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.
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