Quality Science Fiction for Kids

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Quality Science Fiction for Kids
January 26, 2011
BY RICHARD GAWEL
NorthJersey.com

Good science fiction is about much more than laser beams and alien invasions. It takes the threads of today’s technology, applies intelligent speculation and solid research, and shows us what the world could be like if the paths we’re on now don’t change. And while imaginative authors may go on wild flights of fancy in depicting these possible worlds, they also always have their eyes locked onto human nature, which never really changes regardless of the era or geography.


'Ship Breaker' by Paolo Bacigalupi is a gripping tale about a future world wracked by environmental disasters where teenagers make their living pulling salvage from supertanker wrecks along the Gulf Coast, hoping for a big score that will free them from such a tough life.
Two young adult sci-fi thrillers cracked a number of 2010’s top ten lists: "Ship Breaker" by Paolo Bacigalupi and "Brain Jack" by Brian Falkner. In fact, "Ship Breaker" recently won the Michael L. Printz Award for Excellence in Young Adult Literature from the Young Adult Library Services Association. While their dystopian worlds are terrifying, simply because they seem so plausible, they also offer hope in the humanity of their protagonists.

Ship Breaker

The Gulf Coast has taken a beating over the past few years from the likes of Hurricane Katrina and BP. Yet these tragedies are just the beginning, according to Bacigalupi. Centuries from now, the water will be a toxic stew littered with fleets of wrecked supertankers. Thanks to the melted polar icecaps, only the spires of the cities of New Orleans and Orleans II reach the ocean’s surface. And with global warming, Category 5 hurricanes are as common as the summer rain. Still, humanity clings to survival.

Nailer, a teenage boy who lives with his drug addict father in a shantytown on the beach, ekes out a living by pulling salvage from those supertankers. His only ambition is to grow up to be big enough to join one of the heavy crews—and escape his father’s relentless beatings. His only joy comes from the camaraderie of his light crew, a pack of kids like him who are small enough to crawl through the narrow spaces in those wrecks.

There’s no school, only what hard experience teaches. And there’s no government, only the respect that comes from force or from wealth. Family is equally ephemeral, as Nailer finds a home with his friend Pima and her mother. Life is hard, but predictable. But then Nailer and Pima find a shipwrecked yacht with a lone survivor. Nita, the teenaged heir to a company worth billions, is on the run from competitive corporate interests who would rather see her dead.

The action is relentless and suspenseful. The speculative aspects are fascinating as well, as wealthy corporate clans have supplanted governments for control of a world where so much else has collapsed. But humanity and its struggle to do more than survive remains, as Nailer wrestles with temptations that would only lead him to a life like his father’s. And that’s where the book really gets its power. In a bleak world, Nailer’s ideals offer hope for the future.

Brain Jack

It’s the digital age, and we’re all connected. From smart phones to traffic cameras to credit cards, everything we do is recorded somewhere in cyberspace. Indeed, our entire nation is online, from financial records to power plants to military ciphers. We put absolute trust in those infinite ones and zeroes too. Now imagine the damage that can be done by someone with access and the intelligence to put all those gigabytes together.

Sam Wilson is a hacker—one of the best, actually. He didn’t mean to crash the entire Internet, though. He was just trying to scam a couple of free computers while cutting class, and he needed to cover his tracks. Maybe that’s why the Department of Homeland Security recruited him to work on its cyber-defense task force, instead of throwing him in jail. Forget about dirty bombs. Every day, America’s enemies are trying to get into our mainframes and hack us back to the pre-industrial age.

Meanwhile, a new technology has hit the market: wired skullcaps that feed the Internet right into your brain. Sam is amazed, as the caps enable him to program at the speed of thought. Yet the DHS doesn’t trust the technology, and rightfully so. Foreign hackers already have shown that they can beat Sam and his teammates. What if they got into their very brains, too? It’s no surprise, then, when these caps are hacked and their users are brainwashed. Suddenly, Sam must save civilization from itself.

While Sam’s skills are unbelievably formidable at times, his codes are based on real programming techniques. Neural headsets also are in development, though they can’t let users mentally surf the Web—yet. Sam’s personality is a little flat, though. Aside from a little regret he feels upon leaving his mom and best friend behind, and a crush on a rival hacker, he’s only concerned with the rush he gets from a good hack. But he does take time to ponder the role of the individual in a world where we’re all connected. In addition to its breakneck action, such questions make the novel worthwhile.