely alive. Against the wishes of Mahfouz, Mahlia treats and heals Tool, whom she hopes will help her escape the Drowned Cities, to find freedom and peace. But things become complicated when Mouse returns to Banyan Town and is captured and recruited into the United Patriot Front. Mahlia is faced with a terrible choice; save Mouse or leave with Tool for freedom in the north.

Discussion

The Drowned Cities is not for the faint of heart. Moving from one violent, raw scene to the next, Bacigalupi tells the story of an America run by warlords, where children are recruited to fight, scarred and shaped into cruel killers, and where civilization has all but vanished into the swampy recesses of the jungle. China ,which once occupied the country as peacekeepers for a decade, have fled, leaving the nation to wallow in its own tyranny. Bacigalupi effectively portrays the brutal world America has devolved to; waring factions divided by ideology as to how the country will be run. There is the Army of God who want a nation founded on religion and who cut off the hands and feet of those who oppose them. Their main opponent is the United Patriot Front who believe in a constitutional nation and who equally maim and kill, with acid and knives.

America is now populated by a people who have no connection to their past and who are rapidly destroying their history by bartering artifacts for guns and bullets. Incredibly, it is the half man, Tool, who recognizes this.

"'I see things here that were thought lost long ago. These are the sorts of objects that should live in the greatest museums of the world.' He gingerly lifted up a piece of parchment and studied it. 'Some of them once did.'"

This makes Tool a very unique character. While he is considered a "half-man" because he has the genetics of dog, hyena and other animals mixed into his genetic makeup, Tool still has more humanity than genetically pure men, who now behave like animals, fighting and killing, destroying their culture and heritage.

The ongoing destruction of the Capitol near the end of the novel is heartrending to read.

"Mahlia craned her neck. A huge marble building loomed into view. The palace. Marble from top to bottom. Steps marching up from the lake to its grand presence. A soaring dome stood central, seeming to touch the sky, and it was flanked on either side by broad marbled wings that encompassed more space than Banyan Town....

One wing of the vast structure looked as if it had been hit by artillery, and its fascade had turned to crumbling rubble. Scavenge gangs were ripping into it, men and mules dragging material out of the shattered building, skins gleaming sweat under the burning sun."

One aspect of this novel that was very well done, is the development of the main characters. Mahlia, who despite being maimed and discriminated against for being half Chinese and therefore a peacekeeper collaborator, is a strong woman, loyal to Mouse who saved her, but also open to reconsidering who and what Tool is. Mahlia is true to herself and her beliefs, even if it means hardship and risk.

Tool, the half man, is described as a war-raging monster. And certainly the opening scenes of the novel lead us to form that opinion. He can move faster than a normal human, he has acutely developed senses, and incredible strength. Tool even behaves like an animal, eating the heart of his victims. But as the novel progresses, Tool's humanity begins to show through more and more often. He can control his animal instincts to a point and he can reason with his human mind. He can make choices and he understands war. We even learn that when he was younger, his human side was stronger but like the child soldiers, he was molded into the war machine that he now is.

The child soldiers, brilliantly characterized by Bacigalupi, show both their brutality and their humanity. Child soldiers were once children, but who were molded into killing machines by adults and older children. They are the mirror to Tool; once human, now behaving like animals, maiming and killing.

The Drowned Cities is an excellent novel, the writing exceptional and unique to young adult literature. However, the gore and violence in the novel makes it suitable for older teens and adults. 

Book Details:

The Drowned Cities by Paolo Bacigalupi
New York: Little, Brown and Company 2012
434 pp.

Starters by Lissa Price

Starters is Lissa Price's debut novel set in an America decimated by war and a deadly sickness. Lissa Price has created a fascinating post-apocalyptic world in her debut novel, Starters.  

America is comprised of very elderly people, Enders, and very young people, Starters. Price's post-apocalyptic world arose after the Spore Wars between America and unnamed Pacific Ocean countries (does she mean China?). Fearing a bio-war, America began vaccinating its citizens, with those considered most at risk, the very young and the elderly, being the first to be vaccinated. When the spore bombs were unleashed earlier than expected, all people between the ages of 20 and 60 died, leaving many children orphaned and uncared for.

Sixteen-year-old Callie Woodland and her brother, seven-year-old Tyler, are two such children, orphaned and living in an abandoned office tower with a friend named Michael. They spend their time hiding from the Marshals who capture unclaimed children  and scavenging for enough food to eat. With Tyler sick, Callie decides to pay a visit to Prime Destinations located in Beverly Hills. She has heard about this company out on the street and knows that she can earn a great deal of money but she needs to know more.

At Prime Destinations, Callie meets Mr. Tinnenbaum, a tall Ender with silver white hair and a deep artificial tan. He explains that the renter or Ender has a cap with electrodes fitted on her/his head which connects them to a BCI or Body-Computer Interface and they are put into a "twilight sleep". Meanwhile the donor or Starter has had a  neuro-chip embedded into their brain connecting their brain to the computer. The Ender (renter) and Starter (donor) are connected via a computer.  After an Ender chooses a Starter, the Starter comes to Prime Destinations and is put under anesthesia and the connection between the two brains is made by the computer. The Renter simply uses her mind to take oer the body of the young teen whose conscious mind is now asleep. The Ender can then use the teen's body for however long the rental period is. The teen-donor remembers nothing of what happened while his/her body was being rented.  After the rental time is finished the Ender brings the body back to Prime Destinations and the computer connection is shut down. The Ender is taken out of twilight sleep and the Starter or donor has her/his brain functions restored. The neurochip blocks renters from participating in illegal activities. The donor gets the chip removed after three rentals.

After the explanation, Callie decides to defer signing a contract with a bonus, despite desperately needing the money and even in spite of the intense pressure by Mr. Tinnenbaum to sign immediately. She returns back to the office tower she is living in with Tyler and Michael. When their building is set on fire by Enders to smoke them out, Callie and her brother and Michael flee but are chased by the marshals. They have lost their sleeping bags, water bottles and the remnants of family photos. With Tyler sick, Callie makes the decision to return to Prime Destinations. She tells Michael to care for Tyler and that she will return in a few days.

At Prime Destinations, Callie is assigned to an Ender named Doris who is her personal mentor. She is tested in the sports she claimed to be able to do including her ability to shoot a rifle. Prior to renting, every Starter gets a complete body makeover, with all scars and imperfections being completely removed. Callie has the neurochip put in and is given the lunch she thought about, proving that the chip is functioning. Callie is given clothing that has been chosen by her renter and has her makeup done by makeup artist Clara. Doris tells Callie that her first rental will be only for a day and that she is a "lovely woman". When Callie presses to meet her, Doris tells her the exchanges are always confidential. Doris attempts to reassure Callie, telling her that "We do have your best interests at heart..."  Callie also learns that the tall Ender she saw talking to Mr. Tinnenbaum when she arrived yesterday is the CEO of Prime, whom they call "Old Man".

Everything goes well for the first rent but when she requests to leave, Callie is told that it is not an option. The second rental is for three days however after this rental Callie awakens with a four-inch gash on her arm and no one will tell her how this happened. When she learns that her third rental will be for a month, Callie panics. She presses her case with Mr. Tinnenbaum who agrees to allow Callie three hours to go visit her brother.  He assigns a body guard, Rodney to watch over her and her warns her to be careful with her body,  "Because right now, it still belongs to us." Tyler is angry that Callie has been gone for seven days. She promises that when she returns, they will have a home once again. Callie finds herself growing more attached to Michael and thanks him for caring for Tyler.

When Callie returns to Prime Destinations, she learns that her renter wants to go that night. Callie is dressed in all black and sent off to her third rent. But during the third rent, something unusual happens. Callie wakes up a week into her rental  to find herself in Club Rune in Los Angeles. Confused, Callie quickly realizes that something is not working right with the renter. Callie begins hearing a voice in her head warning her not to return to Prime Destinations and she realizes this is her renter. She can hear the renter in her mind.

At the home of her renter, Callie discovers that her renter is Helena Winterhill and that her universal ID has been changed from Callie Woodland to Callie Winterhill who lives in a luxurious mega-mansion in Bel-Air. On a date with Blake Harrison, the boy she met at Club Rune, they go horseback riding and visit his great-grandmother Marion.  During this visit Callie  learns that Blake is the grandson of Senator Clifford C. Harrison. Believing she can trust Blake who is not an Ender, she sends him with money to the abandoned office building Tyler and Michael are living in.

Callie blacks out in Helena's car and awakens eighteen hours later in Helena's bedroom holding a Glock 85 with a silencer.  When she is warned yet again not to return to Prime Destinations, Callie decides to check into Helena's background. She discovers that Helena's granddaughter Emma lived with her and died two months ago. Even more disturbing is that Callie discovers a charm bracelet similar to that Doris gave her, in Emma's bedroom. Callie realizes that Emma sold her body to the body bank. 

 At Club Rune, Callie meets Helena's friend, Lauren who is renting the body of a girl named Reece. Lauren reveals that they are using the bodies of teens to stop Prime Destinations from victimizing thousands of teens. From Lauren she learns that Helena is planning a murder but Helena hasn't told Lauren who the target is. Lauren's grandson, Kevin, and Helena's granddaughter, Emma, signed up at Prime Destinations but never returned. They lied and did it to get the body makeovers, not realizing that Prime takes Starters who have no living relatives. This way if they do not return, they have no family who will investigate their disappearance. Some Starters are released to recruit more teens. Callie learns that many Enders besides Lauren and Helena, have lost grandchildren who have simply disappeared after becoming body donors for Prime. Callie finds this all very daunting.

Callie reaches out to Blake who meets her and is very angry. She discovers that while blacked out, Helena took over, and angrily took back the money Callie had given to Blake to give to Tyler and Michael. She asks him again to take the wad of money to them and he agrees to do this. After her meeting with Blake, Callie dumps Helena's Glock and determines from her phone calendar that whoever she is planning to murder it will be on November 19 at 8:00 PM. 

Callie receives a memo from Helena on her phone warning her not to return to Prime. She does not know that Callie knows about her plans.  Once more Callie blacks out only to find herself in the lobby of an office building preparing to kill Senator Clifford Harrison, Blake's grandfather. Callie doesn't know  how Senator Harrison is connected to Prime Destinations. As Callie grows closer to Blake, she is determined to find out why Helena wants to kill his grandfather.

On the day Senator Harrison is scheduled to present at an awards ceremony, Callie finds herself with an assault rifle scoping the ceremony. She suddenly is able to communicate with Helena who tells her that she needs to go through with the assassination. Helena reveals that Callie's biochip has been altered and the stop-kill switch which prevents Renters from killing while they are in a Starter's body has been turned off. Helena wants to stop Senator Harrison because of his connections to Prime Destinations. Harrison is hoping to persuade the president to use Prime to conscript teens for government use. But she also discovers that Prime has a far more insidious design for the teen donors.

Helena and Callie begin working together to try to determine what has happened to her granddaughter Emma. Helena gives Callie money to get a place for Michael and Tyler to stay and asks Callie to visit Institution 37 to talk to a girl named Sara who may know about Emma. In Institution 37 Callie learns from Sara that there is a special program beginning next week where some of the girls will be given special makeovers and important jobs where they will earn money. Only the prettiest Starters will be chosen by the body bank. 

Callie meets Madison at her home and together they watch Senator Clifford Harrison at a news conference in Washington. He announces the Special Circumstances Youth Employment Act in which certain institutionalized and unclaimed minors will be able to now be employed. The first company to do this will be Prime Destinations. So it appears that what Callie was told by Sara is really happening. Then Madison receives a special, private and confidential broadcast from Prime Destinations, as a Titanium subscriber. Chad Tinnenbaum and Doris introduce the head of Prime Destinations, the Old Man whose face is pixelated and voice disguised. He informs his Titanium Premium subscribers that they will be able to try the bodies of different nationalities and  soon be able to own the body of the Starter they rent while their "birth body" is kept safe in the chair at Prime Destinations until it reaches the age of two hundred years. As the owners of their new bodies, they will be able to keep them as they age through the body's twenties and thirties and even longer. 

Callie is now convinced of what Helena has been telling her. And she suggests to Helena that her granddaughter Emma may not be dead but may have been permanently rented.  However, a major setback occurs when Callie discovers Helena has been killed and someone is trying to kill her.

When Helena gone, Callie is now on her own to prevent Prime from gaining control and implementing its evil plan. She meets up with Helena's friend Redmond who initially modified their (Helena/Callie) neurochip. Callie asks Redmond to remove it but he tells her it cannot be removed as it is integrated into her brain. Instead he covers the chip with a magnetic plate to prevent Prime Destinations from tracking her. 

It becomes increasingly difficult for Callie to know who she can trust. No one is who she thought they were: she discovers that Briona is actually Doris and that Lee is Tinnenbaum. After a brief incarceration in Institution 37 for attempting to kill Senator Harrison, Callie escapes and is helped by Madison, the real Lauren who is a 150 year old Elder and her attorney, Mr. Crais. Lauren reveals that she was in the process of claiming Callie and so Prime Destinations has no claim over her. They bring together the grandparents of missing body bank donor teens and hope to enlist the help of Redmond who had altered Helena's chip. However, Redmond's compound is discovered destroyed by a bomb and he is missing. The next day Callie visits Prime Destinations to see the Old Man and offers her life for that of her brother Tyler. While she is bargaining with the Old Man, a team of marshals are arresting the body bank employees. The Old Man escapes via his heli transport. 

In the lobby of Prime Destinations, the Renters have returned having watched Lauren's broadcast that told them to return to the body bank because their chips were having issues. Many are not happy to have to leave their Rentals but all are returned to the Elder bodies and the teens to their Starter bodies. Tyler is found to be hiding at Prime Destinations and with Prime now destroyed, Lauren informs Callie that Helena left her half of her estate: her home and a country home. Callie takes Tyler to live in Helena's home and then goes to see Blake. 

Callie makes a shocking discovery: Blake has no knowledge of who she is nor any memories of Callie. Senator Harrison then reveals that his son was kidnapped by the Old Man so that his father would be forced into cooperating and making the deal with the president for Prime Destinations. With the Old Man using Blake's body he was able to learn of Helena's plans. Senator Harrison asks Callie to never reveal to Blake what happend to him. 

Prime Destinations is destroyed but the Old Man contacts Callie through her neurochip and asks her to join him. She refuses...

Discussion

Starters is a young adult dystopian novel that focuses on a post-apocalyptic America in which the elderly (Enders) use the bodies of teenagers (Starters). Not surprisingly this deeply unethical practice leads to even more abuse. 

Starters is a plot-driven novel with little world building and not much in the way of character development. America is in a post war period, a war that started over three years earlier in the Pacific Ocean. No one was winning the war, not America nor the Pac Rim. They launched genocidal spore weapons at America while America launched their EMP weapons at the Pac Rim countries, disabling their computers, planes and stock markets. The spore weapons killed anyone not vaccinated - those between the ages of twenty and sixty died, including Callie and Tyler's parents. Anyone under the age of nineteen was not allowed to work. This means survivors like Callie and Michael are destitute. They have been living on the streets, hiding in abandoned buildings to avoid the marshals who round up unclaimed children.

Author Lissa Price does and especially good job of explaining the science fiction premise of the novel, one that is reminiscent of James Cameron's Avatar movie in which an Elder can connect to the mind of a teen donor and use that body for a period of time. Everything seems to work fine for Callie's first two rentals but on the third rental, she discovers that she is awake in her own body but living her Renter, Helena Winterhill's life and that Helena is on a mission to assassinate someone. The rest of the novel involves Callie's determination to solve who her renter wants to assassinate and the reason behind such a drastic action.

At the crux of the mystery are the ethical questions that such a practice poses especially when it is revealed that the corporation behind the rentals is determined to make the use of a teen body no longer a rental but permanent. 

The protagonist, Callie Woodland is carefully sketched as a caring, moral person who tries to do the correct thing. Due to the extreme poverty she and her brother are experiencing, Callie is driven to sell her body to the body bank at Prime Directives. It's a statement on how extreme poverty forces women (and men to a lesser extent) to use their bodies to survive. In a previous time it might have been for prostition. In this post-apocalyptic world, it is a prostition of a different kind, young people allowing the elderly to use their bodies to live out their fantasies once more. Athough there are restrictions on the use of the bodies, such as not engaging in risky behaviour, the concept is disturbing. Callie also begins to recognize that Prime Destinations already holds the view that her body belongs to them. When she requests a break before her final rental, Tinnebaum reluctantly grants her request but warns her "Keep this body exactly as it is. Because right now, it still belongs to us."

At first Callie refuses to kill even though her Renter, Helena is determined to go through with the assassination. Callie resists, discarding weapons and insisting that she needs proof about what is happening before acting. It does seem convenient that she comes out of her blackouts just as Helena is about to act. And when the reality of what Prime Destinations is revealed, Callie fights back against what she believes is truly evil - the permanent kidnapping of teens. 

When the CEO of Prime Destinations reveals that the Renters will now be able to keep the body of the teen they are given, Callie is horrified. However Madison sees no ethical issues only possibilities to live out her life as a young woman again with a new, younger body. She tells Callie, "Why not? Of course it's fun to try different bodies, but instead of all the back-and-forth and in-and-out, it would be nice to settle with one and be done."  Howevcr Callie counters, "It's not like picking out a new dress or a car or a house. These are people. Living, breathing teen who have their whole lives ahead of them. But not if you steal it from them." It's clear that Madison hasn't thought through what is happening and what she's participating in. Callie tells her, "...if you are I are permanently in somebody's body, it means that girl will never get a break. She'll never know what it's like to go to college, fall in love, get married, have children. You might have those experiences - again - but she won't."  

The Enders were especially well done and it was clear that Callie and her generation  deeply fear and despise them. Many of the  Enders in the novel are portrayed as self-absorbed, superficial people concerned only with living longer and experiencing as much as possible, preferably in the body of a teenager. They also have no qualms using other people's bodies. However, it is with the help of some Enders such as Rhiannon, Helena and Lauren that Callie is able to stop Prime Destinations and rescue her brother.

While Starters has an interesting concept, its complex storyline meant that some things weren't always clear or explained. Price never really expanded on why the government should or would get involved in using the bodies of teens supplied by Prime. We don't know why the Enders live to be so old. We also don't know the outcome of the war for other parts of the US or for the Pacific countries involved in the war. Readers know very little about the Old Man, his true identity and how he came to be. His use of the snake head when Callie meets him was overly dramatic.  It's possible Price will develop this further in the next book, filling in the details as required.

Starters is a suspenseful, intensely satisfying book that will leave readers anxiously anticipating the next installment. This novel  has a magnificent book cover that was brilliantly designed by Melissa Greenberg.

Book Details: 
Starters by Lissa Price
Random House: Delacorte Press    2012
336 pp.