The Drowned Cities

For some reason, my computer has failed to connect to the Internet, so I am writing this entire blog from my phone. Anyways, here we go. The Drowned Cities, written by Paolo Bacigalupi, is filled with gore and violence and hatred. This novel portrays a dark and evil future in the United States. Climate change seems to have brought out the worst in this country. After the sea began to expand and cover the unprepared country, war broke out and when the Chinese attempted to save this once great nation, matters only grew worse.

The two main characters, Mahlia and Mouse, are desperate to escape the Drowned Cities depression and danger. There are multiple challenges facing this dream. The first, being the fact that there are crude and unmoral soldiers, called soldier boys, searching for any "castoffs" that may still be alive. Mahlia happens to be one of these "castoffs", constantly struggling to stay out of trouble and to stay alive. The second is, the fact that there are half-men, genetically modified creatures that have been designed to kill, patrolling the borders, making sure the chaos from the Drowned Cities does not spread else where. There is another main character, his name is Tool. Tool is one of these half-men. He had just escaped from holding and is now on the run. When Mahlia and Mouse find Tool laying upside down in a swamp, their adventures begin.   

I did not write about this novel on my wiki page for many reasons. One, because climate change plays more of a secondary role throughout the book. While climate change is the cause of this future, it is not the main subject. There are a couple climate change characteristics here and there, such as a description of the extreme heat, but nothing more. Two, because the future described in this book is far fetched and unrealistic. It gives off the sense that climate change isn't a present issue. I do realize that this is how the majority of young adult fictional novels are written. The third reason I didn't write about this book is because it is over 400 pages long and would take too long for a class to finish. Along with that, the probability of all students actually finishing the novel is very low. I would usually recommend reading portions of the novel as an alternative, but because climate change is not prevalent throughout the story this would be pointless.

Even though this book would not be good for teaching climate change in a classroom, it is a very well written novel. I am almost done with part one of the book, and fully intend to complete it before the end of the week. The Drowned Cities is definitely a page turner. This book was written with violence and thrill and adventure in mind. I am looking forward to beginning part two of the book and seeing what new challenges the main characters will have to overcome next. I recommend everyone read atleast one Paolo Bacigalupi novel at some point throughout the year.