Tool of War by Paolo Bacigalupi

Tool of War is the final installment in Bacigalupi's Ship Breaker trilogy. The last installment, The Drowned Cities was written over five years ago, making remembering the story line, challenging. The series is set in post-apocalyptic America which has been destroyed by civil war and global climate change that resulted in many coastal cities destroyed by rising seas. Many parts of the continent have descended into brutal conflict with the use of child soldiers. This third installment focuses on Tool, known as Karta-Kul, a half man, half beast, an augment, genetically designed for war and for blind obedience.

The novel opens with Tool, the genetically designed man-beast having just defeated the Army of God and now  ruling over the Drowned Cities, "a coastline swamped by rising sea levels and political hatreds, a place of shattered rubble and eternal gunfire."  

However, Tool has managed to organize his own "pack". He knows all his soldiers, their smells, their sounds because his ears and his sight are far better than any human's. He can hear the triumph of his army as they defeat the Army of God soldiers trying to overtake his palace.

Tool  watches the final moments of a battle from the rotunda in a shattered marble palace, the waters of ocean lapping against the front steps. When quiet falls on the ruined city, Tool is questioned by the young humans who follow him as to what happens next for the Drowned Cities. Tool never moves on to rule the cities because his life and that of those around him vanishes in an instant of fire and hell.

High above the Pacific Ocean in the dirigible Annapurna, General Caroa hunts a specific augment. His analyst, Arial Jones, a brilliant, young but new recruit is eager to please her senior officer. Jones works in the Mercier Corporation's Global Strategic Intelligence Center and she has tracked the augment Caroa is seeking to the Drowned Cities. Caroa orders Jones to fire six Havoc 5's at Tool in order to kill him. While the missiles with their incredible firepower and chemicals completely destroy everything and everyone, Tool at the last minute senses the missiles and attempts to escape.

Meanwhile on board the Raker, a clipper sitting in the harbour, Mahalia is thrown onto the deck from the blast. Mahalia had been supervising the loading of artwork onto the clipper when the blast occurred. The palace is leveled, blackened and on fire, the marble steps liquefying due to the heat. Mahalia realizes her old friend Tool has been killed in the attack and grieves deeply because he helped save her and restart her life. She also knows they have to get the Raker out of the harbour because Tool's surviving soldiers will try to take the ship for their own. Captain Almadi reluctantly agrees to sail the damaged ship up the coast, even though a category three hurricane is bearing down on them. Tool having sensed the attack, dove into the waters by the palace. Although on fire and terribly injured by shrapnel he manages to cling to the clipper ship as it sails out of the harbour.

On the Annapurna, General Caroa celebrates what he hopes is the end of a nightmare - the death of the augment known as Blood and the hope of a promotion to Mercier's Executive Committee. But Caroa's celebration is short-lived as Junior Analyst Jones calls him to the Strategic Intelligence Center on the command deck. There Jones shows Caroa evidence that the augment has unbelievably survived the Havoc missile attack. By tracking the augment's heat signature, they see him beneath a clipper ship. Caroa orders Jones to hit the ship but she tells him they have no remaining missiles. When the video feed breaks up due to the storm, Caroa orders Jones to find the ship so they can destroy it.

Tool has lost his pack, the soldier boys he commanded in securing the Drowned Cities. As the storm deepens and the ship begins to founder, Tool hauls himself aboard. There he sees his old pack, Mahalia, Ocho and others attempting to save their ship, struggling with the mast, unable to raise the sail. Tool with his brute strength saves the ship. Eventually the Raker anchors in a small cove, and Mahalia attempts to treat Tool's horrific wounds. She uses all the StimGrowth packs and liters of cell knitters on Tool. Ocho believes Tool will die but Mahalia tells him this is the kind of war Tool was designed for. On the deck of the Raker, Tool tells Mahalia and Ocho that Mercier who owns him is trying to kill him and that they are in danger. He agrees to stay with them until they arrive at Seascape Boston where he will seek out medical help.

On the Annapurna, Jones' conscience is troubled over the innocent lives destroyed in the Havoc attack. Determined to limit the casualties while still doing her job she discovers the identity of the ship and its probable destination. When Caroa orders the Strike Raptors, Jones finds a way to prevent them from being used and instead convinces Caroa to use the Stitch and Ditch kill squads for a cleaner kill.

At Seascape Boston, Mahalia, Ocho, Stick and Stork and Tool  hide out in an ancient brownstone while Van gets the meds Tool needs to heal. After a Stitch and Ditch squad take out the wrong augment, Mahalia and Ocho realize Tool is still being tracked. Tool is beginning to heal from the meds but he is still not himself. He tells Mahalia that she and her crew need to leave before Mercier attacks again. However, it is too late as their building is quickly surrounded. Although Mahalia is determined to fight alongside Tool, he knows this is a fight they cannot survive.

Can Tool overcome his conditioning to fight for the freedom he believes his kind deserve, to protect the humans who are his pack and end the conflict between himself and his creator, General Caroa forever?

Discussion

Tool of War completes the Ship Breaker trilogy by continuing the sage of Tool, the half man-half beast or augment created by General Caroa. The Ship Breaker series has offered readers the opportunity to consider several contemporary issues such as the use of child soldiers in war, the global influence of large corporations and the potentially destabilizing effects of catastrophic global climate change. 

In Tool of War the  issue of genetic manipulation of embryos in which human embryos are grossly modified using various animal DNA is considered. In the novel, such creatures are called "augments" of which there are many types (for example gorilla-dominant augments) and are used as combat soldiers and slaves, although society doesn't regard them as such. They do the grunt work in the post-apocalyptic society of the series. "They were everywhere: helping ships off-load freight, hauling strong boxes of cash for merchant transfers, muscling clear paths for corporate princesses. The augments stood sentry outside the embassies of the trading companies, and knelt in temples alongside humans..." In the dystopian world of Tool of War both humans and augments have been conditioned to treat one another a certain way with humans believing they are completely under control and the augments genetically altered and conditioned to be loyal unto death. That is until General Caroa was tasked to create a "better" augment.

Caroa designed, bred and trained Tool because battles with military augments were often ending in stalemates. So under the direction of Mercier, new, magnificent warriors, "Stronger, better, smarter, faster." were developed. "We needed creatures that were hypercompetent. Natural engines of strategy, tactics, learning, violence, stamina, fearlessness. Tolerant of poisons and chemical attacks. Resistant to fire and cold and fear and pain..." One of the best was an augment Caroa named Blood but who also goes by other names, Karta-Kul and Tool. Unlike previous iterations of augments, Tool has the ability to break from his conditioning to be loyal and he also has the ability to influence other augments to renege on their conditioning. Caroa recognizes the danger; the augments could then begin to turn on humanity.

General Caroa reveals to Analyst Jones that Tool has already turned on him once. Jones doesn't believe this because "Augments are obedient! They can't break free of that! They pine and die without their masters. Everyone knows---" But Caroa states, "What if everything we know is wrong?...Think, Jones, of all the augments on the Annapurna right now. Our incorruptible, fearless Fast Attack Claws and Fists. Imagine all that loyalty. Gone." As Caroa tells Jones about Tool,  "If our friend recovers sufficiently, I fear that we will bear witness to humanity's extinction."  However, at this point, Caroa notes that Tool "...is not operating as he should...He has capacities that he is not using, and I don't know why. Is it a ruse? Some trick? Or maybe he's lost the skill?"

Unfortunately for General Caroa and the Annapurna, Tool is able to tap into his abilities. As he begins to recover from his injuries, Tool suspects "Something his creators had done to him, to ensure control." is preventing him from accessing his strength. "Tool felt new blood surging through the fibers of his muscles, filling him with strength. But still it was walled off from him, as if thick sea ice covered the ocean of his capabilities, and he was left peering through to it, knowing the power that lurked beneath the surface, but unable to chip through to its depths. Something held him back from using his true strength." 

However, Tool begins to rebel against his conditioning but he finds it difficult to overcome his genes and conditioning. His inner conflict becomes the main theme of this novel. When he is attacked in Seascape, Tool fights his intense desire to surrender. " Tool was seized with a powerful urge to surrender...He could actually feel his muscles fighting to make him surrender...As if he were possessed by the will of his masters." He succeeds but his struggle costs his human friends their lives. He rescues Mahalia and tells her, "There will be no ore running, or hiding. I have run from Mercier for years...Now I will hunt, as I was always meant to. Now I will war, as I was designed to."  Mahalia questions if Tool will be able to overcome the conditioning bred into him, despite Tool's assertions that he will not succumb again.

In Seascape, Tool begins to see the augments as they really are, as slaves."They lived among humans as slaves, and thought of themselves as anything but. Disgusting that they did not see themselves for what they were." Jayant Patel, Nita's father insists that Tool is property and that since he is owned by Mercier he needs to be returned. Tool however refuses to comply and demonstrates why Mercier fears him - he is able to resist his training and is capable of influencing other augments to do the same. "My creators do not fear my individual rebellion. They fear the uprising that I will inevitably lead." This suggests that Tool is determined to lead the augments in an uprising.

How augments are seen by humans in this post-apocalyptic world is revealed in a conversation between Nailer and Nita. Nailer tells Nita that Tool is unlike other augments, because he views humans as people, "Not masters. Not owners. Just people." However Nita realizes that humans do not view augments the same way. "...You treat your augments well, but they aren't people. And they don't ask to be treated just like people. They don't demand things the way people demand things..." This is what makes Tool different.

After the situation between Global Patel and Mercier is resolved, Nita's views regarding the augments change. Designed and trained to do tasks that normal humans could not, Nita and her fellow humans never gave the augments a second thought. "Now she couldn't help feeling there was something wrong with the very language used to describe augments. Words like ownership came easily when a creature was grown from handpicked cells, developed  in a creche, and purchase from a selection of other augments." She notes that despite their animal characteristics, they feel loss and success and she acknowledges they are people. This leads her to agree to help Tool.

Tool knows he will never be at peace unless he destroys Caroa. Tool's final confrontation with Caroa is filled with uncertainty as Tool struggles between his conditioning, his love for Caroa and his desire to be free. It is graphic and brutal. But when that is accomplished, Tool feels the weight of Caroa's death and he admits to himself, "The killing of Caroa had not been easy on his mind." In many ways Tool, half-man, half-beast, is more human than Caroa and those who created him. He spares Jones, realizing that like him, she is struggling to survive, that she is a flawed creature too, and to free Mahalia, Ocho and the others from the Raker. He is by far the most interesting character in this series, and evolved into the focus of the novels.

Tool of War is a brutal telling of the cat and mouse game between General Caroa and Tool. It's an unrelenting dark story with no comic relief. Yet the novel ends on a hopeful note. Does Tool lead his rebellion against humanity? We don't know and aren't told in the Epilogue. The title of the novel is a double entendre: referring to both Tool by name but also by his function as a war weapon.

Bacigalupi, brings back several characters from the first book, Shipbreaker. Nailer Lopez, now an engineer on a tanker, is shocked to once again encounter Tool. Tool who helped Nailer, is satisfied to see that he has grown into a strong, assured young human as has his friend Nita Patel, the rich girl he saved in Ship Breaker. Although they have changed much, Tool places his hope in them.

Tool of War offers a thrilling conclusion to the Ship Breaker series. Bacigalupi is a master storyteller who does not disappoint!

Book Details:

Tool of War by Paolo Bacigalupi
New York: Little, Brown and Company  2017
373 pp.

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.

Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi

Shipbreaker by Paolo Bacigalupi is a dystopia set in the American Gulf Coast region. Nailer is part of a light crew that includes Pima, Sloth, Moon Girl and Pearly, all of whom are children or young teens whose sole purpose is to strip copper from abandoned oil tankers. Nailer lives with his abusive, murderous father, Richard Lopez in a bamboo shack at the edge of the encroaching jungle on Bright Sands Beach.

The American Gulf Coast region has been abandoned due to rising seas and repeated storm damage from “city killers”, severe tropical storms that have destroyed and drowned cities such as New Orleans. Bright Sands Beach is an area where derelict oil tankers are scavenged for scrap by light and heavy crews. The light crews are run by bosses who push the crews to make quota. Those who don’t are replaced and their fate is worse than death.

When Nailer almost loses his life in an accident he is called “Lucky Boy”. His luck seems to hold after he survives a “city killer” storm that strikes Bright Sands Beach. Surviving the “city killer”, Nailer and Pima discover a wrecked clipper and a barely alive “swank”, whom they name Lucky Girl.

At first, Pima wants to kill Nita for her gold and the scavenge they will own if she dies. But Nailer can’t bring himself to do this. He struggles with letting Nita die and claiming her wreck as salvage and letting her live and possibly receiving a reward for her rescue. The former choice will mean certain wealth and freedom from the salvage crew.

When they learn that Nita Chaudhury is the daughter of Patel, owner of Patel Gobal, a company that buys scavenge from a local company, they decide that she is worth saving. However, Nailer and Pima soon learn that Nita’s shipwreck was not accidental. They learn that she was fleeing from her father’s enemies who are intent upon using her to gain control of his company.

Soon after, Nailer’s luck fails when his father and some of his goons discover the wreck and capture Nita and Nailer. The situation is further complicated by the appearance at Bright Sands Beach by Pyce, Nita’s father’s arch-enemy who had been pursuing her over the ocean. What follows is a race to save Nita from the clutches of Pyce and to secure a chance at a new life away from Bright Sands Beach. Ship breaker races to a final, satisfying and thrilling conclusion.

Discussion

Ship Breaker is a thoroughly enjoyable novel and is highly recommended to readers who love dytopian science fiction. Some of Bacigalupi’s dystopian elements include drowned cities (The Teeth which represent New Orleans), half men – genetically designed human-canine hybrids who are brutal but loyal to the death, and Harvesters – people who deal in body parts for money.

The characters in the novel were both unique and well developed. Nailer is hardened but not past redemption like his brutal drug-crazed father. Although his motives are initially those of self-interest, he does put aside his prejudice towards “swanks” - as the wealthy are referred to, to save Nita. He wants to feel that he is better than Sloth who abandoned him to die in the bilge of the oil tanker. His character grows throughout the story from the boy who is always trying to appease his abusive father to one who eventually has the courage to confront him.

Bacagalupi gradually builds his dystopian world in Ship Breaker. It is a believable, violent ruined world with characters like the Harvesters and the half-men. The novel is thrilling and engages the reader's attention right to its exciting conclusion. Look for further world-building in the next installment of this series.

Book Details:

Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi
Little, Brown and Company            2010
323pp