The Sky Inside by Clare B. Dunkle

Summary:  13 year-old Martin lives in a dome where babies are advertised on television and delivered by storks, window decals mark the changing of seasons and no one is allowed to ask questions.  When Martin’s six year-old sister Cassie is recalled along with all the other kids in the dome aged six and under, Martin is the only one who seems to care.  His love, loyalty, and curiosity, along with his faithful Alldog, Chip, lead him on a dangerous journey to find his sister and discover the truth behind the world he lives in.

Dystopian Issues:  Totalitarian Government, Eugenics
Part of a Series: Yes
Next in Series:  The Walls Have Eyes
Age of Main Character: 13
Number of Pages:  229
Year of Publication:  2008
Publisher:  Atheneum Books for Young Readers

Review:  There are so many things I love about this book.
     First, the characters.  Martin, a smart, caring thirteen year-old who promises his sister he will find her when she is taken away and does everything he can to keep his promise.  Cassie, the extremely precocious six year-old who wants to know the why behind everything and loves her older brother deeply.  And Chip, the faithful Alldog who will do anything to win Martin's affection and help him out.
     I loved specific things like when Cassie is describing an updated version of Peter Pan to her family, and how Chip, as a robot contained by a jelly-like substance, has the ability to morph into pretty much whatever Martin needs and get him into secure places.  I also love the part where Martin's friends hack a zombie video game to merge it with a SimCity type game and have the zombies take over the frightened Sims. 
     Dunkle pulls together elements from Stephen King's The Running Man (book and film versions), George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four and her own unique ideas to create a world where everyone is being watched and controlled to be good consumers and sheep.  Her attention to detail and love of her characters makes this book a joy to read and not depressing, even though it contains serious dystopian issues such as living with a totalitarian government and using eugenics to create the younger generations.
     The Sky Inside feels like a cautionary tale about the dangers of designer babies and believing propaganda.  Dunkle explores what would happen to society if babies were bred in labs with specific characteristics that are not valued by a totalitarian government.  Talk about using the system to subvert the system!
     Ultimately though, this book is a moving story about the bond between a brother and his sister, and his unwillingness to simply accept that her recall is the best solution.  Martin isn't out to fix society, just save the people that he loves.
     At the end of this book I have just one thing to say.  I want to be a fourteen.

Real-Life Dystopia:  I've been reading Eugenics by David Galton and am fascinated by the increasing role eugenics is playing in our society.  Eugenics is used in in-vitro fertilization to ensure a fetus without a genetically inherited disease is implanted in its mother.  Unfortunately, eugenics has the ability to be misused quite easily, as in the case of Nazi Germany's ideas of exterminating the Jews and in India and China where ultrasounds that determine the baby's sex often lead to the abortion of female fetuses.

Memorable Quotes: "It was the distance that fascinated him first.  After a lifetime of living with a steel ceiling and a concrete floor, the vastness of the living landscape was like a drug.  He stood on the top of a hill, a concept he had known before from sandbox games, but this hill was an enormous thing, and the ground fell gradually from it for a long, long way.  The ground below the hill wasn't flat either.  It undulated, rising in curves and falling in scoops.  Off to his left, high hills like a fence seemed ready to blockade the clouds themselves."
     -  The Sky Inside by Clare B. Dunkle, pg 144-145

     "The trees straggled down a nearby ridge and spilled into the field, like a crowd of people who had followed two or three leaders.
     Martin stood in their shade, put his hands into the ribs their bark, and felt wonder deep in his heart.  They were not tall and powerful like the I beans that ribbed the steel dome, but their branches swayed, and their leaves rustled in the wind.  He could tell that they were alive."
     -  The Sky Inside by Clare B. Dunkle, pg 148

Author Web Site:  http://www.claredunkle.com/

Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi

Summary:  Nailer works light crew, scavenging decrepit ships for copper wiring to make quota.  After a lucky escape from drowning in oil, Nailer’s fortune continues when he finds a clipper ship shipwrecked by a storm.  Suddenly he has a decision to make, scavenge the remains before anyone else discovers it, or save the swank girl inside and trust the Fates that she will lead to an even bigger reward.  His choice will take him on an unimaginable adventure away from any family he’s ever known, but will make him realise that family is so much more than a blood connection.

Dystopian Issues:  Eugenics, Disparity Between Rich and Poor, Climate Change
Part of a Series:  The first book in the Ship Breaker series
Next in Series:  The Drowned Cities, technically the prequel to Ship Breaker, but still the second book in the Ship Breaker series
Age of Main Character:  Unknown, even to himself (but probably between 12 and 14)
Number of Pages:  323
Year of Publication:  2010
Publisher:  Little, Brown and Company

Review:  Ship Breaker is an action-driven book that challenges the true meaning of the word family.  There were many things I loved about this book, but the main thing was that I kept thinking about it for days after I'd finished it.
     Nailer lives in a world where trust is hard to come by.  Although his light crew shares a blood oath to protect each other, all are secretly looking for a 'lucky strike' that will make them rich.  At home Nailer's life is even worse.  His mom is dead, and his dad has turned into an unpredictable, physically abusive drug addict.  Although Nailer has every reason to take any lucky strike he can find, when he is presented with the choice of saving a life or scavenging a ship, he chooses to save the life.
     Bacigalupi's characters are well-drawn with complex motivations.  I love how Nailer struggles against himself, ultimately doing the right thing but also knowing that he could easily do the selfish thing as well.  Nailer is a reflector who considers his options and is willing to pay the price when a price must be paid.
     I was intrigued by Tool, part human, part dog, part tiger, and wished that Bacigalupi had told more of his story.  From what I have read of The Drowned Cities, however, I think my curiousity will be satiated.
     Ship Breaker marks the first instance of dystopian organ donation on my site but I am sure it will not be the last.  In this case people are free to sell their organs, blood and eyes to the harvestors.  Selling your body parts does not have to be consentual though as other people can sell you to be harvested.  Women can also sell their eggs for the creation of the half-men that exist (like Tool), created by something called Life Cult.
     Weighing in at 323 pages Ship Breaker isn't exactly a fast read but I found it to be a mesmerizing one.

Real Life Dystopia:  Ship Breaker actually references New Orleans being hit by a hurricane.  In this dystopian world however, a second Orleans was built, only to be hit by another similar 'city killing' storm.  After that the name Orleans was dismissed for any further cities because it was thought to have bad luck attached to it.
     While we may not have advanced to the point of cross-species animal hybrids yet, at least not that I am aware of, scientists have been taking genes from DNA found in animals and using them in plants for research purposes.
     Harvesters, as they are known as in Ship Breaker, are known to us as organ transplant surgeons.  However, legal organ donations in North America in our time are still consentual and not monetarily rewarded.  Emphasis on 'legal'.

Memorable Quotes:  "He was alive.  His skin sang with life.  Even the pain in his back and shoulder where the shiv had driven into him felt good.  Being close to death had made everything in his life shine."
     - Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi, pg 42
    
     "Nita didn't blink.  'I ran out of chances a long time ago.  It's all Fates now.'"
     - Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi, pg 165
    
     "Sadna shook her head.  'Killing isn't free.  It takes something out of you every time you do it.  You get their life; they get a piece of your soul.  It's always a trade.'"
     - Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi, pg 174

     "'Listen to me, boy.  Scientists created me from the genes of dogs and tigers and men and hyenas, but people always believe I am only their dog.'  Tool's eyes flicked to the captain, and his sharp teeth gleamed in a brief smile.  'When the fighting comes, don't deny your slaughter nature.  You are no more Richard Lopez than I am an obedient hound.  Blood is not destiny, no matter what others may believe.'"
     - Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi, pg 248

     "The blood bond was nothing.  It was the people that mattered.  If they covered your back, and you covered theirs, then maybe that was worth calling family.  Everything else was just so much smoke and lies."
     - Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi, pg 274

Author Website:  http://windupstories.com/

Birthmarked by Caragh M. O'Brien

Summary: Gaia is a sixteen year-old midwife-in-training for Western Sector 3 of Wharfton.  On the night of her first unassisted birth, her parents are arrested and taken to the Enclave, a walled-in community ruled by the Protectorat.  After Gaia's mother passes on a mysterious ribbon through a friend, Gaia is left to interpret its symbols before the Enclave gets hold of it.   As Gaia uncovers more and more secrets, she must decide whether she will continue to support the Enclave’s system of totalitarian government as she always has, or use the information to right societal wrongs.

Dystopian Issues: Dictatorship, Reproductive Slavery, Eugenics
Part of a Series: The first book of the Birthmarked series
Next in Series:  Tortured is considered Birthmarked 1.5, but it's a short story available for free on Amazon.com for Kindle. Prized is the next offical book in the series
Age of Main Character: 16
Number of Pages: 361
Year of Publication: 2011
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press

Review:  It begins with a wall.  As soon as a wall is built the focus becomes about who is allowed inside the wall, and who is kept outside.  A wall equals force and control; it is a visible symbol of power and marginalization. 
     I enjoyed O'Brien's book because while she doesn't give a lot of background on why the wall was built and how this society developed, I still found it easy to slip into the world she had created.  Gaia lives in a place where she is a midwife delivering babies.  Some of those babies are allowed to stay with their mothers in the outside community of Wharfton, but the first three she delivers every month must be 'advanced' (handed over) to the Enclave.  It seems that inside the wall there are increasing problems with hemophilia and infertility and the Enclave is trying to remedy these problems by bringing in babies from the outside.
     The Enclave government is totalitarian, but at times not very organized.  One of the ways they keep their power is through lack of information.  When it is discovered that Gaia's mother (also a midwife) had been keeping a list of all the babies that had been advanced, the knowledge is a form of power the Enclave wants, putting Gaia's whole family in danger as the Enclave seeks to get it.
     O'Brien's ideas are clear and intriguing, and while I found the romance between two central characters to be a bit forced, I like the theme of self-discovery and the exploration of adoption.  Do children who have been adopted ever really know who they are if they don't know who their biological parents were?  The Enclave is a society that thrives on forced adoptions but no one seems to consider the impact this has on the adopted children.
     Also, reading about the problems with hemophilia due to inbreeding really interested me.  If the Enclave can breed hemophilia out of their population is that the socially responsible thing to do or is it more important for people to fall in love and sometimes have to deal with the consequences of such an unstructured act?
     Either way, O'Brien keeps me reading, wondering what I think the answers are, what the Enclave will decide and how Gaia's convictions will lead her to act next.  I am looking forward to reading the next book in the series, Prized.

Real Life Dystopia:  Some parallels between Birthmarked and Nazi Germany are pretty easy to make here.  Hitler and the Protectorat, the Enclave's desire to produce a master race, and the marginalization of people with any kind of abnormality.  Although while in Nazi Germany enclosures like concentration camps were the last place a person wanted to be, in O'Brien's book the Enclave is the desired place to live.

Memorable Quote: "'What will they do once they identify the suppressor gene and find the people who carry it?'  Gaia asked.
    Leon templed his fingers together, and they cast a sharp shadow on the tabletop.  'They're thinking long term.  Once they can identify the suppressor gene, they'll test all the babies outside the wall and take the ones who have it.  They're patient,' he said.
    The dawning horror made Gaia momentarily speechless.  'All of them?'
     'They'll be the most desired, most precious advanced children ever,' he said flatly.  'The mothers of those children will be encouraged to have as many babies as possible, all for advancing.  And when those babies grow up, they'll have thier pick of the elite families to marry into.'"
     - Birthmarked by Caragh M. O'Brien, pg 243
Author Website:  http://www.caraghobrien.com/