Set in the same sort of bleak, post-Peak Oil future of The Windup Girl, this YA novel is a classic tale of boy of the people meets high-borne girl and goes on quest. But Bagigalupi keeps it real with a gritty and brutal story, pulling no punches in showing what’s needed to survive once “The Accelerated Age” collapses around us.
The chilling thing of course is that the inhuman conditions of our hero’s work dismantling old freighters along America’s Gulf Coast is occuring right now, on the ship breaking beaches of India and Pakistan.