Companion to Ship Breaker, The Drowned Cities begins from Tool's point of view. Tool is a half-man, a fabrication of human, dog, hyena and tiger. The perfect war machine; a creature created to kill.
After the peacekeepers from China fled the Drowned Cities, the war lords took over. The various armies are made up of children, war maggots. Drowned Cities is filled with fighting sanctions: Army of God, Tulane Company, Freedom Militia, United Patriot Army.
Mahlia's father was a member of the peacekeepers from China. Her father was Chinese, her mother was pure Drowned Cities. Now she is a castoff. Orphaned. Unwanted. Unlucky. Unloved.
Orphans like Mahlia, who had shown up in Banyan Town with a chopped-off right hand, bleeding, dying for help. No one wanted a war maggot in their midst. It meant they had to decide one way or another about a peacekeeper's castoff, lying in the dirt in the middle of their town.
"The thing I keep wondering about is what was wrong with you, girl? How come the peacekeepers didn't want you? If the peacekeepers didn't care enough to take you when they went back to China, why in the name of the Fates would we want you, either?"
The situation in Banyan Town changes suddenly and Mahlia and Mouse are faced with a difficult decision. Their choice carries serious consequences; one is taken prison by merciless soldier boys, the other has an impossible task. And Tool, the bioengineered war beast is forced to confront his own fears and find a place where he can belong.
The Drowned Cities is a fast-paced, well-written novel. It will you keep you on the edge of your seat wondering what will happen next in an impossible situation.
Rating: 9 out of 10 stars
*language, violence
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Companion novel:
