--- product_id: 1751986 title: "Ship Breaker" price: "€ 24.08" currency: EUR in_stock: true reviews_count: 13 url: https://www.desertcart.sk/products/1751986-ship-breaker store_origin: SK region: Slovakia --- # Ship Breaker **Price:** € 24.08 **Availability:** ✅ In Stock ## Quick Answers - **What is this?** Ship Breaker - **How much does it cost?** € 24.08 with free shipping - **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship - **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.sk](https://www.desertcart.sk/products/1751986-ship-breaker) ## Best For - Customers looking for quality international products ## Why This Product - Free international shipping included - Worldwide delivery with tracking - 15-day hassle-free returns ## Description Set in a dark future America devastated by the forces of climate change, this thrilling bestseller and National Book Finalist is a gritty, high-stakes adventure of a teenage boy faced with conflicting loyalties. In America's flooded Gulf Coast region, oil is scarce, but loyalty is scarcer. Grounded oil tankers are being broken down for parts by crews of young people. Nailer, a teenage boy, works the light crew, scavenging for copper wiring just to make quota--and hopefully live to see another day. But when, by luck or by chance, he discovers an exquisite clipper ship beached during a recent hurricane, Nailer faces the most important decision of his life: Strip the ship for all it's worth or rescue its lone survivor, a beautiful and wealthy girl who could lead him to a better life.... In this powerful novel, Hugo and Nebula Award winning author Paolo Bacigalupi delivers a fast-paced adventure set in the vivid and raw, uncertain future of his companion novels The Drowned Cities and Tool of War . "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 New York Times Bestseller A Michael L. Printz Award Winner A National Book Award Finalist A VOYA 2010 Top Shelf Fiction for Middle School Readers Book A Rolling Stone 40 Best YA Novels Book Don’t miss the other books in the series: The Drowned Cities Tool of War Review: Ship Breaker Nails It - I don't remember why I came across this book. It's been sitting on my bedroom floor for about two weeks and last night I opened it up for the first time. After reading it, I am now wondering why I left it on the floor for so long. Was I crazy? Well most likely, lazy and it was hidden under my pile of clothes. I'm not going to bore you with a summary. That's what a product description is for. I really liked this book and now it's sitting on my bookshelf along with the other keepers in my collection. I really enjoyed Bacigalupi's writing style. The story was laced with descriptions and it was consistant. They weren't abstract descriptions or lazy descriptions either. They were short and to the point. "Bright tropic sunlight and ocean salt breezes bathed him." As a reader, you get an idea of where Nailer was at. The place he lived just based on this description. There was no need to mention a sandy beach lined with tropical plants. The details were short and they still maintianed an imagery that set both tone and setting. I didn't know what I was getting into when I started reading this book, but I knew pretty soon once I began reading. A futuristic post-industrial almost dystopic setting was here. Yes, there is a slight hint to be enviormentally friendly but that wasn't the point of the story. It annoys me when people says that's what the book represents (based on a small factor of a book). Ship Breaker is about Nailer, the protaganist of the story. It's about his life, his way of life, his beliefs, and how something and someone from outside of his world alters and changes his perception. Ship Breaker is about being human (in regards to Nailer). It's reinforced by the character Tool in the book. It's not a romance. It's not an adventure. Though there are elements of those in this book that's not what this book is about. To some it seems like Bacigalupi has no idea what he wants from his story but I think they are just confused as they are basing this book with other books, (P.S. I absolutely hate that. Don't do that. Read a book and based it on its own merits, not along side another.) or missed the reoccuring hints and themes from the situations in the story. It's not surprising for two people to start liking one another when they have to completely trust the other, especailly with their lives, and just because there are moments like this does not mean the author wanted to make it a romance novel and then didn't know how to expand from there. It happens. Could happen. And it did in Ship Breaker. Plus it was not the focus of the story and it didn't happen within seeing each other, in unbelievable circumstances. The pacing of the story was done well also. The first few pages set the tone of the story, introducing us to the lives of Nailer and those around him. You get to know these people's hard lives, the mentaility to live in such a place, and what they do to survive. The pace picks up soon after and really doesn't stop from there. Again and again, the book questions decisions and what it means for the person making those decision. Do they reflect who that person is or do they create that person to who he is now? I have seen one review where is states that this book is unoriginal. Where else is there a book about a shipbreaker in a dystopian world? Where is this unorginality you speak of? You strip a story to its core and it reeks of unoriginality. If you are to inspect every story and poke and prod it to be an original story, every story would cower and hide in shame. It's how an author approaches the story with its characters. I have not seem many Nailers around. Or Nitas. Or Primas. Yes, Nailer is fighting for survival like many other people in a dystopian world, but unlike those other books, we get to see why and how Nailer acts the way he does. It's not just a race or run for survival. We come to understand him and those characters around him, understanding why they act they way they do and belive in the things they do. ( I hate reviews who say `there's nothing original about this book' without any backed reasons... you are entitled to your opinions but back them up. Saying something like that and leaving it as it stands shows you have no back bone and is merely stating something to be obnoxious and heard.) Verdict: Great story and great characters. Definately one to own. Review: A nasty world with a nice message - Ship Breaker is a young adult, post-apocalyptic, science fiction novel from Paolo Bacigalupi. The titular character is Nailer, a teenager who lives (barely) and works (hard) on one of the polluted coasts of North America. Nailer is part of one of many hundreds of crews that swarm over derelict ships and dismantle them for their raw components. In the post-greenhouse-meltdown world, resources are scarce - if it weren't for the crews, there'd be no materials left at all. Nailer's world is a brutal one. The crews are part of a nasty, feudal society. Teens like Nailer are caught between roles - growing too big to crawl through ducts in search of valuable wire, but not big enough to join the adults that dismantle heavy machinery. There's nowhere to fit in and, of course, no escape. Nailer's luck takes a turn for the better when he makes a massive find. One of the newfangled, "swank" clipper ships has washed ashore. The only thing that stands between Nailer and valuable, life-changing salvage? The near-dead young girl that he founds on board. Fortunately, this being a young adult book, so Nailer does the right thing. Also, she's hot. Nailer and Nita (his pretty new friend from the right side of the tracks) are forced to run. As well as being pursued by Nita's high-class corporate enemies and Nailer's low-class gangland foes, they have to deal with the brutal facts of life in their ruined world. Any infection is potentially lethal. A rat makes for a good meal. Half-dogs roam the streets as corporate assassins (ok, the last is a little far-fetched, but give the author credit for having a bit of fun). Bacigalupi's future is a bleak and uninviting one. Ship Breaker is, ultimately, a good story, if not a particularly insightful one. It dances near serious themes, but then sashays away at the last minute. There aren't really a lot of problems that aren't quickly resolved in the next chapter, and most personal relationships don't get explored any more deeply than a confession of "liking" (or even "not liking"). Nailer's world is divided into good people and bad people. Occasionally there's a bit of drama when a bad person turns out to be a good person, but that doesn't happen often enough to be a source of real anxiety for anyone involved. It all concludes in a surprisingly upbeat fairy-tale ending that defies current trends in young adult genre fiction - daring to give the reader satisfaction instead of setting up the gloomy sequel. Ship Breaker isn't a flawless book by any means. Bacigalupi tends to wax preachy when it comes to the use and abuse of natural resources. Agree or disagree, he lays it on a bit thick and interrupts his own storytelling. Having a world with The Orleans (and "The Orleans 2" and two other cities on the same spot) all destroyed by "city killer" hurricanes - all caused by the stripping of barrier islands - is shamefully heavy-handed. Similarly, the characters all become uncharacteristically chatty when the topic of consumerism comes to the fore. Ship Breaker is, largely, an old-fashioned Boy's Own adventure. A young man goes in search of his fortune and, after proving himself morally righteous, finds it. It is a tried and true formula, and one that the author adopts well. An enjoyable book - just one that sometimes gets distracted by another agenda. ## Technical Specifications | Specification | Value | |---------------|-------| | Best Sellers Rank | #59,440 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #183 in Teen & Young Adult Survival Stories #204 in Teen & Young Adult Dystopian #1,146 in Teen & Young Adult Fantasy | | Customer Reviews | 4.3 out of 5 stars 1,810 Reviews | ## Images ![Ship Breaker - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/91L-p4Su6GL.jpg) ## Customer Reviews ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Ship Breaker Nails It *by C***. on January 12, 2011* I don't remember why I came across this book. It's been sitting on my bedroom floor for about two weeks and last night I opened it up for the first time. After reading it, I am now wondering why I left it on the floor for so long. Was I crazy? Well most likely, lazy and it was hidden under my pile of clothes. I'm not going to bore you with a summary. That's what a product description is for. I really liked this book and now it's sitting on my bookshelf along with the other keepers in my collection. I really enjoyed Bacigalupi's writing style. The story was laced with descriptions and it was consistant. They weren't abstract descriptions or lazy descriptions either. They were short and to the point. "Bright tropic sunlight and ocean salt breezes bathed him." As a reader, you get an idea of where Nailer was at. The place he lived just based on this description. There was no need to mention a sandy beach lined with tropical plants. The details were short and they still maintianed an imagery that set both tone and setting. I didn't know what I was getting into when I started reading this book, but I knew pretty soon once I began reading. A futuristic post-industrial almost dystopic setting was here. Yes, there is a slight hint to be enviormentally friendly but that wasn't the point of the story. It annoys me when people says that's what the book represents (based on a small factor of a book). Ship Breaker is about Nailer, the protaganist of the story. It's about his life, his way of life, his beliefs, and how something and someone from outside of his world alters and changes his perception. Ship Breaker is about being human (in regards to Nailer). It's reinforced by the character Tool in the book. It's not a romance. It's not an adventure. Though there are elements of those in this book that's not what this book is about. To some it seems like Bacigalupi has no idea what he wants from his story but I think they are just confused as they are basing this book with other books, (P.S. I absolutely hate that. Don't do that. Read a book and based it on its own merits, not along side another.) or missed the reoccuring hints and themes from the situations in the story. It's not surprising for two people to start liking one another when they have to completely trust the other, especailly with their lives, and just because there are moments like this does not mean the author wanted to make it a romance novel and then didn't know how to expand from there. It happens. Could happen. And it did in Ship Breaker. Plus it was not the focus of the story and it didn't happen within seeing each other, in unbelievable circumstances. The pacing of the story was done well also. The first few pages set the tone of the story, introducing us to the lives of Nailer and those around him. You get to know these people's hard lives, the mentaility to live in such a place, and what they do to survive. The pace picks up soon after and really doesn't stop from there. Again and again, the book questions decisions and what it means for the person making those decision. Do they reflect who that person is or do they create that person to who he is now? I have seen one review where is states that this book is unoriginal. Where else is there a book about a shipbreaker in a dystopian world? Where is this unorginality you speak of? You strip a story to its core and it reeks of unoriginality. If you are to inspect every story and poke and prod it to be an original story, every story would cower and hide in shame. It's how an author approaches the story with its characters. I have not seem many Nailers around. Or Nitas. Or Primas. Yes, Nailer is fighting for survival like many other people in a dystopian world, but unlike those other books, we get to see why and how Nailer acts the way he does. It's not just a race or run for survival. We come to understand him and those characters around him, understanding why they act they way they do and belive in the things they do. ( I hate reviews who say `there's nothing original about this book' without any backed reasons... you are entitled to your opinions but back them up. Saying something like that and leaving it as it stands shows you have no back bone and is merely stating something to be obnoxious and heard.) Verdict: Great story and great characters. Definately one to own. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ A nasty world with a nice message *by J***N on February 25, 2011* Ship Breaker is a young adult, post-apocalyptic, science fiction novel from Paolo Bacigalupi. The titular character is Nailer, a teenager who lives (barely) and works (hard) on one of the polluted coasts of North America. Nailer is part of one of many hundreds of crews that swarm over derelict ships and dismantle them for their raw components. In the post-greenhouse-meltdown world, resources are scarce - if it weren't for the crews, there'd be no materials left at all. Nailer's world is a brutal one. The crews are part of a nasty, feudal society. Teens like Nailer are caught between roles - growing too big to crawl through ducts in search of valuable wire, but not big enough to join the adults that dismantle heavy machinery. There's nowhere to fit in and, of course, no escape. Nailer's luck takes a turn for the better when he makes a massive find. One of the newfangled, "swank" clipper ships has washed ashore. The only thing that stands between Nailer and valuable, life-changing salvage? The near-dead young girl that he founds on board. Fortunately, this being a young adult book, so Nailer does the right thing. Also, she's hot. Nailer and Nita (his pretty new friend from the right side of the tracks) are forced to run. As well as being pursued by Nita's high-class corporate enemies and Nailer's low-class gangland foes, they have to deal with the brutal facts of life in their ruined world. Any infection is potentially lethal. A rat makes for a good meal. Half-dogs roam the streets as corporate assassins (ok, the last is a little far-fetched, but give the author credit for having a bit of fun). Bacigalupi's future is a bleak and uninviting one. Ship Breaker is, ultimately, a good story, if not a particularly insightful one. It dances near serious themes, but then sashays away at the last minute. There aren't really a lot of problems that aren't quickly resolved in the next chapter, and most personal relationships don't get explored any more deeply than a confession of "liking" (or even "not liking"). Nailer's world is divided into good people and bad people. Occasionally there's a bit of drama when a bad person turns out to be a good person, but that doesn't happen often enough to be a source of real anxiety for anyone involved. It all concludes in a surprisingly upbeat fairy-tale ending that defies current trends in young adult genre fiction - daring to give the reader satisfaction instead of setting up the gloomy sequel. Ship Breaker isn't a flawless book by any means. Bacigalupi tends to wax preachy when it comes to the use and abuse of natural resources. Agree or disagree, he lays it on a bit thick and interrupts his own storytelling. Having a world with The Orleans (and "The Orleans 2" and two other cities on the same spot) all destroyed by "city killer" hurricanes - all caused by the stripping of barrier islands - is shamefully heavy-handed. Similarly, the characters all become uncharacteristically chatty when the topic of consumerism comes to the fore. Ship Breaker is, largely, an old-fashioned Boy's Own adventure. A young man goes in search of his fortune and, after proving himself morally righteous, finds it. It is a tried and true formula, and one that the author adopts well. An enjoyable book - just one that sometimes gets distracted by another agenda. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ YA in an Unapologetic, Dark Way *by O***N on March 27, 2013* Dystopias are just making my summer! Is that weird? Oh well, weird or not, I have read some awesome YA dystopias, and Nebula winner Paolo Bacigalupi doesn't disappoint with Ship Breaker. You might not be able to pronounce the author's last name, but you won't forget this story once you've finished it. Nailer is just one of many kids who work the Light Crew on the beach. Light Crew are small kids who can climb into the old rusting hulks of abandoned ships on the beach from a time long gone. They scavenge anything they can, especially copper, from old ships, but hitting the Lucky Strike of an oil pocket is the dream of any scavenge crew. The worst fate is to be thrown from your blood-oath crew for betraying your oath. If you betray your crew, there isn't much hope for you on the beach. Nailer's mom died long ago and his father waivers between drug-induced hazes and violent abusive rages. His life on Light Crew is the only thing that keeps them fed. His Crew leader, Pima, and her mother are the closest thing to family Nailer has known. When he and Pima discover a shipwreck after a huge "city killer" (hurricane), they decide to scavenge for their own Lucky Strike before anyone else gets there. During their scavenge, however, they find a young girl pinned. If they don't rescue her, she will surely die. Pima wants to kill her and continue the Strike, but Nailer insists on saving the girl they dub Lucky Girl. In doing so, Nailer's very scary father finds them and is determined to sell Lucky Girl to the highest bidder. Pima and Nailer know they have to get away from Nailer's dad and his psychotic crew, but they underestimate the strength of the crew. During their getaway, they are saved by Pima's mom and a half-man (men genetically engineered with dog/hyena/etc. DNA as "loyal" servants). Tool, the half-man, helps Nailer and Lucky Girl escape to Orleans (part of the old New Orleans and Orleans II) where she can find a ship to save her. The reason she shipwrecked in the first place was because she was outrunning a traitor in her father's company who wanted to use her as leverage for power in his company. Now they don't know which ship and captain can be trusted, but Nailer's dad is hunting them as well. Nailer and Tool must find a way to get Lucky Girl back to her family. This is an awesome dystopia, with all the bells and whistles. Hard, gruesome work for the majority of they barely-scraping by masses while the leaders live with extravagant pleasures. The disenchanted masses dream of a better life while trudging through the short, painful lives they lead. It makes you love Nailer and Pima and all the others stuck on the beach, but also frustrated with Lucky Girl and her ignorance to their lives. Lucky Girl isn't without redemption, of course. She has a quality that makes people who haven't even met her want to help her. When Nailer sees how many crew members on one of her father's ships would risk their lives to save her, he knows Lucky Girl is a special kind of "swank". This is a moderately difficult book, in terms of reading level. I would save this story for high skilled junior high through high school. The story is very exciting and interesting. It has some familiar landmarks and cities to keep a student's interest while still exploring a whole new world. The only thing that might be a little confusing is the nicknames and slang the characters use. You get used to the new terms quickly, but when they are first introduced, they can be a little confusing. This is a really great story by a newly acclaimed Sci-Fi author. It is nice when we drag the talented "adult" authors to the YA fun- they never knew what they were missing until they start writing for young adults! --- ## Why Shop on Desertcart? - 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016 - 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories - 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price - 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members) - 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection - ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews **Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.sk/products/1751986-ship-breaker](https://www.desertcart.sk/products/1751986-ship-breaker) --- *Product available on Desertcart Slovakia* *Store origin: SK* *Last updated: 2026-08-19*