Shipbreaker

The near future, a dark era of human civilization. The South of the USA is the victim of a series of natural disasters. Here, skyscrapers have sunk underwater; here, hurricanes—"city killers"—rage; here, numerous tankers and bulk carriers rot on the shore in the humid heat. For a teenager named Gvozdar, like many other inhabitants of this disaster-stricken area, the only way to prolong his miserable and hopeless existence is through hard labor, the risky salvage of debris from the sunken vessels. To escape this underworld, he is willing to commit any crime.

At least, right now he has no doubts about it… In the region now called the Sunken Cities, a civil war of everyone against everyone rages—the warring armies massively recruit children, from whom it is so easy to raise fearless and ruthless fanatics. The only place to hide from this war is in the remote jungles, but one day it will reach there too—following the trail of a genetic engineering creation, a half-human, half-beast, a perfect killer who has broken from his pack…

The titular novel from this collection has been awarded the "Locus" award and the Michael L. Printz award.