Long Time Away

I guess I can't Post to The Docsavagetales.blogspot any longer... I know that it has been forever, but I am back...

PULP of the WEEK

The Water Knife by Paolo Bacigalupi

I read and enjoyed The Windup Girl so I picked up The Water Knife last year and didn't get to it until now, for no real reason. The quote on the cover, "Think Chinatown meets Mad Max" intrigued me. As it turns out, the quote is quite fitting. This is a post global-warming future.

'Water Knives' are people that deal in black market water.  In this drought ravaged future, water is the valuable commodity. It is scammed for, stolen, rationed, and controlled by the South Colorado Water Authority. Everyone else is off the books. 

The wealthy and powerful live in the massive, sealed Las Vegas arcologie. One of the main characters is Lucy. She is a reporter from the Arc. She goes out in the field chasing a conspiracy and  gets far more than she can imagine. Smugglers, waterknives, and the people outside change her forever...

As with his prior novel, The Windup Girl, Bacigalupi mixes politics, mystery, action and great characters.

Given the subject matter, it is not surprising that Global Warming, the politics of class warfare, and the ongoing struggle between the haves and the have-nots is amplified and no a deadly struggle.

The mystery story here takes us through this world in a visceral, violent, way. The characters are vivid and I got quite wrapped up in their fates, which are in turn deserving, terrible, tragic and considering the odds stacked up against the folks that live outside the glassed in world.

The sense memory of Mad Max, No Blade of Grass, and Chinatown all grow and are added to and become one of the outstanding novels in recent memory. I pray that we do not become anything close to this world.

Paolo Bacigalupi's The Water Knife

note to readers - due to many life events I have neglected this blog - but I am back...

Pulp of the Week or Year???

First up with the book blogs is a very timely novel...

The Water Knife

by

Paolo Bacaclupi

Having previously read Bacigalupi's debut classic, The Windup Girl, I was interested in reading his follow up. As with his first novel, there is an ecological element to this book. In this case he explores life in this post global warming near future. The book follows two women with radically different lives. All of the major cities in the southwest have built massive arcologies to house the upper classes. Everyone else is on their own, surviving by scavenging the ruins of the former Phoenix suburbs.

One of the characters is Lucy Monroe, a reporter in the Phoenix Arc that heads out chasing a story about a new water source. The other woman is Maria Villarosa, a migrant who is dreaming of esca[ping to the north, where life is said to be easier, and water is plentiful. The third character is the 'water knife' that is looking for a big score. The water knives are black marketers in water, buying and selling for a profit. These characters are all on a collision course testing their smarts, loyality, and grit. This one of the rare great novels that could be a truely great movie. At a smidge less than 400 pages it was a quick (largely due to me reading it in every spare moment) and rewarding read  that is a solid follow up to Bacigalupis' equally great The Windup Girl.

Check it out - I give The Water Knife a solid 9+ out of 10.