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The Water Knife

by Bacigalupi, Paolo
The Water Knife

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ISBN13: 9780385352871
ISBN10: 0385352875
Condition: Standard
DustJacket: Standard

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Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments

WATER IS POWER

Paolo Bacigalupi, New York Times best-selling author of The Windup Girl and National Book Award finalist, delivers a near-future thriller that casts new light on how we live today — and what may be in store for us tomorrow.

The American Southwest has been decimated by drought. Nevada and Arizona skirmish over dwindling shares of the Colorado River, while California watches, deciding if it should just take the whole river all for itself. Into the fray steps Las Vegas water knife Angel Velasquez. Detective, assassin, and spy, Angel "cuts" water for the Southern Nevada Water Authority and its boss, Catherine Case, ensuring that her lush, luxurious arcology developments can bloom in the desert and that anyone who challenges her is left in the gutted-suburban dust.

When rumors of a game-changing water source surface in Phoenix, Angel is sent to investigate. With a wallet full of identities and a tricked-out Tesla, Angel arrows south, hunting for answers that seem to evaporate as the heat index soars and the landscape becomes more and more oppressive. There, Angel encounters Lucy Monroe, a hardened journalist, who knows far more about Phoenix's water secrets than she admits, and Maria Villarosa, a young Texas migrant, who dreams of escaping north to those places where water still falls from the sky.

As bodies begin to pile up and bullets start flying, the three find themselves pawns in a game far bigger, more corrupt, and dirtier than any of them could have imagined. With Phoenix teetering on the verge of collapse and time running out for Angel, Lucy, and Maria, their only hope for survival rests in one another's hands. But when water is more valuable than gold, alliances shift like sand, and the only truth in the desert is that someone will have to bleed if anyone hopes to drink.

Review

"Anyone can write about the future. Paolo Bacigalupi writes about the future that we're making today, if we keep going the way we are. It makes his writing beautiful... and terrifying." John Scalzi, author of Lock In

Review

"The Water Knife is an noir-tinged, apocalyptic vision of the near-future: What will the world be like, and how will we live in it? Bacigalupi already seems to live there. Once I started, I couldn't put it down." Kelly Link, author of Get in Trouble

Review

"A fresh cautionary tale classic, depicting an America newly shaped by scarcity of our most vital resource. The pages practically turn themselves in a tense, taut plot of crosses and double-crosses, given added depth by riveting characters. This brutal near-future thriller seems so plausible in the world it depicts that you will want to stock up on bottled water." Library Journal, starred review

Review

"The frightening details of how the world might suffer from catastrophic drought are vividly imagined. The way the novel's environmental nightmare affects society, as individuals and larger entities — both official and criminal — vie for a limited and essential resource, feels solid, plausible, and disturbingly believable. The dust storms, Texan refugees, skyrocketing murder rate, and momentary hysteria of a public ravenous for quick hits of sensational news seem like logical extensions of our current reality. An absorbing...thriller full of violent action." Kirkus

About the Author

PAOLO BACIGALUPI is the author of The Windup Girl, as well as the YA novels Ship Breaker and The Drowned Cities. A National Book Award Finalist, and winner of the Hugo, Nebula, Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award, John W. Campbell Award, and a three-time winner of the Locus Award, he lives in Colorado with his wife and son.

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Average customer rating 4.3 (3 comments)

`
t engle , July 21, 2015 (view all comments by t engle)
I don't know how I missed Paolo Bacigalupi's earlier work. This is an exciting near future novel, with a little SciFi thrown in. The drought is worse and the southwest is in big trouble. Read for two reasons - it is great read, and its reality is probably closer than we would like. As a bonus the book refers to Marc Reisner's 1993 classic Cadillac Desert as the book that was ignored. Read it too!

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kassmartinmedia , July 12, 2015
This book follows the theme of my novel, "The Last Eden". As Bacigalupi describes, the support of life is very fragile. Climate change threatens our water supply. In " The Last Eden", the space mission to Mars is to show proof to those on Earth of the truth of how Mars lost the ability to support life, to create a world wide movement to save Earth. Mars did support life, and, as I postulated as early as 1989, life existed on Mars with liquid water as late as 200 million years ago. The Earth is 6 billion years old. It was only until less than 100 million years ago that enough oxygen with a stable eco system developed that would support a human life with a large frontal lobe requiring abundant oxygen and fresh water. The human race is reversing the process by which the earth developed to sustain human life. We are destroying oxygen creating plants, and increasing the amount of carbon dioxide and methane. We are placing poisons in the air, soil and water which attack the biochemistry of the human species. Congratulations to Mr. Bacigulapi and all other authors who are helping establish a world wide consciousness to save our planet.

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soireadthisbooktoday , May 26, 2015 (view all comments by soireadthisbooktoday)
There is good evidence that Venus once had liquid water and a much thinner atmosphere, similar to Earth billions of years ago. But today the surface of Venus is dry as a bone, hot enough to melt lead, there are clouds of sulfuric acid that reach a hundred miles high and the air is so thick it's like being 900 meters deep in the ocean. �" Bill Nye If we keep working at it, we can certainly become Venusian. All we have to do is continue the path we have begun. Global warming, climate change, worldwide drought. Yes, we are on our way to destruction, up the proverbial creek without water. And water is what this story is all about. Honestly however, in a way it reminds me of those stereotypical 1950’s era monster movies. The Creature From the Black Lagoon, The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms, Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Nuclear weapons were the fear then. And yes, they were worth being terrified of. But as horrifying as they are �" this is a situation that it is hard to see any way out of. Worldwide drought is becoming more and more feasible as a worldwide outcome of our continuing greed and carelessness. And Water Knife has a good premise. However, its problem is that of being written more like a script for a B movie rather than a well-written novel. The stereotypes are a bit overwhelming, and though it is apparently meant to be exciting and breath-taking, it comes across as a simple genre piece rather than a work deserving of the attention it is receiving from the public. I just expected more �" more realism regarding an extremely important ecological issue that can cost us more than we can ever expect to salvage. I received this book from the publisher in exchange for a realistic review. All thoughts are my own.

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Product Details

ISBN:
9780385352871
Binding:
Hardcover
Publication date:
05/26/2015
Publisher:
PENGUIN RANDOM HOUSE
Language:
English
Pages:
384
Height:
1.34IN
Width:
6.55IN
Thickness:
1.00
Copyright Year:
2015
Author:
Paolo Bacigalupi
Author:
Paolo Bacigalupi
Media Run Time:
B
Subject:
Popular Fiction-Contemporary Thrillers
Subject:
Literature-A to Z

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List Price:$25.95
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