The Drowned Cities is a companion novel set in the same world as, but story wise not relating to Paolo Bacigalupi's first novel, Ship Breaker. As someone whose found the most engaging aspect of Ship Breaker to be the harsh and creative setting, I was quite excited about exploring more of that setting in this follow up novel. The Drowned Cities did not disappoint me, expanding upon the political and warfaring factions attempting to regain control of these isolated parts of America, and showcasing the social prejudices created by the chaotic situation America finds itself in. 
 The plot of The Drowned Cities is much less focused than that of Ship Breaker's. Whereas the latter had one overarching goal throughout the entire book (get Nita back to her family so Nailer can get out of the scumhole he's living in) driving the decision making of the main characters, The Drowned Cities is more a window into the lives of Mahlia, Mouse and Tool, observing their actions as their situation continually changes. For the most part I enjoyed this shift in storytelling, as it allowed us to break the stereotypical PROTAGONIST ACCOMPLISHES X, ANTAGONIST GETS IN THE WAY AND IS HORRIBLE mold. The Drowned Cities doesn't really have a specifically evil antagonist. Bacigalupi does a really solid job of showing multiple sides of war. We start off with the prospective of Mahila and what side she perceives as "bad" but later on we get to see the people actually making up that group. Yes, there are still some terrible people and as a whole they are causing pain to innocents, but a lot of the soldiers just are trying to survive and truly care about their comrades. The thing that stands in the way of Mahila and company is less one specific person but more the situation the country finds itself in, peppered with some selfish and immoral people. 
 One minor thing, but between this novel and Ship Breaker, I found it a little strange that both novels contained pretty horrible father figures. Mahila's father is no where near the levels of Nailer's dad in terms of abuse, but his lack of caring for her as a person still felt quite similar. This isn't necessarily a negative to the book, I just found it strange that both of the novel's protagonists had horrible father figures. 
 Overall, if you enjoyed Ship Breaker, I think you will also enjoy The Drowned Cities. The ending cuts off rather abruptly but considering the lack of a strong driving plot, I wasn't too bothered by that. I shall be looking forward to more explorations into this series world and further novels by Mr. Bacigalupi.