A glimpse into the future in Paolo Bacigalupi’s debut novel "Ship Breaker" is about a young boy called Nailer, who knows all too well just how much his weight is worth.
He’s a member of a light crew, a group of children who are small enough to crawl inside the air vents of old giant oil rigs that loom over the coast of the Indian beach he lives on. Each day is another that he must gamble with the fates.
Will he collect enough copper wire in ducts to get food for the night? Will he grow too big to fit into the ducts and be kicked off light crew, but be far too small for the rough, demolishing work of the heavy crews? 

    The earth has been ravaged by man’s greed over oil, the weather has gotten worse. Whole cities have been destroyed by "Man Killers" and the arrival of the latest Man Killer topples Nailer’s world upside down. He nearly drowns to death in a hidden pocket of oil on the ship after a duct has fallen through. A few days after the storm’s passing, he stumbles upon a girl, left lying in wreckage of a Clipper ship. Now he and the girl are on the run. If he doesn’t get her back to the safety of her father, it’s both their heads and billions of dollars being poured into the illegal practice of rigging and selling back alley oil. 

    Though it is Bacigalupi’s first young adult novel, his voice is a powerful one. The images of Nailer’s barbaric world are crisp and emotional. Though character development is a bit crude, this is easily glazed over by the rapid and continuous action sequences. It is perhaps assumed that Nailer and his other cast members are not so easily developed so the reader can more easily see through his eyes. They jump when he jumps, they cry when he cries and they lust… well, they don’t lust the way he does.

    It’s a good, quick read, but there is not much depth and because of it I felt a little disappointed at the end of the piece. Though his work is well done, it is no more than a fluff piece and shouldn’t be taken as much more. I give it 7 out of 10 talons.