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Paolo Bacigalupi
Atom (Little, Brown)
July 2011/ ISBN 1907411100
Teenage / Science Fiction / Gulf of Mexico / Future
US edition is different
Amazon
US
|| UK
Reviewed
by Rachel A Hyde
In a dystopian
near future where climate change and wars have created an impoverished
world, young Nailer Lopez scratches a living stripping copper wire
from old obsolete oil tankers. He lives in a shack on the beach
and is getting too old and too large for this type of work, but
has no chance of getting any other. When a new ship is washed up
after a storm he has a chance to go after oil on his own which will
earn him more money. But there is more aboard than just oil, and
Nailer soon has some hard decisions of his own to make.
Back when I was a young adult it was inconceivable that a book like
this could be available for me to read. It is dark and adult toned,
so much so that adults are sure to enjoy it as much as younger readers
and deals with real, relevant issues such as what we are doing to
the world. There are also themes of courage and loyalty, and of
surviving in a world where almost everybody is very poor and likely
to remain so. This is something of a cautionary tale, and at times
there is perhaps more moralizing than older readers might like but
the fast pace, lively characters, tangible descriptions and this
author’s excellent world building skills more than make up
for it. Books like this show how far the YA genre has come in the
past few years, and show too that anybody who still thinks that
SF is just escapist space opera is very out of touch. This is n
author to watch out for.
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