

* "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 but Bacigalupi is one of the genre's masters, employing inventively terrifying details in equally imaginative story lines."- "Los Angeles Times" "Suzanne Collins may have put dystopian literature on the YA map with 'The Hunger Games'. "synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title. This thrilling companion to Paolo Bacigalupi’s highly acclaimed Ship Breaker is a haunting and powerful story of loyalty, survival, and heart-pounding adventure. One is taken prisoner by merciless soldier boys, and the other is faced with an impossible decision: Risk everything to save a friend, or flee to a place where freedom might finally be possible. But when they discover a wounded half-man-a bioengineered war beast named Tool-who is being hunted by a vengeful band of soldiers, their fragile existence quickly collapses. In a dark future America where violence, terror, and grief touch everyone, young refugees Mahlia and Mouse have managed to leave behind the war-torn lands of the Drowned Cities by escaping into the jungle outskirts. She knew what they sought, and she knew, too, that if they found it, her best friend would surely die. She knew why these soldier boys had come. Bullet bandoliers and scars draped their bare chests.
