About the Author

Paolo Bacigalupi is the author of the highly acclaimed The Drowned Cities, Tool of War, and Ship Breaker, a New York Times bestseller, Michael L. Printz Award winner, and National Book Award finalist. He is also the author of the Edgar Awards nominee The Doubt Factory; a novel for younger readers, Zombie Baseball Beatdown; and two bestselling adult novels for adults, The Water Knife and The Windup Girl. His first work of collected short fiction was Pump Six and Other Stories. He co-wrote The Tangled Lands with Tobias S. Buckell. The winner of the Hugo, Nebula, Locus, Compton Crook, John W. Campbell Memorial, and Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Awards, he lives in western Colorado with his wife and son. The author invites you to visit his website at windupstories.com

Reviews

* "Bacigalupi brings to life a post-apocalyptic America that thrills the mind."--VOYA, starred review

* "Bacigalupi writes with a furious energy that makes this brilliant depiction of an all-too-believable future impossible to forget. A story that will resonate beyond its final page."--Booklist, starred review

* "Bacigalupi's intense, action-filled novel is a heartbreaking and powerfully moving portrait of individual resiliency amidst extreme circumstances that rivals, if not surpasses, the excellence of its predecessor."--The Horn Book, starred review

* "Beautifully written, filled with high-octane action, and featuring badly damaged but fascinating and endearing characters, this fine novel tops its predecessor and can only increase the author's already strong reputation."--Publishers Weekly, starred review

* "The novel's greatest success lies in the creation of a world that is so real, the grit and decay of war and ruin will lay thick on the minds of readers long after the final page. The narrative, however, is equally well crafted.... Breathtaking."--Kirkus Reviews, starred review

"A compelling read, this engaging book does not glorify war and violence, but shows its true nature."--School Library Journal

"A heartbreaking tale of loyalty and the fight to survive."--Library Media Connection

"A new Paolo Bacigalupi novel is reason to celebrate--no matter how old you are."--The Associated Press

"Suzanne Collins may have put dystopian literature on the YA map with 'The Hunger Games'... but Bacigalupi is one of the genre's masters, employing inventively terrifying details in equally imaginative story lines."--Los Angeles Times

A 2012 Kirkus Reviews Best of YA BookA 2012 VOYA Perfect Ten BookA 2012 Los Angeles Times Book Prize FinalistA 2012 Los Angeles Public Library Best Teen BookA 2013 YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults BookA 2013 CBC at Bank Street College Best Children's Books of the Year BookA 2013 Capitol Choices Noteworthy Titles for Children and Teens Book
A Junior Library Guild SelectionA 2014 Tennessee Volunteer Book Award Nominee

Gr 9 Up-In the ruins of an America toppled by greed, gas shortages, and flooding caused by climate change, civil war runs rampant. Orphans Mahlia and Mouse have been taken in by a kindly doctor, but when they cross the wrong soldier boys, even he may not be able to save them. Mahlia has turned hateful and pessimistic since the maiming that left her without a right hand. She decides that hope lies in saving a bioengineered soldier-beast, a half-man, who could protect her as she flees the Drowned Cities. It is only when Mouse is taken by soldier boys that Mahlia turns deep into the city's broken heart to try to rescue him. Joshua Swanson brings to life Bacigalupi's dark and compelling companion (2012) to his Printz Award-winning title, Ship Breaker (2010, both Little, Brown). Good pacing and staunch delivery keep listeners on the edge of their seats as Mahlia and Mouse fight to survive in a post-apocalyptic America. The inclusion of a creepy half-man ratchets up the tension a notch for the whole second half of the listening experience. In libraries where patrons are clamoring for solid dystopian novels, this will be a solid choice.-Jessica Miller, West Springfield Public Library, MA (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.